‘Terrorist Buster’ Ships Return Home

The aircraft carrier Saratoga led a battle group of “Terrorist Busters” home from the Mediterranean today to carnival-like welcomes of cheering crowds, banners, balloons and music.

Posters tacked up in nearby Jacksonville welcomed home the “Terrorist Busters” and a crowd of 8,000 waited at the docks in nearby Mayport.

The first sailors off the Saratoga when it docked were 30 new fathers who had not seen their babies in the eight months they had been away. One sailor was wearing a necklace he had made from letters that his 8-year-old son had written him every day of the tour.

Vice Adm. Robert Dunn, air commander of the Atlantic Fleet, awarded the crew a unit commendation for “exceptionally meritorious service in naval operations supporting national security objectives off the Libyan coast.”

In the first action of the cruise last Oct. 10, four F-14 jet fighters from the Saratoga forced an Egyptian airliner with terrorists aboard to land in Italy. The terrorists had killed an American in the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro.

Last month, the carrier became part of a task force formed to challenge Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s “Line of Death” across the Gulf of Sidra.

The Saratoga group, joined by battle groups of the carriers Coral Sea and America, destroyed a Libyan missile-control site, sank at least one patrol boat and disabled another after the force was attacked by as many as six Libyan surface-to-air missiles.