THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609140290
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 66 lines
Capt. Mike Malone's voice carried a twinge of apology.
``We are not going to make our port call in Corfu, Greece,'' the captain of the aircraft carrier Enterprise told his crew's families, on a telephone ``Care Line'' message recorded Thursday.
``Instead, our schedule has been changed, and we are headed back into the eastern Mediterranean,'' Malone said. ``We will leave the Adriatic Sea tonight. . . . We will head southeast. . . . We are awaiting further orders.''
The cryptic message did not have to provide further details.
Those came by newspaper, TV, radio: The Enterprise's planned four-day layover in Corfu, a Greek island off the Albanian coast, would not happen Sept. 16 because the Enterprise would be well on its way to the Red Sea by then.
Along with the Norfolk-based fast attack submarine Norfolk, the destroyer Stump and the fast combat support ship Supply, the ``Big E'' would be joining an enormous American show of force in the Middle East, where a showdown with Iraqi bully boy Saddam Hussein seemed a sure thing.
Jessica, an ombudsman whose husband, David, is an air traffic controller aboard the Enterprise, said Friday that she got word the ship was on the move ``from some other wives and ombudsmen.''
She said she wasn't surprised at the orders, and was not overly concerned about David because ``I know my husband will do his job.''
The couple's children, ages 6 1/2 and 3 1/2, were excited to see pictures of their dad's ship on TV as local and national newscasts carried word of the Enterprise's deployment.
Dawn was surprised but not alarmed when she heard from another Navy wife Friday morning that their husbands' submarine was one of the four Norfolk-based vessels headed to the Persian Gulf.
Shortly after she got the word, Dawn's phone started ringing. As the only ombudsman for the Norfolk, she answered about a dozen calls Friday from concerned wives of crew members.
The first question most of them asked: ``Is it true?''
``I told them that the boat going to the Persian Gulf hadn't been confirmed yet,'' she said. ``All I was told by Squadron 6 was that their port call was canceled.''
Her husband, William, is a chief sonar technician who has been stationed onboard the Norfolk for three years.
``When you're in the submarine community,'' she said, ``your reaction is a lot different than that of the surface community, mainly because we never know where the boat is, or what its mission is.
``I don't have any real worries. It's my husband's job, and I'm very proud of him and all the men who serve with him.''
The destroyer Stump, not part of the Enterprise Battle Group, has been headed for the Persian Gulf since late August. So Sue, whose husband, John, is a fire controlman aboard the ship, wasn't surprised to read that the Stump was headed there sooner than expected to relieve the destroyer Laboon, another Norfolk-based ship in the Middle East Deployment Force.
``I knew he was probably going there to do that kind of work,'' Sue said. ``I have all the confidence in the world that his ship is prepared for any kind of confrontation.''
Sue said she last spoke with her husband by phone a week ago, and she expects to get a call from him again when he gets to Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf. On Friday, however, the only voices from the Norfolk ships were the day-old ``Care Line'' recordings.
``These changes are brought about by world events,'' Capt. Jim Zortman, commander of the carrier's air wing, told the families on one recording. ``The support that everyone has given the air wing and Enterprise is appreciated.'' by CNB