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Buckley: Marines motivated for duty
SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- The Pentagon, preparing for possible war in Iraq, is dispatching an array of naval combat power to the Persian Gulf region, including two seven-ship armadas carrying thousands of Marines. The vessels headed for the region are amphibious assault ships USS Bonhomme Richard and USS Boxer; the USS Cleveland and USS Dubuque, amphibious transport dock ships that carry troops, vehicles and cargo; and three dock landing ships that carry troops and amphibious craft like air-cushioned troop transports -- the USS Comstock, the USS Anchorage and the USS Pearl Harbor. All seven are based at San Diego. The Marines they will transport are based at Camp Pendleton, just north of the city. CNN's Frank Buckley spent Wednesday aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard and filed this report: BUCKLEY: It looks like chaos aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard but I know that it's not. I see hundreds of Marines who are coming aboard this ship fully loaded with packs and carrying M-16s. All sorts of supplies are being loaded onto the ship. There are boxes being passed along passageways as the ship is prepared to go to sea. There's a lot of activity, including fork lifts moving on and off the ship. The Marines started loading the ship on January 10 and they expect to keep loading right up until the moment they deploy on Friday. Today they are not loading the hovercraft, what are often called LCACs (Landing Craft Air Cushion). They will actually be loaded on Friday once the ship is at sea. The ship will leave from San Diego, California, and it will make the turn around Point Loma and Camp Pendleton, which is close to San Diego. These hovercraft, the LCACs, will actually come from Camp Pendleton and will come aboard when the stern gate is lowered. They will actually ride into this ship. They will also take on helicopters on Friday and they will also take on harrier jets -- those special jets that are able to take off and land vertically. The jets don't need a full size runway and they don't need an aircraft carrier to take off or land. I understand that some of the other ships that are part of this group will have helicopters landing on the flight deck. We just haven't seen that on this particular ship today. This is what's considered to be a short-notice deployment. Most ships when they've gone on a six-month deployment will come back to the United States and will have 18 months to turn around. They lose some of their crew. They gain new crew and they train the new crew. They go through what is called "workups." After that cycle, which takes normally 18 months, they will then go back to sea for another six-month deployment. In this case, the Bonhomme Richard just returned in June from the Arabian Sea where it was working in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. They just recently got orders to turn back around and return to deployment. That's just six months' notice. In the case of these Marines that are embarked upon this ship, some of them I'm told just returned a month ago from their most-recent six-month deployment and that was to Djibouti also in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. So this is really creating a tremendous hardship in terms of a human hardship for these folks to say goodbye once again to their loved ones and head back out into what could be harm's way. No one has told me they are excited about going back. I talked to one gunnery sergeant who said, "You know this is hard on us. Many people in the public think we love this stuff. We don't. It's difficult. It's hard on us. But we all swore the oath to the Constitution to defend the Constitution of the United States and we have a duty to perform." And while they are not excited to go and do their duty, the word you often hear is that they are motivated to go and do their duty. And they are certainly ready to go carry out whatever task they are asked to carry out. Thursday will be the last day that the crew can spend with their families. One of the Navy sailors told me -- again they all say it's difficult for their families -- but this one particular sailor said that what he likes to do with his two kids on the last day is to spoil them. I guess all the different families handle it in different ways but that's how this one particular sailor handled it. I can tell you -- having been at sea for Operation Enduring Freedom -- I heard one story and that was from a pilot who told me that before he leaves home he puts a jar with 180 chocolate kisses in it, because it's a six-month deployment. His children are allowed to take one candy kiss from the jar each day. So that by the end, when there are just a handful of candy kisses left, they know that dad is coming home.
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