THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020265
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 82 lines
Under skies that matched his ship's towering steel flanks, Navy Capt. David Architzel took over command of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt Friday in a ceremony of ruffles and flourishes, shouted hoorays and praise for the flattop's crew.
Architzel, 45, relieved Capt. Ronald L. Christenson as the T.R.'s sixth skipper little more than three weeks before the carrier's planned departure for the Mediterranean, where the ship will serve as the centerpiece of a mostly Norfolk-based armada on six-month patrol.
The ceremony also followed the carrier's Oct. 14 collision with the Florida-based cruiser Leyte Gulf during maneuvers off the Atlantic coast - an event that had no bearing on the long-planned command switch, but which Christenson cited as evidence of the ship's readiness for anything.
``This crew has never failed to meet every challenge that came its way,'' the outgoing captain told Architzel and several hundred dignitaries and sailors on the carrier's yawning hangar deck.
``I was never so proud of them as I was a couple of weeks ago, when we had an incident with the Leyte Gulf,'' he said. ``A collision at sea, of whatever magnitude, no matter how slight, can be devastating to a crew. This crew was back in normal operations, launching airplanes, within a few hours.
``Not only can the ship itself take a hit and keep on fighting, but the crew can.''
The 1,092-foot Roosevelt, its stern still undergoing repairs on the estimated $7 million to $9 million in damage that resulted from the collision, is due to relieve the carrier Enterprise in the Med in early December.
Its deployment begins only a year after the close of its last cruise in the Med - a trip on which Christenson led the ship into the Adriatic, where its fighters and attack planes launched repeated strikes on Bosnian Serbs in the former Yugoslavia.
As a portrait of the ship's namesake gazed upon the flag-draped hangar deck, a succession of speakers told Architzel and his new crew that they will be called upon to serve as America's ``big stick'' in the region.
``I'd like to tell you that everything is peaceful, but it is not,'' said Vice Adm. Charles S. ``Steve'' Abbot, a former Roosevelt captain and now commander of the Navy's Italy-based 6th Fleet. ``The problems that existed when you were last in the region remain.
``Dave, the Navy has given you . . . a big stick. You're going to take it and make us proud. And the men and women who are going to do it for you are standing out there today.''
Without the crew - which looked on silently, a sea of dress blues and bright white dixie cups - the T.R. was ``nothing but a hunk of steel and thousands upon thousands of yards of cable,'' Abbot said.
Architzel, a New Yorker who graduated from the Naval Academy in 1973, now begins the daunting task of preparing a floating city of 5,500 souls for a trip halfway around the globe.
An aviator with more than 5,000 cockpit hours, most in the Navy's sub-hunting S-3 Viking jet, he must ensure the readiness of a high-tech workforce whose average age is 19, must stockpile enough provisions aboard to produce 18,000 meals a day, must tend to the thousands of tiny details that bedevil the largest of warships.
He brings carrier experience to the task: Architzel was executive officer of the Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1992, and again second-in-command on the John C. Stennis before that carrier's commissioning. He joins the T.R. from a stint as captain of the helicopter amphibious assault ship Guam.
Christenson, a naval aviator since 1971, served on the Guam himself as a helicopter pilot, and now heads for the Pacific island of the same name as commander of U.S. Naval Forces in the Marianas.
Selected earlier this year for rear admiral's rank, Christenson had served as the T.R.'s executive officer and as captain of the Japan-based amphibious transport dock ship Dubuque before becoming the Roosevelt's skipper in July 1994.
``I can't say I've been looking forward to this day in the least,'' he said Friday, before an enormous American flag draped across the hangar deck. ``With the exception of a couple of hours, the past 28 months have been the most rewarding of my life.''
Architzel, meanwhile, seemed eager to start work. ``Theodore Roosevelt, I know you are ready,'' he told the crew.
``Let's get to it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Capt. David Architzel, left, leads a cheer with Vice Adm. Charles
Abbot, center, and Capt. R.L. Christenson, outgoing skipper of the
Theodore Roosevelt.
KEYWORDS: CHANGE OF COMMAND U.S.S. THEODORE ROOSEVELT PROFILE by CNB