October 13, 2004
By SONJA BARISIC, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
NORFOLK, Va. -- The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which had jets dropping bombs early in the Iraq war, pulled out of port Wednesday to head back to the war on terrorism.
The nearly 7,600 sailors aboard the Truman and the support ships that will protect it can expect to be gone about six months on the planned deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf.
"It's difficult (to go back), but we've got a job to do," said Airman Erin Bentele, 23, of Silverdale, Wash. She is among the two-thirds of the Truman's 5,500 sailors who also were aboard the carrier when the Iraq war began in March 2003.
"We're in it for the people back here," Bentele said. "We want to make sure we have freedom, and we want to get rid of terrorism."
Early in the Iraq war, ships in the Truman strike group launched Tomahawk missiles onto targets in northern Iraq, and jets taking off from the Truman dropped bombs to support U.S. infantry and special operations forces on the ground. The carrier returned from that deployment in May 2003.
For security reasons, Navy officials would not say exactly where the ships are headed this time or what exactly the ships will be doing.
"There's a sure bet we'll be passing through the Med and heading over to where everybody else is going," said Capt. James P. Gigliotti, commanding officer of the Norfolk-based Truman.
"We will be engaged as required, as desired, and we will be not just a presence but a force to be reckoned with, if they need us," Gigliotti said.
About 200 or so family members and friends gathered outside the gate at Pier 14 at Norfolk Naval Station to see the Truman depart beneath darkly clouded skies.
Martha Urban, of Elyria, Ohio, was proud of her son, 20-year-old Airman Jeffrey Crumpler. But she was also scared because Crumpler was making his first deployment.
"It's the unknown. It doesn't take a war for someone to be injured," said Urban, who wore a button-down shirt designed to look like an American flag. Her husband, Al Urban, stood next to her with a red, white and blue scarf sticking out of a back pocket of his jeans.
"We're excited for him, too, for what he's about to see: the world," Al Urban added.
Sarah Rowe, of Manassas, was extremely worried about her deploying daughter, Yeoman 2nd Class Rosetta Saddler, 28, of Warrenton.
"The last time I felt this scared was when I sent her off to college," she said.
Deployments at this time of the year can be especially tough because service members will be separated from their loved ones during the winter holidays.
"I've already done my Christmas shopping, so they'll see a part of Daddy is there," Staff Sgt. Bryan Crawford said of his three children. Crawford, 33, of Clearwater, Fla., is one of about 150 Marines deploying aboard the Truman who arrived in Norfolk by bus from Beaufort, S.C., where their fighter squadron is based.
Crawford also was prepared to be overseas during the Nov. 2 presidential election; he's voting by absentee ballot.
Accompanying the Truman out of Norfolk were the guided missile cruiser USS Monterey and the guided missile destroyers USS Barry and USS Mason.
The USS Albuquerque, a fast attack submarine based in Groton, Conn., and the USNS Arctic, a combat logistics ship from Earle Naval Weapons Station in New Jersey, also are part of the strike group.
The strike group left in early June to take part in Summer Pulse '04, a groundbreaking exercise involving seven carrier strike groups, and returned in late July. During the exercise, the Truman also completed training exercises that included naval surface fire support training and air-to-ground bombing off the East Coast.
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On the Net:
USS Harry S. Truman: http://www.navy.mil/homepages/cvn75/
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=Carrier%20Deploys