| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
USS Lincoln aircrews back home
CORONADO, California (AP) -- More than 70 aircraft left the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday for Navy bases along the West Coast, as the first sailors from the aircraft carrier returned to the United States. A crew of more than 5,000 remains aboard the Lincoln, awaiting a visit from President Bush, who will address the nation Thursday evening from its deck. The 1,100-foot ship will dock May 6 at its home port of Everett, Wash. At North Island Naval Station in Coronado, wives, parents and children sprinted across the tarmac to meet loved ones they last saw more than nine months ago. Cries went up as family members caught the first glimpse of the C-2 cargo planes approaching from over the Pacific. "It's like the Super Bowl and the World Series all wrapped in one," said Chief Jeremy Johnson as he hugged his wife, Julie. "It makes it all worth it." The Lincoln's homecoming will cap 290 days at sea, one of the longest deployments for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in decades. During the war in Iraq, more than 1,600 sorties were flown from the Lincoln and the carrier's battle group fired 116 Tomahawk missiles. No aircraft or Navy personnel were lost. "It's, like, the best day of my whole entire life," said 9-year-old Caroline Basden, a pilot's daughter. "It's really good to have him back again." In Washington, a squadron of four radar-jamming planes from the Lincoln were headed for Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. On Friday, the support and maintenance crews for the squadron, VAQ-139, are to arrive. "The families have been here waiting anxiously and the community has been standing right behind them," said Navy spokeswoman Kim Martin. In South Carolina, the commander of the 609th Combat Operations Squadron and about 120 of his colleagues were welcomed at Shaw Air Force Base by several hundred friends and family waving flags and posters. Col. Doug Erlenbusch swept his 20-month-old daughter, Erin, up in his arms, then leaned to kiss his wife, Tammie, who had tears on her cheeks. "I've never heard her say `Daddy' before. It's wonderful!" Erlenbusch said. "She was just beginning to talk when I left." The unit worked with Lt. Gen. T. Michael Moseley, the head of Central Command's Air Forces, to plan and execute the air war against Iraq. Members worked at Prince Sultan Air Base, about 60 miles south of Riyadh. The Saudis allowed U.S. commanders to run the air war from the base, but did not allow warplanes to mount attacks against Iraq from the site. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
