THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509220477
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABOARD USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
Their smiles spread from ear to ear. Their pride rises like the giant seas they've crossed for the past six months.
The sailors from the carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which led the charge over Bosnia in NATO's largest military action ever, return home today not as conquerors but with a sense of victory just the same.
``Some may not like it,'' said Airman Michael Millard, 20, of Carson City, Nev. ``But if we didn't do something about all those innocent people getting killed, it would have gotten worse and worse and worse.
``We felt we made a difference,'' said the six-month Navy veteran who yearns to become an F-14 Tomcat pilot. Right now he has to be content with just parking them inside the TR's monstrous hangar deck.
In 680 combat missions, the Roosevelt's 70-plane air wing dropped 250 tons of ordnance over Bosnian Serb strongholds over a two-week period in a highly orchestrated United Nations effort to bring the warring factions to the peace table.
Navy Secretary John Dalton, who greeted the TR's crew and air wing off the North Carolina coast Thursday, said those bombing missions ``created an atmosphere of peace that has eluded Bosnia for years.''
``You took a situation that was very, very difficult and brought it to the peace table,'' he said. ``America will always remember what Theodore Roosevelt did on this deployment.''
As partial reward, Dalton presented all 14 ships in the returning battle group the Navy Unit Commendation, allowing the 12,000 sailors and Marines who participated in the deployment to add a ribbon to their chests.
After six months of supporting international and U.S. interests in Europe and the Persian Gulf, 10 ships of the TR battle group and Kearsarge amphibious ready group finally reach their East Coast ports today. Four other Norfolk-based ships arrived on Tuesday.
Not only did the Bosnian crisis threaten their scheduled ``on-time'' arrivals today, but Hurricane Marilyn, now in the North Atlantic, also threatened to slow them down.
The Roosevelt and cruiser Mississippi, which were late leaving the Mediterranean, managed to skirt the storm to the south.
Rear Adm. William J. Fallon, the battle group's commander, called the entire six months ``phenomenal.''
``Crisis response has been the name of the game,'' Fallon said Thursday in a news conference aboard the Roosevelt. He recalled how the battle group was ordered initially to stand by in case Iraq threatened Jordan, then raced 1,000 miles in a little more than 24 hours to reach the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Bosnia.
``When we got the 911 call,'' said Capt. Gary M. Jack, commander of Air Wing 8, ``we arrived like a gun fighter with two six guns blazing. We rode up at full speed in the Adriatic . . . launching strike operations within two hours into the heart of the Bosnian defense.''
The result, he said, is evident with Thursday's news that the Serbs appear to be agreeing to U.N. demands to pull back the big guns surrounding Sarajevo.
``We've done everything I can imagine,'' added Capt. Ronald L. Christenson. ``They achieved performance beyond my wildest imagination.''
The biggest challenge facing the aviators, said Jack, an F-14 pilot, was the small size of the targets, some of which were difficult to find, especially at night and in bad weather.
``We kind of entered an entirely new phase of warfare,'' said Jack, ``where the preponderance of ordnance we used were almost entirely precision guided.
``We didn't want to hit or hurt anyone around some of the targets we were involved in.''
The Navy and Marine pilots, flying F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18 Hornets, used laser-guided bombs, known as ``smart bombs,'' to hit their targets precisely.
``Targets were carefully chosen,'' said Fallon. ``It was a mutually agreed list between NATO and the U.N.''
In some cases, where weather was a problem, or pilots were not certain of a target, the ordnance was not dropped, Fallon said.
When the call came for the Roosevelt's air wing to enter combat, there were few outward signs of nervousness, or stress, said Fallon.
``Remember, they had been out there for five months when this occurred,'' he said.
``They had been sitting a lot of that time off the coast of Yugoslavia watching those events (in Bosnia). They had a lot of the same feeling that went through the American people: They were very unhappy to watch this carnage, this feeling we need to do something to bring it to an end.
``Very few people were able to do anything about it. They were delighted to do something about it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by MOTOYA NAKAMURA, Staff photos
The crew of the carrier Roosevelt gives a cheer to Navy Secretary
John Dalton, who greeted the crew and air wing off the North
Carolina coast Thursday. Dalton presented the Navy Unit Commendation
the 12,000 sailors and Marines aboard the 14 ships in the returning
battle group.
An F-14 takes off from the Roosevelt. The carrier's 70-plane air
wing flew 680 missions over Bosnian Serb strongholds, dropping 250
tons of ordnance in two weeks. Officials credited the campaign with
prompting peace talks in the former Yugoslavia.
Lt. Mike Anderson hugs his fiancee, Namaste Narelle, after his
squadron 41 of Photo by Huy Nguyen, Staff
F-14 Tomcats landed at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach on
Thursday. The fighters came in from the carrier Roosevelt after
completing a six-month tour that included hundreds of bombing raids
over Bosnia.
by CNB