THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409230570
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABOARD THE EISENHOWER LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Ten days ago, this floating air base had 71 tactical aircraft aboard, ready for the mission a strike carrier was designed to perform.
Eight days ago, when a showdown was building in Haiti, the carrier kicked the planes off in the middle of an exercise, brought aboard 51 Army helicopters and 1,800 soldiers from New York, then took off for the Caribbean.
Just two days ago, after sending the last of the soldiers ashore in the last of nearly 400 sorties, the Eisenhower's decks were spotless within six hours and empty.
Today, as the carrier steams toward Norfolk with a midday arrival scheduled for Saturday, part of its air wing is back aboard, ready to resume its mission.
For the mission to work at sea, it had to work at home, too. While the Army was on the Eisenhower, eating in air-conditioned mess halls, sleeping in crowded but insect-free berthing spaces, and sampling more than just a taste of Navy ice cream, guess where the admiral who normally commands battle groups such as the Eisenhower's was working?
In a tent.
The Navy probably owned it. But it was still Army green.
Rear Adm. Daniel J. Murphy, commander of Cruiser Destroyer Squadron 8, will lead the Eisenhower battle group on a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea next month. It was during part of the exercises leading up to the deployment when the Haitian crisis changed everyone's plans.
But, instead of dropping the remaining portion of the exercise, Murphy and his staff set up camp at St. Julien's Creek in Portsmouth,which had much of the communications equipment and other gear needed to run the exercise.
``There was no other place not fully involved in Haiti for them to go,'' said Capt. Mark Gammell, commander of the Eisenhower.
The exercise was marred by the deaths of two Oceana aviators in a nighttime collision of two F-14 Tomcats off the coast of North Carolina. The collision is under investigation.
With no carrier to use, the air wing's planes flew from airfields - at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach and at Cecil Field, Fla. Other Air Force and Navy units also participated.
``Every time I called over there it was just like calling here in the war room,'' Gammell said. ``The only thing the exercises really missed was the actual carrier landing practice.''
That they will pick up when the ship leaves next month.
In a project that had the potential for many accidents, no one is happier than Cmdr. Robert D. Littlefield, who, as air boss aboard the Eisenhower, is responsible for takeoffs and landings. He works with the 590 crew members who man the flight and hangar decks.
``Nobody got hurt,'' Littlefield said. ``No aircraft got damaged. Everybody got off the ship in an orderly fashion. These kids down here made it happen.''
Lt. Cmdr. Bob Fiegl, the air wing's maintenance officer, said there will be a number of lessons learned from the unusual mission. The Center for Naval Analysis is aboard, completing a study of the operations.
One lesson Navy officers have learned is that the Army needs to invest in helicopters that can easily fold their space-robbing rotors.
``I think it would help,'' said Fiegl. ``If the Army had foldable rotors you could have carriers that could take them to sea along with a pretty good tactical air package, too.''
Littlefield, whose men and women worked long and hard to place the big Army helicopters in just the right spot, agreed. But there was just enough room on the Ike's deck to handle the 51 helicopters, he said.
There were no major maintenance problems, either. One helicopter needed a new engine. But that was trucked from Fort Drum to Norfolk, flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and helicoptered to the Ike in time.
KEYWORDS: HAITI by CNB