DATE: Saturday, October 11, 1997            TAG: 9710110421

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY,STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   73 lines

KEARSARGE DUE HOME ON WEDNESDAY FROM A YEOMAN'S DEPLOYMENT

After six months, 27,800 miles, two major humanitarian relief efforts and maneuvers with more than a dozen foreign navies, the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge is ready to blow off some steam.

Not since days before its April 15 departure from Norfolk has the helicopter and troop carrier shut down its boilers; 63 percent of its time away, it has been under way.

But soon after it docks here at 9 a.m. Wednesday, chief engineer Ron Casto will tell the 230 sailors who have kept the ship's two steam turbines at the ready every second of every day they can shut down and ``go to cold iron.''

Winding up a historic deployment, the Kearsarge will steam past Bermuda today en route to the North Carolina coast, where it will disgorge its cargo of Marines before turning home for Norfolk.

Over 184 days, the 844-foot Kearsarge and its complement of 1,200 sailors and 1,800 Marines will have steamed twice across the Atlantic, stood two months' watch over the West African coast, sent its choppers into Sierra Leone on a daring evacuation mission, and sailed nearly the length of the Mediterranean Sea.

``The plant was never in `cold iron,' '' said Casto, of Chesapeake. ``For six months, we've had steam in the pipes.''

Casto, completing his eleventh overseas deployment, said by satellite telephone Friday that he has been impressed by the young sailors on the cruise, who were looking forward to landfall after long months on the 40,500-ton ship.

``There are a lot of hard-working kids out here,'' he said. ``I've been doing this just over 30 years and it never ceases to amaze me: We start out with a bunch of kids that hardly know what a ship is, and we always come back with an extremely competent group, ready to handle just anything.''

Kearsarge is arriving home two weeks ahead of the other two ships in its amphibious ready group, the Carter Hall and Ponce. They will arrive in Norfolk Oct. 28, the same day ships of the John F. Kennedy Battle Group pull into Norfolk and other East Coast ports.

Its earlier homecoming is payback for its early departure: Kearsarge was ordered to hurriedly leave April 15 in response to rising tensions in the former Zaire, now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

After spending most of May off the country's coast, the ship was ordered to steam for another West African nation, Sierra Leone. In the days after the overthrow of that country's government, Kearsarge evacuated more than 2,500 Americans and other citizens representing 20 nations. They were all transferred safely to Guinea.

The rapid helicopter airlifts and care and feeding of the refugees all took place without a major accident, despite some ground fire aimed at Kearsarge's helicopters.

Seaman Shawn Maddron, remembering the number of people the sailors and Marines helped evacuate, said the operations involved hard work and good planning.

``This is my first cruise,'' said Maddron, ``but actually, it was really fun.''

It was Lt. j.g. Monika Washington's first cruise as well, and it helped prove the value of having such naval units forward deployed.

``We helped out a lot of people,'' she said. ``Had we not been there, I'm not sure what they would have done.''

``It's really been a fantastic deployment,'' said Capt. Thomas ``Mike'' Wittkamp, the ship's commanding officer. ``It's amazing how fast time passed, especially in the first 60 days under way.''

Only now, he said, when ship must limit its speed as it heads home, does time pass too slowly.

On Monday, Kearsarge will drop off its Marines at Morehead City, N.C. Its helicopter contingent will fly to Cherry Point, N.C.

On Tuesday, it will pick up 300 ``tigers'' - the relatives and friends of the ship's sailors, who will get a chance to see what life is like at sea during the last leg of the voyage.

Come Wednesday, Kearsarge is scheduled to dock at Pier 5 of the Norfolk Naval Station. KEYWORDS: HOMECOMING

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