THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 1, 1995 TAG: 9509010476
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Air crews flying from the deck of the Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt settled in Thursday to a routine of launching 70 to 80 sorties a day over Bosnia-Herzegovina as they continued air attacks against Serb strongholds.
``We've been flying all day,'' said the carrier's commanding officer, Capt. Ronald L. Christenson of Norfolk. ``Everybody is safe and spirits are up. This is what we are trained to do.''
Christenson, speaking by satellite telephone from the Adriatic Sea Thursday, said the flying missions actually have been less demanding than the air wing's normal training missions.
Aircraft have met little resistance from Serb anti-aircraft installations, he said.
About 60 planes - 50 of them American - launched the initial air strike outside the capital city of Sarajevo on Wednesday in retaliation for a Serb mortar attack that killed 38 people in a crowded market.
Viedotape of the damage inflicted by the NATO strikes showed isolated buildings, said to be communications, radar and anti-aircraft sites, that were destroyed.
Missiles and 1,000- to 2,000-pound bombs hit a string of Serb targets within 25 miles of Sarajevo.
The decision to launch the NATO-led strikes in an attempt to break the impasse in Bosnia has buoyed the spirits of the Roosevelt's crew, Christenson said.
``I think everybody, as we watch ourselves on television, realizes the impact that these strikes have,'' he said.
``Nobody wanted this to start at the beginning. But hopefully the end result will be negotiation at the peace table to stop the senseless killing right now. That is the big goal for everybody.''
Christenson described, in a limited way, what the pilots from his ship have observed.
``The area is really rugged,'' he said. ``It is mountainous and it is hard to tell the destroyed areas from those that are not.
``The targets we are attacking are designed to minimize collateral damage, so it is not like in the cities. It is in more remote areas and on the outskirts of the cities. The actual devastation in that area was in the countryside.''
The F-14 Tomcat fighters aboard the carrier - all 14 of them from Fighter Squadron 41 at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach - are accompanied by 36 F/A-18 Navy and Marine Corps Hornet strike fighters based at Cecil Field, Fla., and Beaufort, S.C.
``They are doing all kinds of missions,'' said Christenson. ``Suppression of enemy air defense, air combat patrols . . . and they are also involved in the strike missions. They are doing the complete realm of the capabilities of their aircraft. All of them are doing it.''
The Roosevelt, with Carrier Air Wing 8 aboard, is 5 1/2 months into its 6-month cruise and is scheduled to return to Norfolk Sept. 21. It is to be relieved by the carrier America, which left Norfolk on Monday with its 14-ship battle group.
``We are still on schedule at this point,'' said Christenson. ``If the operation continues on, we are ready to do that. But we are pretty optimistic that we'll be heading back in time to make our normal arrival date.
``We'll let all the families know immediately if that changes.''
With the Roosevelt in the Adriatic Sea are just four other ships from its original 14-ship group. The cruisers Hue City and Mississippi, destroyer Arleigh Burke and guided missile frigate Kauffman are nearby, Navy officials said.
The three-ship amphibious ready group headed by the Norfolk-based assault ship Kearsarge is now off Spain, the Navy said. That group, with its 2,000 Marines plus helicopter gunships, is credited with rescuing Air Force pilot Scott O'Grady, who was shot down by Serb missiles in June.
While the Roosevelt's deployment has been hectic, Christenson said his crew remains alert and ready.
``I don't see any fatigue or any tiredness setting in at all,'' he said. ``We watch for that very carefully.''
However, he acknowledged that the crew has been on the run. Shortly before the Bosnia operation, the Roosevelt was ordered to stand off the coast of Israel in response to unusual troop movements in Iraq and the defection to Jordan of two top officials in Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government.
``It never ceases to amaze me,'' he said. ``We were just off Rhodes (Greece) and expected to go in for a port visit at 6 o'clock (Wednesday morning) when we turned and went at 30 knots for 800 miles in 27 hours'' toward the coast of the former Yugoslavia.
``Throughout this deployment we have been going to one place when we were jerked and drawn into another direction. This is the third time that has happened, where we stopped what we were doing and had to go off for a presence mission and nothing really developed, probably because we were there.''
Upon being ordered to the Adriatic, ``everybody said, `Here we go again. We'll get up there and nothing will happen,' '' Christenson said.
``But as soon as we got up here, we start to load real bombs and do real missions. Now people are ready to do it.''
Christenson said his crew is ready for an extended mission, if that is what's needed. Some NATO officials have suggested it could take up to 10 days to break the Serb strongholds around Sarajevo and other Muslim ``safe havens.''
``This ship and air wing in the Persian Gulf War dropped about 5 million pounds of bombs,'' he said. ``We are very capable of sustained operations, both physically and mentally.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Christenson
by CNB