
DATE: Thursday, May 22, 1997                TAG: 9705220461

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ABOARD THE CARRIER THEODORE ROOSEVELT LENGTH:  173 lines

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAY AFTER 6 MONTHS AWAY, ROOSEVELT CREW RETURNS FOR MEMORIAL DAY

During their deployment that ends with this giant ship's homecoming in Norfolk today, the weather experts of the ``T.R.'' have had their hands full.

High winds and big waves met the carrier shortly after it left last November, rattling it nearly all the way to the Mediterranean. Thunderstorms and water spouts soon jolted it near France. A raucous ``minstrel wind'' off Spain later stirred waves so high they dragged a lifeboat into the sea.

But as he pored over gauges and satellite photos in the T.R.'s weather station late Wednesday morning, Petty Officer 1st Class Doug Kirks was smilingly confident. A knot of clouds was blowing off to the northeast, he said, which should allow the T.R. to nudge into Pier 12 at Norfolk Naval Base this morning under mostly sunny skies.

``Great weather,'' Kirks unblinkingly predicted. ``It's one of the easier forecasts I've had to do.''

Other things can be more confidently predicted about today's homecoming of the T.R. and seven other Norfolk-based ships: thousands of hugs and kisses, innumerable smiles, sailors' tales of visits to exotic ports, and their loved ones' stories of missed birthday parties and amusement-park trips.

Many sailors will walk off ships for the last time, some feeling bitter about the separations and the hardships of Navy life, some sadly nostalgic for the seagoing experience they've left behind.

But mostly, there will be celebration. It will be the end of a busy deployment that strung the ships of the battle group and an accompanying amphibious ready group as far as 8,000 miles apart, from West Africa to the Persian Gulf.

The T.R. and its battle group supported United Nations operations in Bosnia, enforced the no-fly zone over Iraq and participated in numerous exercises with other allied navies. Meanwhile, the amphibious group led by the Norfolk-based assault ship Nassau scooted into the Adriatic to help in March with the helicopter evacuation of more than 400 people from the anarchy-ridden Albania. Then the Nassau hustled to the West African coast to stand by for possible intervention in confict-torn Zaire.

``Our plate was full the entire time,'' said Rear Adm. Gregory G. Johnson, commander of the T.R. battle group. In spite of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, he said, ``in some respects, we're even more busy than we have been in the past.''

For the returning men and women, the timing of the homecoming couldn't be nicer - days before the Memorial Day weekend meant to honor those who died in the nation's wars. But, then again, that's only fitting, seeing as how the T.R. and its fellow ships left the East Coast just before Thanksgiving and missed Christmas, New Year's and Easter to boot.

Hampton Roads merchants, already gearing up for this weekend's kickoff of the all-important summer tourist season, are happy to welcome back the sailors' extra boost of spending power.

And make no mistake. These sailors are glad to be coming back. It has been a long time away, so long that Petty Officer 1st Class Kirks pauses before remembering the Norfolk-based carrier - Enterprise - whose place the T.R. took in the Med last December.

The Mayport, Fla.-based carrier John F. Kennedy, which in turn led the battle group that replaced the T.R.'s earlier this month, was a snap to recall. ``That was the one we were looking for,'' Kirks said.

The return to Hampton Roads actually started Wednesday with the fly-off of the T.R.'s Carrier Air Wing 3 a few hundred miles off the coast. In a thunderous procession that stretched over several hours, the fighters and other aircraft of the carrier were catapulted homeward, including F-14 Tomcats to Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach and E-2C Hawkeyes to Norfolk Naval Air Station.

The homecoming won't end until Friday, when the three ships of the Nassau Amphibious Ready Group pull in: the Nassau and transport dock Nashville to Norfolk Naval Base, and the dock landing ship Pensacola to Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.

Also scheduled to return to Norfolk Friday is the Concord, a Military Sealift Command combat stores ship that supported the T.R. battle group.

Today is the biggest day of celebration. Joining the T.R. at Norfolk Naval Base will be the guided missile cruiser Vella Gulf, guided missile destroyer Ramage, destroyer Hayler, guided missile frigates Carr and Hawes, and the attack subs Atlanta and Montpelier.

By the time the homecoming is over, more than 8,500 Navy men and women will have stepped ashore at Norfolk Naval Base, Little Creek or Oceana.

Among those ``manning the rails'' of the T.R. this morning as it majestically approaches its pier will be Petty Officer 1st Class Judith Bryan. One of about 435 women aboard the T.R., she is coming back from her second Med cruise.

The first, in 1994 and 1995 on the Norfolk-based carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, was a novelty made all the more distinct by the fact that she was one of a relative handful of women then assigned to warships.

This deployment has been rougher. It was harder to leave her 12-year-old son James, all freckle-faced, blue-eyed and smart as a stiff salute. It was tougher, too, to leave her husband Ron, with his big, bushy mustache and baseball caps and who, besides being her biggest advocate, is also president of the enlisted families' support group for the Oceana-based Tomcat squadron to which she is assigned.

James, at least, got to join her for the final three days of the cruise. He was one of more than 750 family members of T.R. crew members who flew to Bermuda earlier this week to hop the ``Tiger Cruise'' home to Norfolk.

On Wednesday, in between his mom's embraces, he toured the ship's weather station and TV studio and spent time in the office where she works as a quality-assurance inspector.

``She taught me a lot of words I need to know on the ship,'' James said, nodding toward his mother, ``like head, fantail, bow, catwalk and galley. . .

Back home, meanwhile, his father was leading a group of volunteers who decorated and stocked snacks at the squadron's single barracks and readied banners for the big welcome home at the pier.

The group Ron Bryan heads used to be known as a wives' club. But now that women are almost everywhere in the Navy, their civilian husbands have equal opportunity at such volunteer jobs, too.

It's hardly the only change in the new Navy.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the service's missions have become more diverse. That was demonstrated during this deployment with the missions in Bosnia, Iraq, Albania and Zaire.

And it was shown in the battle group's numerous flag-waving port calls. One of the most memorable of these was the Vella Gulf's visit Dec. 20 through Jan. 4 to the island nation of Malta, south of Sicily.

``We went there at the request of the State Department to show the government that being friends with the United States and having the United States Navy pull into your country is a good thing,'' explained Capt. James W. Phillips, the cruiser's commanding officer. ``And I think we accomplished that.''

It helped that Vella isone of Malta's most common surnames. Though the cruiser's name derives from a Western Pacific naval battle of World War II, ``there were a lot of people convinced that it was named after a famous Maltese.''

On the T.R., Petty Officer 1st Class Bryan returns with fond memories, too.

But the fondest of all was seeing son James climb aboard off Bermuda on Monday. He was five inches taller, chestier and speaking an octave lower than when she left for the Med last November.

Shortly afterward, she e-mailed her husband with a simple statement that any sailor coming home today to children will understand.

``How hard,'' she began. ``Son has grown.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

Planes from VF 32 squadron, part of Carrier Air Wing 3 flying from

the Theodore Roosevelt, pass over Oceana Naval Air Station before

landing Wednesday.

Lt. Jim Lane gets a hug from his wife, Brooke, and their niece

Shelby Gregory, 5, after his plane arrived at Oceana Naval Air

Station on Wednesday.

Photo

JIM COLLINS/The Virginian-Pilot

Judith Bryan, stationed aboard the Roosevelt, watches over her son,