DATE: Thursday, March 20, 1997              TAG: 9703190519

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Military 

SOURCE: BY LUTHER M. WILLIAMS 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

SKETCHES SCRATCH THE SURFACE OF SAILOR'S LIFE

To port stretch barren, white sands. To starboard, flourishing green foliage. And ahead lies a passageway that seems too narrow, in places, to accommodate this gargantuan gray ship.

We're crossing through the Suez Canal on our way to the Persian Gulf, the ship moving slowly through narrows that leave only 50 yards on either side. For the next few weeks the Theodore Roosevelt and its crew of more than 5,000 will serve as the centerpiece of America's peacekeeping efforts in the Middle East.

I'll be committing our time there to paper, just as I've done throughout the Mediterranean, in a cruise that has so far taken us to 11 ports.

Sketching is how I fill the time in the few hours I don't spend working in the Oil Lab.

For most of each day it's my job to analyze the fuel used by our 76 aircraft, as well as samples from other ships in our battle group.

It's an important job, one in which we study the fuel at the molecular level, because if petroleum fuels are bad, old or contaminated, the result could well be bad news - equipment damage or worse.

So I pass long, long hours checking samples carefully, surrounded by noise and enjoying very little privacy, performing the kind of service you'd never find in town but which I figure our people deserve.

Our pilots, after all, have a lot on the line - and Americans have invested a lot in the machines they're flying.

Despite the hours and the working conditions, perhaps the toughest challenge I've found on board ``T.R.'' has been keeping my art supplies stocked.

Maybe it's because the sights around me are a constant inspiration. Perhaps it's the fact that, amid the roars and thumps of landing aircraft and the whir of machinery, the simple scratch, scratch, scratch of a pencil on coarse paper is welcome respite.

Whatever its attraction, sketching has been my off-duty focus. When I think about home and find myself getting a little sad, I open my sketch pad and start to work.

One of my favorite drawings from this deployment is one I did of actress Halle Berry. She visited us during Christmas, eating chow with me and other sailors. I managed to capture her so well in my sketch that I'm going to have it framed once I get home - provided I get a thumb's up on that from my wife, Lee.

Unfortunately, the ship's store doesn't keep much of a selection of drawing supplies on hand. I can find some of my favorite treats from home there. Pads and sketching pencils, however, are among the sacrifices one makes out here.

As we head for the Persian Gulf, remember us out here. Keep in mind that if called on, we're ready to draw our guns and erase a threat, or sketch out more peaceful solutions to whatever troubles we might encounter.

With luck, they'll be few.

I'd like to get some more sketching done. MEMO: Petty Officer 2nd Class Luther M. Williams is a jet engine

mechanic, working as an Oil Lab technician supervisor aboard the

Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt.

The ship, which left Norfolk on a six-month deployment last Nov. 25,

passed through the Suez Canal en route to the Persian Gulf on Sunday.

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