THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 TAG: 9503220256
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Officials aboard the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower reacted with anger Tuesday to figures released by the Navy indicating that 14 women crew members have had to be sent home from the ship's six-month overseas deployment because of pregnancies.
None of those women became pregnant aboard ship and only three became pregnant since the cruise began, they maintain.
The recent disclosures have detracted from the good work the ship has done during the 5 1/2 months of its deployment, said Rear Adm. Daniel J. Murphy Jr., the Eisenhower battle group commander.
Murphy, talking in a satellite telephone interview from the ship Tuesday, said crew members and families in Norfolk and elsewhere have suffered from such announcements.
Instead, the public should recall the battle group's historic accomplishments as the first carrier to put to sea with women as part of its permanent crew, he said.
``For the past 5 1/2 months, the Eisenhower battle group has responded to three contingencies in three separate oceans,'' said Murphy. ``One was in Haiti, the second was Operation Southern Watch and the prevention of the Iraqi air force from flying over the southern one-third of Iraq while we were in the Arabian Gulf . . . and the third was from January until now in the Mediterranean where we have flown 2,000 combat sorties over Bosnia.
``And 133 of those combat missions have been flown by women,'' he said of the nine female aviators on the ship. ``In fact, women pilots have now been awarded six air medals,'' he said.
A male aviator who commands a helicopter squadron has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross during the cruise.
``I am very, very proud of this team of men and women who together have done a spectacular job in three very important theaters of operations,'' Murphy said.
Updated figures show that 15 Eisenhower women have been sent home because they learned they were pregnant after the ship left Norfolk Oct. 20.
Two are married and became pregnant during the Christmas holidays when their spouses visited them on liberty. The third, who is not married, also became pregnant ashore, the official said.
The remaining 12 were pregnant when they reported aboard, but were not aware of their condition until some weeks into the ship's cruise.
In all, there have been 39 pregnancies among Eisenhower crew members since women began reporting aboard in Norfolk in April 1994. Of those, 21 were pregnant when they received orders to the ship. They were given new orders and left the carrier within weeks of their arrival.
That left 18 people who were pregnant and assigned to either the ship, or its air wing between April 1994 and March of this year.
``That is 4.3 percent of all women assigned, or under half the Navy-wide statistics for pregnancies among female Navy personnel,'' said the official.
The Navy permits women to remain aboard until the 20th week of pregnancy.
Explaining those figures appears to paint a more subdued picture of what the initial statistics showed on Friday when the Navy released them. At that time the Navy said it wasn't clear where or when the pregnancies occurred.
On Friday, the Navy was anxious to disclose that a male and female sailor on The Ike were immediately disciplined after they videotaped themselves earlier last week having sex aboard the ship.
They were discovered after the man showed the tape to other sailors. Both have since been sent home.
The latest statistics show that those who became pregnant while the ship was at sea represent 0.72 percent of the female crew.
``So we don't have a problem here,'' said the Eisenhower official.
``We have done this deployment a little bit better than any of our predecessors have and we have a mixed-gender team that we don't give any thought to any more.''
The Eisenhower battle group, along with the Nassau amphibious ready group, consists of 12,000 sailors and Marines aboard 14 ships scheduled to return about April 14.
This year, the Navy plans to assign 9,400 women to sea-going jobs, topping off at 13,000 by 2001. They will be aboard nearly every class of ship, except submarines.
That includes women on two carriers, four destroyers and two dock landing ships this year.
In 1996, that will increase to four Spruance-class destroyers, two Belknap-class cruisers, two amphibious dock landing ships, one carrier, two amphibious assault ships and five Arleigh Burke destroyers in early stages of construction. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Photo
WOMEN ABOARD THE IKE
There are 415 women and 4,552 men in the ship's 4,967-member crew
and air wing. Although women have been going to sea for more than 15
years, this is the first combat ship to do so with women.
KEYWORDS: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY U.S. NAVY PREGNANCY by CNB