DATE: Monday, September 29, 1997            TAG: 9709290037

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   71 lines

NAVAL BASE TO WELCOME ITS NEWEST SHIP TODAY THE BATAAN WILL JOIN ITS SISTER SHIPS, THE WASP AND THE KEARSARGE.

The freshly commissioned amphibious assault ship Bataan will arrive at its home port in Norfolk today, bearing a crew of 990 and a tribute to veterans of a horrific chapter of World War II in the Pacific.

The multipurpose helicopter and troop carrier, built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., is the fifth of the Wasp Class. At 844 feet long, with a 106-foot beam, the 40,530-ton warship is eclipsed in size only by aircraft carriers.

``I knew we were big when they told me they were clearing out a parking lot for us in Norfolk,'' said Capt. Craig W. Wilson, the Bataan's first commanding officer.

Wilson, of Virginia Beach, spoke by satellite telephone as the ship was making its way up the Atlantic coast. It left its Mississippi port Sept. 20 on its maiden cruise.

``We're shaking out the bugs,'' Wilson said. ``This is really impressive, the best the Navy has.''

The Bataan's 10 a.m. scheduled arrival at Pier 5 of the Norfolk Naval Station will be greeted by families and friends who have been separated from the crew for the past year.

``We're excited to get to a home,'' Wilson said. ``We left lots of family there and many of us haven't seen them in quite a while.''

Also expected to greet the ship are some of the 10,000 veterans of the Battle of Bataan, who 55 years ago were taken prisoner by Japanese troops sweeping through the Philippines.

For 3 1/2 years they endured brutal treatment and hard labor, including the 85-mile Bataan Death March, in the Philippines and Japan.

Among the gifts presented to the ship is a small American flag that one of the Bataan survivors, Army Staff Sgt. Donovan Gautier, carried with him throughout his imprisonment.

Gautier hid the flag in his clothing and was able to keep it from his captors until his liberation in September 1945.

Today, the small, tattered 48-star American flag is on display aboard the Bataan. Gautier, of Jackson County, Miss., presented it to Wilson just before the ship was commissioned.

This is the second ship to be named after the battle. The light aircraft carrier Bataan was commissioned in 1945 and served in World War II and Korea.

Joining its sister ships, the Wasp and Kearsarge, in Norfolk, the Bataan is the first amphibious assault ship designed and built from keel up with accommodations for female sailors. Women make up about one-fourth of its crew, Wilson noted.

The Bataan will have living areas for nearly 450 female officers, chiefs, enlisted personnel and embarked troops. Overall, the ship has living areas for nearly 3,200 crew members and troops.

Built and outfitted for about $1.2 billion, the ship is also designed to carry tanks, trucks and other vehicles; artillery; ammunition; and the supplies necessary to support an amphibious assault.

Monorail trains, moving at speeds up to 600 feet per minute (6.8 mph), transport cargo and supplies from storage and staging areas throughout the ship to a 13,600-square-foot well deck, which opens to the sea through gates in the ship's stern. There the cargo and troops can be loaded aboard landing craft for the trip to the beach.

Landing craft called LCACs ride on a cushion of air about 4 feet above the water and can transport troops and cargo ashore at 50 mph. The ship also can accommodate a variety of aircraft: up to 20 AV-8B Harrier jets, capable of taking off and landing vertically, or up to 30 CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters. ILLUSTRATION: U.S. Navy photo

The Bataan, a multipurpose helicopter and troop carrier, is steaming

toward Norfolk, where the new amphibious assault ship will be based.

Welcoming ceremonies will include a tribute to survivors of the

85-mile Bataan Death March during World War II.

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