DATE: Thursday, April 17, 1997              TAG: 9704170368

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

                                            LENGTH:   35 lines

ROOSEVELT LEAVES THE PERSIAN GULF THE CREW ENJOYED A RARE PORT VISIT IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.

A month-long stint in the Persian Gulf behind it, the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt steamed into the Arabian Sea Monday, bound for the Mediterranean, then home.

The Norfolk-based ship passed through the Strait of Hormuz and by Monday afternoon was at the easternmost point it will reach.

``As we speak, we're as far from Norfolk as we have been or will be,'' said Capt. David Architzel, the flattop's skipper. ``From now on, it's westbound.''

Accompanied by the Norfolk-based cruiser Vella Gulf and submarine Montpelier, and the Earle, N.J.-based support ship Detroit, the carrier is expected to transit the Suez Canal and re-enter the Mediterranean about April 20.

Its departure from the gulf - where the carrier's air wing made 1,627 trips from the big ship's deck, enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq and safeguarding the ship - came after the carrier made a port visit in the United Arab Emirates.

Most ports lack facilities that are large enough to accommodate such a ship, Architzel said, but the visit to Jebha Ali enabled much of the crew to get ashore easily.

The ships, along with nine others that left Norfolk and Mayport, Fla., last November, are due to return late next month.

Before then, the T.R. has a tight schedule to keep: A four-day exercise with the Egyptians late this month, another exercise with the Spanish and a port visit to Palma, in Majorca, before it turns over its role as the Navy's centerpiece in the Mediterranean to the Mayport-based carrier John F. Kennedy. KEYWORDS: U.S.S. THEODORE ROOSEVELT

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