S.D. Ship Heads for Gulf Amid Sea of Anxiety

“When they push the ship away from the pier, it’s like they cut the world in half. And they did--they cut my world in half,” said Karen Powell, her tears falling onto the 6-month-old baby in her arms as the destroyer tender Acadia set out Wednesday for the Persian Gulf region.

The Acadia’s departure from the 32nd Street Naval Station was a painful one for the families left behind on the dock. Its crew is the first on a San Diego-based vessel to sail knowing it would join Operation Desert Shield forces.

Powell, a 30-year-old substitute teacher and mother of two, stood on Pier 7 waving to her husband, Norman, who clutched his binoculars and stood sandwiched between rows of sailors. As the 20,000-ton repair ship moved away from the dock, Powell held her infant up above her head.

“When they remove the brow, you feel so helpless,” said Powell, whose husband has served 12 years in the Navy. “There’s nothing you can do.”

Before the Acadia’s 10 a.m. departure, the pier was crowded with couples clutching one another and children crying. When the lumbering ship began to move, a hush fell over the dock.

One lone sailor ran toward the vessel--sea bag in hand--with his wife, three small children, and a supervising officer in tow. Too late to stop the ship, officers hurriedly summoned a tug boat, dubbed “Mister Randy,” to ferry Petty Officer 1st Class Crescenio Corotan to the Acadia.

Corotan, a laboratory technician, was not initially scheduled to be on the crew for this deployment. But, because his replacement failed to report for duty, Corotan was informed Tuesday that he would have to ship out.

“I was so happy because he wasn’t going. Now it’s all this rush and he didn’t have time to pack,” said his wife as she cried quietly.

Chaos erupted on the dock behind her. Husbands and wives of crew members yelled; some waved signs. As Barrie Leonard clutched her 6-month-old baby, her other son, Kenneth, 6, bawled: “Daddy! Daddy! Don’t leave me!”

The Acadia will not be deployed to an area where heavy fighting is anticipated, since it is a repair vessel with little ability to defend itself. For the families gathered on the pier, this fact proved some consolation.

While many were accustomed to routine six-month deployments, this departure was different and the possible dangers seemed very real.

“I get this fear--I am afraid I won’t be seeing my husband anymore, that this is the last time I see anybody,” said April Adamson, 19, a sailor whose husband stayed ashore. “If anyone wants to get me, they better get me fast because I don’t want to feel it.”

Adamson is one of the 300 women in the Acadia’s crew; there are 900 men. Though law prohibits women from participating in combat, they can serve out of the line of fire. Currently, 460 women sailors are deployed aboard vessels participating in Operation Desert Shield. And so, the pier was crowded both men and women who were left behind to take care of the children.

“It has to be done,” shrugged Chris Faith, a shipping clerk who bid goodby to his wife and walked hand-in-hand with his 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. Faith, like others, figures his wife will probably be gone for six months but every family realizes it could be longer.

Six San Diego-based vessels are currently participating in Operation Desert Shield, but these ships were already in the region when Iraq invaded Kuwait, precipitating the U.S. military buildup. The Acadia is the first to leave the city, sailing toward the Persian Gulf. Sending the Acadia, which should take several weeks to arrive in the region, suggests that the United States is hunkering down for the long haul, experts said.

“It sure signals that we intend to keep our destroyers in the Persian Gulf a long time,” said retired Rear Adm. Gene R. La Rocque, director of the Center for Defense Information in Washington. “The indication is clear that ships there intend to stay at least five months otherwise they wouldn’t need the services of a tender.”

The Acadia, commissioned in 1981, has been to the Persian Gulf before. The ship assisted the frigate Stark when it was hit by an Iraqi missile in 1987 during the Iraq-Iran war.

The Acadia was originally expected to leave port in January. But because of escalating tension in the Mideast, that departure was moved up to September. And many families, though they learned the schedule change a month ago, felt the crunch of preparing for a six-month departure with relatively short notice.

“I think I am still in shock,” said Kaye Hunter, ombudsman for the ship, who clutched the hand of her husband, John, minutes before he boarded the vessel. But the Hunters’ 13-year-old son was more blunt.

“We were going to see my grandparents in New Mexico, this was going to be our second Christmas together--everything is shot,” said John William Hunt, gazing at his father. “Every time something good is happening, my dad is always leaving.”