Happy Sailors Return From Duty in Gulf

After weeks in the suffocating heat of the Persian Gulf, a bit of cold rain in San Diego Bay hardly bothered the sea-weary sailors lining the deck of the Independence--the biggest of four Navy ships to arrive in Southern California Thursday from duty in the Persian Gulf.

“It could be snowing here in San Diego for all I care,” said radioman Alonzo Sims, wet and shivering in a stiff wind. “This is just the happiest day of my life. I’m like a kid at Christmas. I’m just so glad to be home.”

The aircraft carrier, with 5,100 sailors on board, slipped into its Coronado berth as more than 1,500 wives, mothers, fathers and children waited in the foul weather, clenching welcome-home banners and tissues for wiping away raindrops and tears.

Up the coast in Long Beach, the weather was better for the return of the guided missile cruiser Antietam, one of the first ships into the Persian Gulf last August after Iraq’s takeover of Kuwait. No rain awaited, just crisp cold and a Santa Claus--not that any of the sailors needed a reminder that they had made it home for Christmas.

“This is the best Christmas there could ever be,” said Chief Petty Officer Greg Gimber, holding his 8-week-old daughter, Laken, for the first time.

Both ships are among the first to return to port from gulf duty. Also docking in San Diego Thursday were the Jouett and the Reasoner, both part of battle group Delta with the Independence.

The 80,000-ton Independence became the first U.S. aircraft carrier since 1974 to operate inside the Arabian Gulf when it passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Oct. 2. It left the Middle East in November.

“We were looking over our shoulder all the way back,” ship supply officer Lonnie Mitchell said as he held three long-stem roses--one each for his wife and daughters. “We knew we were in the world’s biggest hot spot. Ask anybody here and they’ll tell you we thought . . . all hell was going to break loose with us sitting right in the middle of it.”

Instead, the Independence crew spent many weeks languishing in the Gulf of Oman, out of sight of land. On some days the heat made the carrier’s black deck feel like a big, iron griddle.

“Some days it was 114 degrees on that deck. If you touched it, it scorched your hand,” said Marine Lance Cpl. Steve Allen of Garyburg, N.C. “It got so bad, nobody wanted to go up on deck. But every day, the Marines were out there doing our exercises.”

When the Independence left San Diego in June, it was for a five-month deployment in the Indian Ocean. But the Kuwait invasion extended the tour. After the ship finally left the gulf, time seemed to drag as it neared home.

“The hours go slower because you’re looking forward to being home so much,” said Ed (Dino) DiNatale. “I became a clock watcher. We all did.”

On the Independence deck, with the carrier in sight of the San Diego skyline, sailors began revealing their shore plans.

Blake Brown, 20, of Columbus, Ohio, planned to spend his leave with his girlfriend. “We’re going to check into a hotel in San Diego,” Brown said. “During the next 10 days we might see the light of day--but I doubt it.”

Below deck in the carrier’s hangar, 50 anxious men had thoughts of babies on their minds--the children born during their absence. It is the ship’s custom to let them off first.

Russell McKamey, 31, stood anxiously in line with gifts he had bought for his new son. A counselor told him to expect the baby to cry because he was used to being in the arms of his mother.

“I don’t care if he cries,” McKamey said. “I’m going to hold him and squeeze him. Then I’m going to squeeze my wife until she cries. Then I’m going to cry. We’ll all cry together.”

When the ship docked, McKamey and the other new fathers splashed through puddles to reach their families. A strapping man who stands taller than 6-foot-4, McKamey embraced his wife and swung her off her feet.

Then he placed her back on earth and gently touched her chin. But he could manage only three words which he whispered in her ear. She smiled and hugged him back. “I know,” she said.

Times staff writer Roxana Kopetman contributed to this story, reporting from Long Beach.