Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 19, 1991 TAG: 9103190310
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
"It's a great homecoming," said Adm. Paul David Miller, commander of the Atlantic Fleet. "This didn't dampen our spirits at all."
The Sylvania, a floating supply warehouse with a crew of 430, sailed into the Norfolk Naval Base shortly before 10 a.m. Cheers rang out from beneath the huddle of umbrellas on Pier 20 as the vessel came into view.
"That's the way it goes," said Cindy Mann of Virginia Beach, looking up at the gray sky before spotting her fiance, Peter Jamrog, along the rail of the incoming ship. "I'm just glad to see him. It's been a really long time," she said.
"It's a very happy occasion," said Dieter Fischer of Long Island, N.Y., who drove to Virginia with his wife and soon-to-be daughter-in-law to welcome home his son, Lt. j.g. David Fischer, the Sylvania's communications officer.
"I'm glad it's over," the senior Fischer said of the war. "It was very necessary. I'm sorry for those who got hurt, but we had to do something."
The foul weather kept flag-waving to a minimum, and most of the homemade welcome-back signs were drenched by the time the ship arrived. A school band stayed on buses just off the pier and played.
The Sylvania's return amounted to a small-scale rehearsal for next week's huge welcome planned for the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, the battleship Wisconsin and a half-dozen other warships.
The Kennedy's arrival March 28 will come a little more than seven months after it and its support ships and squadrons of F-14 Tomcats, A-6E Intruders and E-2C Hawkeye radar planes left the United States hurriedly in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
The Kennedy's arrival here will coincide with the homecoming of the carrier Saratoga at Mayport, Fla. Air squadrons for the two carriers will arrive a day earlier, March 27.
Two other Norfolk-based carriers, the America and Theodore Roosevelt, are still in the Middle East.
by CNB