DATE: Thursday, May 15, 1997                TAG: 9705150451

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  104 lines

2 BATTLE GROUPS SHIFT SO THAT ONE CAN START FOR HOME

Six months after pulling out of Norfolk in a bluesy November rain, months passed on the sea's lonesome roll and tense days spent on the cusp of danger, thousands of Hampton Roads men and women are headed home.

A week from today, the ships of the Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group will pull into Norfolk Naval Station, returning sailors on eight ships to their loved ones and ending a deployment that saw them far from home on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, Valentine's and Mother's Day.

Their arrival - a day after the crews of dozens of the carrier Theodore Roosevelt's aircraft fly into Norfolk and Virginia Beach - also end a deployment that saw the battle group's ships travel throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Balkans and tangle with imagined foes in a host of exercises.

The week ends a deployment, too, for the Nassau Amphibious Ready Group, a trio of Norfolk-based ships that deployed with the battle group and saw its helicopter crews shot at while they plucked Americans from violently chaotic Albania.

``The mood is excellent. Morale is very high,'' said Cmdr. Dan Davenport, commanding officer of the Norfolk-based guided missile destroyer Ramage, as the ship and its sisters steamed south of the Azores Tuesday. ``We're on our way home, and these sailors know it.''

From the Ramage's wheelhouse, Davenport noted, he could see the 1,092-foot ``T.R.,'' the frigates Carr and Hawes, the destroyer Hayler and the guided-missile cruiser Leyte Gulf.

``We have a real strong sense of accomplishment and a great sense of pride about what we've been able to do over here,'' he said. ``So I think the guys are feeling very proud of themselves and looking very forward to going home.''

A few miles away on the Theodore Roosevelt, Capt. David Architzel, nearing the end of his seventh Med deployment, reported that spirits ``are as high as I've seen them on any ship I've ever been on.''

And 40 miles behind, aboard the amphibious transport dock Nashville, Capt. Bill McKee said his crew's excitement had grown palpable since the ship passed towering Gibraltar to enter the Atlantic.

``I think it goes without saying,'' he said, ``that the mood is upbeat.''

The trip home officially began Sunday, when the Theodore Roosevelt and its battle group met a similar flotilla led by the Mayport, Fla.-based carrier John F. Kennedy off Spain's Mediterranean coast.

The morning rendezvous, or ``turnover,'' gave officers on the JFK and its companion ships a chance to get the ``gouge,'' or unofficial lowdown, on upcoming exercises, ports of call and problem areas from their homebound counterparts.

``They were real glad to see us, as you might imagine,'' said Capt. Joseph J. Capalbo, who commands the JFK's air wing. ``They were very upbeat and glad to see us. And they were ready to start heading west and making their way back to the States.''

The Roosevelt wasted no time doing it. ``We had JFK alongside,'' Architzel said, ``racked it up to 30 knots, and left 'em in the dust.''

Not far west of Gibraltar, the outbound battle group passed Rota, Spain, where the Nashville was scrubbing clean the vehicles and equipment it had put ashore during the deployment, a practice aimed at keeping foreign insect or plant contaminants from reaching the United States.

The two-day job was a handful: Along with its Marine-laden fellow ``gators,'' the Nassau and the Pensacola, the Nashville had seen a lot of action during the six months.

Most memorably, in mid-March the ship earned worldwide headlines for its role in the evacuation of Americans from Albania's capital, Tirana, as the country's populace turned on its government and armed civilians ran riot in the streets.

More than 400 people were snatched from an American compound by helicopters based on the three amphibious ships. At one point, an American chopper fired on riflemen who'd shot at it over the city.

That crisis past, the Nassau was immediately dispatched to Africa's west coast, where it prepared for the evacuation of Americans from Zaire's capital, Kinshasa. The ship remained in the Gulf of Guineau until it was relieved by the assault ship Kearsarge, which was originally scheduled to leave Norfolk with the JFK Battle Group but departed two weeks early. The Kearsarge remains on station there.

The Nassau, crossing the Atlantic ahead of the other homebound ships, is to wash down its vehicles and equipment in Puerto Rico. It will join the Nashville and Pensacola off the North Carolina coast May 20, so that the three can drop off their Marines before heading north for their Friday homecoming.

By the time the amphibious ships link up off Camp Lejeune, the battle group will be nearing Cape Henry - and completing a flurry of work that needs doing before their cruise ends.

``We're spending a lot of time internal in the ship,'' the Ramage's Davenport said, ``getting spruced up so that when we get home and welcome our families, it looks great.''

Today, the Theodore Roosevelt is scheduled to unload some of its ammunition to the fast combat support ship Detroit. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday it is to steam side-by-side with the support ship Santa Barbara, further reducing its load of bombs, bullets and missiles as it goes in an exchange requiring 2,000 helicopter lifts.

``There's work left to do,'' the T.R.'s Architzel said. ``But if you came on board, I think you'd be quite impressed with the way the ship looks and with the attitude of the crew.

``My son's got a ballgame the night we come in. I can't wait to see that,'' he said. ``It's going to be great to sit back in anonymity, to be a beach bum.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

U.S. NAVY

The Theodore Roosevelt, above, and its support ships are relieved in

the Med by the John F. Kennedy, below, and the vessels accompanying

it.

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