DATE: Friday, October 3, 1997               TAG: 9710030664

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ABOARD HMS INVINCIBLE             LENGTH:   81 lines

BRITISH CARRIER COMES TO NORFOLK FOR A VISIT

As the lone Royal Marine among 1,200 sailors on this British aircraft carrier, Band Colour Sgt. John Hill has two main jobs.

He is the ship's postmaster, which explained why on this bright Thursday morning he was surrounded by mailbags in a cubbyhole way below the flight deck. As his shipmates were hitting the streets within an hour of the Invincible's arrival in Norfolk, Hill was clearing space for 200 more bags of incoming letters from their friends and relatives back home.

He is also the ship's bandleader. So between sorting mail he had to organize a ragtag squad of volunteers into a unit that wouldn't embarrass him at a Thursday night reception for local VIPs.

Hill wasn't looking entirely chipper. But his face brightened as he considered the discoveries that beckoned ashore. ``Are there any good jazz clubs in town?'' he asked.

On their ship's first visit to Norfolk since 1990, the men and women of the Invincible were determined to play.

In their ``tropical rig'' of short sleeves and shorts, they'd already made the transition dress-wise. And, yes, the famous bars of British warships were open - as two dozen officers tipping glasses at lunchtime in the wardroom attested.

But the Royal Navy has also come to show that, just like its American counterpart, it's working hard to respond more flexibly to changing world conditions.

After the shopping trips, bar-hopping and beach walks are done, the Invincible's crew will leave Norfolk Naval Base Monday for a calendar-crowding series of exercises in the western Atlantic.

Next week, its Sea Harriers will conduct short takeoffs and vertical landings with similar U.S. Marine Corps jets off the Virginia Capes. There will be port visits to Mayport, Fla., and Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. And before the Invincible's three-month deployment ends in late November, it will operate alongside the Norfolk-based carrier John C. Stennis.

All this and more is after the ship has already taken part in a Spanish-sponsored NATO exercise.

In the new world order, ``you never just transit from Point A to Point B anymore,'' said Warrant Officer Barry Homer, a brawny, crew-cut Royal Navy veteran of 30 years. ``If there's an opportunity to exercise, then we exercise with any nation that's available to us.''

The increasing internationalization is evident in other ways. A U.S. Navy lieutenant flies one of the Invincible's Sea Harriers. Military officers from France, Canada and Kuwait are assigned to the ship, too.

Like U.S. Navy ships, the Invincible is also operating more and more with its sister services. Royal Air Force Harriers have operated from its flight deck. Practicing as an amphibious support ship, it has taken aboard as many as 700 Royal Marine commandos.

In the bridge, Capt. Roy Clare describes his crew as ``a neighborhood watch team on a global scale.'' The 686-foot Invincible, which can carry up to 24 planes and helicopters, has in the past few years operated extensively in the Adriatic, positioning itself to respond to trouble in Bosnia.

Its odd-looking, ski-jump runway has also cast shadows over the Persian Gulf, and the ship has made historic port calls in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The busy schedule has made it tougher to achieve the Royal Navy's goal of keeping its ships in their home ports at least 40 percent of the time. But Clare said the Invincible, one of three Royal Navy carriers, managed to achieve it last year. He said there's increasing pressure to do so because, with the strengthening British economy, higher-quality sailors are being increasingly beckoned by private employers.

Not all time away from home is arduous. ``This tour of your coast is very much signing-on material, as we would call it,'' Clare said. ``Our guys have got a shopping list as long as 10 arms.'' Many in the crew plan to drive to Washington for the weekend, he noted.

Warrant Officer Homer, meanwhile, will captain a team that will ``scrum'' Saturday against the Newport News Rugby Club.

Coming from 4,000 miles away, he's understandably lacking in knowledge about his opponent. ``So you haven't heard of them?'' he asked a local visitor. ``They can't be that good, then.''

He'll lead a combined squad, officers and enlisted, Homer noted. ``But we don't have too many officers playing,'' he said, grinning. ``The game is dangerous enough as it is.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN\ The Virginian-Pilot

HMS Invincible, in center background, pulls into port Thursday at

the Norfolk Naval Base with a crew of 1,200 men and women. The

aircraft carrier is to depart Monday.

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