DATE: Tuesday, November 11, 1997            TAG: 9711110244

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A16  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   54 lines

FRIGATE ELROD BRUSHES OFF TENSIONS IN PERSIAN GULF

Tensions may be running high in the Persian Gulf these days, what with Iraq's recent belligerence, but they're barely noticeable aboard the Norfolk-based guided missile frigate Elrod.

``Business is pretty much as usual,'' Cmdr. Glenn Flanagan, the ship's captain, said by satellite telephone Monday from the Persian Gulf, where the Elrod has been on patrol.

``There's no real unusual preparation,'' he said. ``Our day-to-day routine has been only minorly affected.''

Sailors from the Elrod continue to board and inspect merchant ships in search of contraband headed in or out of Iraq, as it has since arriving in the gulf last summer.

The Elrod and its 17 officers, 15 chief petty officers and 185 enlisted personnel have been at sea since leaving Norfolk July 15, most of that time as part of the Middle East Task Force, a group of seven U.S. warships assigned to patrol the gulf and help enforce United Nations sanctions against Iraq.

Now just over halfway through the deployment, the crew's attention is beginning to turn toward home, Flanagan said.

``We have about another month on station here in the Persian Gulf,'' he said. ``Then we'll be heading back. Our spirits are high because we are looking forward to coming home.''

The Elrod is a 3,600-ton, 413-foot ship designed to defend sea lines of communication and provide anti-submarine operations, using its two shipboard helicopters and an arsenal of torpedoes and surface-to-surface Harpoon missiles.

The helicopters fly about 10 hours a day, keeping the crews of both the ship and helos busy from dawn to dusk, said Flanagan.

Flanagan said the increased tensions being felt worldwide because of the ongoing crisis in Iraq have not altered appreciatively the way the Elrod performs patrols.

The Elrod does not have the ability to launch long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, such as those used against Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. Those weapons are carried aboard later-model cruisers and destroyers that are operating in the gulf with the carrier Nimitz and its 80-plane air wing.

``We hope there will be a diplomatic solution to that,'' he said of the tensions.

His message to families at home is to tell them ``the crew is in good spirits and everyone is really anxious to return to Norfolk. We look forward to seeing everyone Jan. 15.''

Although officially assigned to Norfolk, the Elrod is part of an eight-ship group temporarily assigned in Portsmouth to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

Meanwhile, Flanagan said, the crew is making preparations for spending the upcoming holiday season without family members.

``Of course, we are sad we won't be home for Christmas and those (other) holidays that are coming up,'' he said. ``But we will celebrate those things when we get back.''

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