DATE: Saturday, March 15, 1997              TAG: 9703150301

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   56 lines

HALYBURTON CREW OVER DEPLOYMENT HUMP, EXPECTING A RELIEF AT HELM

Reaching the half-way point in their six-month Middle East cruise became a bittersweet milestone for the crew of the frigate Halyburton this week.

Sweet because ``we're over the hump,'' said Petty Officer 2nd Class Glenn Wadsworth, an electronic technician aboard the Portsmouth-based ship. ``It looks a lot better now than in December when we started.''

But bitter because it also meant the crew's captain, Cmdr. William H. Millward, learned he's being recalled to Washington to another job.

``He will be sorely missed,'' Petty Officer 1st Class Paul Brandt, an interior communications electrician, said by satellite telephone this week.

``He's one of the best skippers I've ever had. The ship and I wish him the best.''

The Halyburton and destroyer Nicholson, both berthed at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, are on a routine deployment to the Middle East, plying the Persian Gulf, supporting United Nations sanctions against Iraq.

Their time has been taken up mainly with maritime interdiction of illegal oil shipments and other cargo leaving Iraq, said Millward.

``We've spent about 80 percent of our time at sea,'' he said. ``but the deployment has been going real well.''

Liberty has been sparse, according to crew members. They have been able to visit ports in Manama, Bahrain; Doha, Qatar and Kuwait City.

``It was interesting to see (Kuwait City) rebuilt since the war,'' said Millward. ``The people there like Americans very much. There's a good relationship between the two countries.''

But sailors didn't get into town much. Concerns remain for their security, especially after last year's bombing of an American military barracks in Saudi Arabia.

``We spent most of time doing PT on the pier,'' Millward said.

The crew was planning a fun day at sea, complete with a steel-beach picnic and skits this week to celebrate the midway point in their deployment, said Fireman Martin Fergel, 22, of Portsmouth, a damage controlman.

Fergel, whose job consists of being ready to repair battle damage, said that the cruise, for the most part, has been a good one. ``I haven't had to do my job yet,'' he noted.

The halfway point has come too soon for Millward, who said he will be relieved about the second week of April by Cmdr. Kevin Morrissey.

``I am really torn apart,'' he said. ``I understand the needs of the Navy, but you leave as a team and you want to return as a team.''

The Nicholson and Halyburton, part of a group of mainly Norfolk-based ships that were moved to the shipyard in Portsmouth, are already working through the details of their June return.

The Halyburton is scheduled to be back June 9. Local officials have reminded the Navy that the Norfolk and Portsmouth waterfronts will be crowded with people and boats for Harborfest that weekend, and Portsmouth officials have requested the ship return that Friday, Millward said.

Whenever they arrive, they'll be the first ships coming home from deployment to the old Gosport Yard in many years: Until 1996, the shipyard had not been homeport to a ship since World War I.

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