THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407200406
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 33 lines
The Navy hospital ship handling Haitian boat people will return to Baltimore in a matter of days because of the sharp drop in the Haitian exodus, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Pentagon spokeswoman Kathleen deLaski also announced that the Norfolk-based Inchon, an amphibious assault ship carrying most of the 2,000 troops in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit off Haiti, will be rotated home at the end of August.
DeLaski said the Inchon would be relieved by the Norfolk-based helicopter carrier Wasp or some other amphibious ship.
The Inchon had been home only two weeks after a mission off Somalia and in the Mediterranean Sea when it was ordered to the waters off Haiti.
The hospital ship Comfort, meanwhile, which carries 100 Marines and 400 sailors, is no longer needed to process Haitians picked up at sea, deLaski said.
``For the time being it's no longer being used,'' deLaski said.
U.S. Coast Guard cutters off Haiti picked up 170 people from midday Monday to midday Tuesday, and none over the weekend, deLaski said. The flight from Haiti reached a peak July 4 when 3,247 Haitian migrants were rescued from 70 boats off Haiti. by CNB