Ike deploys with new directive: counter-piracy

NORFOLK

When last it was out to sea, the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower steamed into the waters of the Middle East, launching warplanes over Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Saturday, more than two years after its last deployment, the carrier departed for a familiar destination, but the mission has an added wrinkle: counter-piracy efforts.

The 6,000 sailors that make up the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group will support security operations in the Middle East and patrol an area of about 7.5 million square miles, including the Mediterranean Sea, Arabian Gulf and parts of the Indian Ocean, over a five-month deployment.

Rear Adm. Kurt W. Tidd, commander of the strike group, said the ships also will provide a range of flexibility options such as disaster relief, humanitarian assistance and crisis response. The carrier, he said, also will send a visible message to naval allies "standing shoulder by shoulder with them in some of the dangerous parts of the world" and dissuade potential adversaries.

"The sailors are ready to go," Tidd said.

Joining the Eisenhower will be the Bainbridge, a guided-missile destroyer; the Big Horn, an underway replenishment oiler, and the Sacagawea, a dry cargo/ ammunition ship. The Gettysburg and the Vicksburg, guided-missile cruisers, and the Halyburton, a guided-missile frigate, also set sail Saturday from Mayport Naval Station in Florida.

The strike group includes Carrier Air Wing Seven, which consists of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 121; strike fighter squadrons 83, 103, 131 and 143; electronic attack squadron 140; and helicopter anti-submarine squadron 5.

The sailors spent the past six months training in environments that mimic the challenges they will confront during the deployment, said Eisenhower skipper Captain Dee L. Mewbourne.

The sailors' families have perhaps spent just as long preparing for the time at home without them. H undreds braved cold weather at Pier 14 and looked on as the sailors were ordered to man the rails shortly before 8 a.m. Many waved chill-bitten hands, wiped away tears with jacket sleeves, and swung poster s with heartfelt missives. "Come home soon," one read.

George Lybarger said he drove 10 hours from Columbus, Ohio, to send off his son, Phil, on his second cruise on the Eisenhower.

"I really won't be able to see him standing on deck, but it is a way to say, 'Goodbye, and I'm waiting till you get back,' " Lybarger said. "I hate to see him go."

To Jan Goodhue, the five-month deployment is a relatively short time considering her husband, daughter and son-in-law all serve on active duty. Her 23-year-old son is on his first cruise on the Eisenhower.

"I'm excited but a bit apprehensive," said Goodhue, who drove in from Washington, D.C. "He's doing something he always wanted to do. As a parent, I don't want him to go. The only thing I can do is support him and let him know I'm here when he gets back."

Duane Bourne, (757) 222-5150, duane.bourne@pilotonline.com

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