Carrier’s Departure Is a Time of Tears for Ones Left Behind

When the Navy band struck up “Anchors Aweigh” for a second time, the 1,800 spectators who had been shouting farewells to their blue-clad kin aboard the Kitty Hawk fell silent and the thin mask of merriment melted from their faces. This was really goodby.

Minutes before, a crewman’s fog horn voice from the afterdeck of the giant aircraft carrier had yelled to his girlfriend: “You wanna change places?”

She tossed her head and didn’t answer, perhaps wondering what being the only woman aboard with 5,200 men would be like.

As tugboats shoved the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk away from the quay on North Island for its last majestic parade down San Diego Bay Saturday morning, the sailors lining its flight deck took a last look at loved ones as six months of sea duty got under way.

On shore, amid banners and baby strollers, sweethearts and wives gave a final wave and turned to face life without their menfolk.

Cecile Hoffler will have her teen-age son and daughter to keep her company. She also will have the woes of hundreds of other Navy wives to cope with and to help her forget her loneliness. She is an ombudsman for dependents, one of four women with the task of easing the move from West Coast to East Coast for hundreds of families.

“Right now, my phone is not ringing,” she said. “But it will. It will,” before the Kitty Hawk completes its tour next July and goes into dry dock for a 3 1/2-year, $800-million refitting, and the 12,000 dependents again see their men. Already, the wives’ clubs, for both officers and noncoms, are beginning to plan a pre-Easter mid-cruise treat for the seamen--a video visit with their families.

“The kids are ambivalent about the move,” Hoffler said of 14-year-old Melinda and 13-year-old Michael. “They want to go back East because that’s where their grandmother is, but they want to go to high school here with their friends.”

While young lovers were frozen in marathon embraces all around him, a retired admiral rocked back on his heels and admired the lady that he had come to bid goodby, the ship “that has been a big part of my life.” Donald (Red Dog) Davis, clad in civvies including an argyle sweater and sporting a silver crew cut, reminisced about the days when he had captained “The Hawk,” in 1967 and 1968, in the waters off Vietnam. Later, the Kitty Hawk served as his flagship as he rose in rank and power in the Pacific Command.

Mary Wright left the send-off ceremonies early, clutching sleeping Brian, 3 months old. Her face was still wet with the tears that came despite her resolution to remain cheerful in her last goodby with her Navy lieutenant husband, Jim, whom everyone calls “Butch.” Mary Wright and her friend, Elaine Morlock, will remain in San Diego and await their husbands’ return.

“We have a house,” Mary Wright said, and she will stay right there in Santee until that wandering man comes home, hopefully to be reassigned in the San Diego area.

Most of the women left behind are planning to follow their husbands to Philadelphia where the Kitty Hawk goes in for a refurbishment intended to extend her life another 25 years. Although the carrier has spent its first quarter-century based in San Diego, it will not return. After a three-year overhaul, the ship is headed for Pensacola, Fla. In 1988, the carrier Independence is due to take the Kitty Hawk’s place next to the Constellation and Ranger, bringing with it the $36-million payroll that will be lost with the departure of the Kitty Hawk.