Normandy back from Haiti; others brace for long haul

NORFOLK

The first Hampton Roads-based Navy ship to return home from the military's Haitian relief mission arrived Tuesday at Norfolk Naval Station, even as thousands of other local service members continue to toil without word of when they might leave the earthquake-ravaged country.

The guided-missile cruiser Normandy, with a crew of about 300, left for Haiti the day after the Jan. 12 disaster. Its sailors spent most of their time evacuating the injured and delivering food and water to small villages outside Port-au-Prince, said Lt. Cmdr. Michael Hansen, who oversaw the ship's helicopter operations.

"I think we're very glad to be getting back to our families, but at the same time you wish you could stay longer," Hansen said. "You wish you could do more."

The Normandy handed out roughly 125,000 meals in Haiti and evacuated more than 100 people for medical treatment, the Navy said. Hansen said that in most of the areas where the ship's crew worked, villagers told them they were the only help they'd seen.

"I think that really brought it home for all of us," he said. "The mission we were doing - it really mattered."

About 2,000 sailors and 2,300 Marines with the Norfolk-based Nassau amphibious ready group left Haiti late last week, though not to come home. Instead, they are heading to the Middle East, where they were scheduled to deploy before the earthquake hit.

For thousands of other Hampton Roads-based service members, the Haitian mission remains open-ended, officials said Tuesday.

The largest local military contingent there - 4,700 sailors and Marines traveling with the Bataan amphibious ready group - could stay well into March.

The Bataan's shipboard hospital is still taking on new Haitian casualties, and its sailors continue to work with local laborers to clear rubble and rebuild. The Bataan's medical team also has set up a new clinic in Port-au-Prince, said Chief Petty Officer Tony Sisti, the ship's public affairs officer.

A team of 30 Navy salvage divers returned to the Little Creek campus of the Joint Expeditionary Base last week after assessing damage and clearing wreckage from harbors near the capital.

A Little Creek-based underwater construction unit has picked up where the salvage divers left off, working to rebuild destroyed ports, said Chief Petty Officer Katrin Albritton, a spokeswoman for the Navy's Expeditionary Combat Command. Albritton said it's unclear how long they might stay.

"We're not even guessing at dates," she said. "There's a lot of work ahead."

The 110-person crew of the Coast Guard cutter Forward, who were among the first American responders, also remains in Haiti.

Smaller local Army and Air Force contingents continue to serve in the relief effort, as well as five Military Sealift Command ships. Roughly 200 personnel from the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center remain aboard the Navy hospital ship Comfort, anchored just off Haiti's coast. For them, too, the mission is open-ended.

"Everyone here is picking up extra shifts and working a little harder and little longer to make up for their absence," said Deborah Kallgren, a medical center spokeswoman. "But we're just fine with that. We can keep it up as long as it's needed."

Corinne Reilly, (757) 446-2949, corinne.reilly@pilotonline.com