THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180619
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: AT SEA
SOURCE: BY JOE ALVARADO
LENGTH: 67 lines
It's Friday evening, Sept. 13.
We are steaming out of the Adriatic and toward the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
And the level of anticipation aboard the Enterprise is high.
We received word last night from Rear Adm. Martin Mayer, our battle group's commander, that our ``tasking'' had changed - that we no longer were to patrol off the Bosnian coast, waiting for Saturday's elections, but were to make for the Persian Gulf via the Red Sea.
We'd been scheduled for a port visit Monday, a much-needed rest in Corfu, Greece, an island off the Albanian coast.
But rapidly changing events in the Middle East forced a change in that schedule. Two days away from the Bosnian election, the president had decided we were needed more urgently elsewhere.
So here we are, bound in a couple of days for a trip through the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea, then to the Persian Gulf, two of our battle group sisters - the Norfolk-based fast attack submarine Pittsburgh and the Mayport, Fla.-based Gettysburg, a guided missile cruiser - steaming with us.
I don't think you can get much more flexible than that with a schedule and a military asset as powerful as an aircraft carrier.
Needless to say, the past week has been interesting. While focused on our jobs aboard ship, the sailors here have kept a wary eye toward the Gulf, wondering what would happen next there.
We'd been put on notice early in the month to be ready to lend a hand to the folks already congregated off Iraq, the carrier Carl Vinson and 16 other ships.
It came as no surprise when Adm. Mayer came over the public address system and told us we had orders to head that way. Deep down, knowing what I did from watching shipboard TV, I had a hunch we'd go.
The sudden schedule change didn't bother me. We were already at sea, so this was easy compared to 1990, when I was attached to an aircraft squadron assigned to another carrier and we were given five days' notice to pull the crew aboard, get the ship and air wing ready and leave port for the Red Sea.
Besides, as Enterprise's photography officer, I know I might have the opportunity to record history. Most of my division consists of young sailors on their first deployment. When the days get long, I assure them we have a purpose out here, that anything we record might get published nationally or worldwide.
Now, of course, that assurance has a little more meat to it.
This marks my first deployment since I married three years ago. I have more than 19 years in the Navy, of which I have spent almost eight aboard ships. I never had to worry about a wife and children during my earlier deployments, and never fully understood what married sailors went through.
That's changed. I now know how difficult it is to leave a family behind.
Though I write to my family every other day, I'll miss a few significant milestones in the life back home - my wife's birthday, and our baby's first steps, words and birthday.
In at-sea periods before this deployment, but following my arrival aboard the Enterprise in January, I missed my daughter's 14th birthday, her first day of high school and Mother's Day.
But we knew what to expect. Ships belong at sea, and it was time for the Enterprise to be the Atlantic Fleet's forward-deployed aircraft carrier.
Still, despite the separation, I find my already-strong relationship seems to get stronger all the time.
And as I end my letters to my wife, Peggy: ``December isn't far away.'' MEMO: Lt. Joe Alvarado wrote this column while the Enterprise was in the
Mediterranean. The ship is now in the Middle East. by CNB