THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609150040
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 87 lines
The aircraft carrier Enterprise and two other Norfolk ships were preparing to enter the Suez Canal Saturday on their way to a stare-down with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The ships could reach the Red Sea today, and have orders to make for the Persian Gulf to join an already massive American armada gathered there.
But one Norfolk ship the Navy said would make the trip will not. The fast-attack submarine Pittsburgh, based in Groton, Conn., will be accompanying the Enterprise, and not the Pittsburgh's sister ship, the Norfolk.
Capt. Mike Malone, commanding officer of the Norfolk-based carrier, said in a telephone interview Saturday that the Enterprise was steaming ``in the eastern Med, all the way east,'' along with the Pittsburgh, the Norfolk-based fast combat support ship Supply and the Mayport, Fla.-based guided missile cruiser Gettysburg.
Malone declined to say when the ships would pass through the Suez Canal - a 12- to 24-hour trip, depending on ship traffic - but said that the four vessels would make the journey in a convoy, and that he expected to enter the Persian Gulf ``by the middle of the week.''
``I would say the mood of the crew is upbeat,'' the captain said. ``People are excited about challenges, and what we're facing is a challenge. The young people aboard here have not been involved in something like this before.
``I hate to use a phrase like `looking forward to it,' when we're talking about possibly entering combat, but it's what we're trained for,'' Malone said. ``It's what we knew we'd be about when we joined the Navy. And we're ready to do whatever we're called upon to do.''
The Enterprise, approaching the halfway point of a six-month deployment that began June 28, had been patrolling the Adriatic Sea off the Bosnian coast when the Navy ordered it to steam for the canal Thursday.
Its departure left the former Yugoslavia without a carrier's presence just offshore - a presence Washington had favored during Saturday's Bosnian elections.
Instead, the ship is to muscle up an already impressive American presence off the Iraqi coast, where the Bremerton, Wash.-based carrier Carl Vinson and 16 other ships are poised to smite Saddam if ordered.
The Norfolk-based guided missile destroyer Laboon is part of that flotilla, which will be joined by the Norfolk-based destroyer Stump before the Enterprise's arrival.
``The commander-in-chief felt this is where we're needed,'' Malone said. ``We're his 911 force, and he dialed our number.''
The 100-mile-long Suez Canal, which at some points narrows to little more than a carrier's width, should not present security difficulties for the 1,123-foot Enterprise or its escorts, Malone said.
``We take precautions whenever we're in a foreign country, and I don't think it'll be necessary for us to do anything beyond what we normally do,'' he said.
``But we will be taping up our airplanes, covering their cockpits. The wind can blow pretty hard in this part of the world, and the sand it carries can do a lot of damage.
Once out of the Suez and in the Red Sea, the ship won't dawdle, Malone said - dampening speculation that, with Saudi Arabia's permission to fly over its territory, the Enterprise could launch strikes on Iraq from there.
``That certainly is geographically possible,'' Malone said of such a strike, ``but the advantage of the Gulf is that you don't need anyone's permission there to fly.''
The Enterprise effectively doubles the Navy's air punch in the region, and its escorts increase by half the number of cruise missile tubes that could be used in any future tangle with Iraq.
Among the squadrons aboard the ``Big E'' are the Jolly Rogers of Fighter Squadron VF-103, based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, a 14-plane outfit whose F-14 Tomcats are the first the Navy has modified to do double duty as precision bombers.
Nine planes in the squadron share six of the new system's bolt-on pods, which extend the crews' vision of sky and terrain and add laser-guided bombing to their quiver of weapons.
Along with 22 Florida-based F/A-18 Hornets, the carrier also carries 13 A-6 Intruders, the Sunday Punchers of Attack Squadron 75. The Oceana-based squadron is the last to fly the ancient but rugged attack jets, which will be retired after the Enterprise's deployment.
The Gettysburg and Pittsburgh, meanwhile, can launch cruise missiles.
Whether or not the ships use those weapons, Malone counseled the families of sailors aboard to stay calm.
``I would want the families to know that we're safe, that we miss them and love them,'' the captain said. ``That we're off to do what we're trained to do.
``And that we will do it well, and do it safely.'' ILLUSTRATION: Map
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