THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 12, 1994 TAG: 9407120310
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
A four-ship amphibious ready group that left Virginia last week for operations off the coast of Haiti is expected to return by late August, the Navy said Monday.
The 1,700 sailors and 2,000 Marines traveling in the Inchon group had been back from a six-month Mediterranean deployment less than two weeks when they sailed July 6 toward Haiti to assist U.S. citizens in the troubled island nation, if necessary.
According to a statement from the Navy's Atlantic Fleet, a special Marine air-ground task force on the Wasp is returning from Haiti with the arrival of the Inchon Marines. After the Wasp undergoes regular maintenance, it will return to the Caribbean to replace the Inchon group.
Meantime, the Mount Whitney, the 2nd Fleet flagship, will leave Norfolk today with Vice Adm. William J. Flanagan Jr., the fleet's commander.
Flanagan will relieve Rear Adm. Charles S. Abbott as commander of the joint task force off the Haiti coast. Abbott will return to his role as carrier group commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt battle group. by CNB