THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509140340
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
They're about 4,000 miles from home today, beyond Italy's boot and into the Mediterranean Sea.
That's how Capt. Ronald L. Christenson, commanding officer of the Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt, describes his ship's fast start for Norfolk.
``We left the Adriatic Sea about 11 p.m. (Tuesday) and hit the Strait of Messina at full speed. We have been going pretty fast ever since,'' Christenson said in a satellite telephone interview.
``Right now we're north of Tunisia. We will be there on time,'' he promised.
The ``TR'' battle group, comprising 14 ships and submarines, has turned over its responsibilities off the coast of Bosnia to the Norfolk-based carrier America and its 14 warships.
The turnover was successful, said Christenson, and allows the Theodore Roosevelt group to end its six-month deployment on time.
That should delight hundreds of families in Hampton Roads and in other East Coast ports that had been concerned for the past two weeks that the latest crisis in Bosnia would delay the battle group's previously scheduled return to Norfolk Sept. 21-22.
``It may be the 22nd,'' said Christenson. ``But we're also looking at the possibility of being back earlier. I don't know how positive that can be, but we will be there on time, weather permitting.''
The Roosevelt's 70-plane air wing has flown ``hundreds of sorties'' and dropped ``significant amounts of ordnance'' on Bosnian Serb military positions during the past two weeks, said Christenson.
The airstrikes were ordered by NATO in retaliation for a Serb mortar attack Sept. 27 that killed 38 people in a crowded Sarajevo market.
Although he was precluded from talking specifically about Bosnian Serb targets, Christenson said they were significant.
``I think the results are going to be very good,'' he said. ``We will see over the next few days what transpires up there. But I think the performances of the ship and the air wing up there were very good.''
He called the bombing ``very accurate.''
``It did extreme damage to the war-fighitng capabilities of the Bosnian Serbs. The big hope is that it will bring all this to a negotiating table and stop the senseless killing that is going on over there. That is our big hope anyway. We hope our contributions will be toward peace.''
Despite bad weather, with heavy rains, wind and poor visibility during the airstrikes, every plane in the air wing survived, he said.
``They all came back to us,'' he said. by CNB