Returning Ranger Met by Cheering Families

An enthusiastic crowd full of unabashed patriotism and emotion welcomed home the aircraft carrier Ranger and its crew Saturday, marking an end to the ship’s deployment to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Storm.

Navy officials estimated that about 5,000 family members were on hand to greet the ship’s 5,100 sailors and Marines, but some observers said the crowd numbered as high as 15,000.

Also on the ship were 1,000 male relations who came aboard in Hawaii on May 31.

The Ranger’s silhouette appeared in San Diego Bay at 10 a.m., eliciting cheers from the waiting crowd. But it took an agonizing 75 minutes to maneuver the giant ship alongside the dock. Family members struggled to pick out their loved ones from the hundreds of sailors in dress white uniforms who lined the ship’s deck.

Thousands of people, some of whom had been waiting at the dock since 5 a.m., somehow found the patience to wait a few additional minutes for their loved ones to disembark. The gray, overcast skies and chilly morning did not dampen the crowd’s enthusiasm.

“I’ve been waiting since Thursday. I’m overwhelmed, excited and nervous,” said 70-year-old Rosana Keeling, who came from Los Angeles to welcome her grandson, Norris Duckett, 28, a damage control specialist. “He’s back home to stay in the great USA.”

Pamela Duckett gasped with anticipation as the lumbering flattop was deftly maneuvered in place. Her eyes flashed a combination of anticipation and quiet tears of joy, as she stood on her toes, straining to find her husband among the sailors standing on deck.

“Oh. Please,” she said over and over.

Nearby, Angie Smith, a drug counselor at Richard J. Donovan State Prison, held up a sign that read, “Elated with Dr. J.” Smith and her father-in-law, Russell Smith, from Portland, Ore., were there to greet her husband, Lt. Commander Jim Smith, who is a dentist assigned to the Ranger.

“I was so nervous. This was his first sea duty,” she laughed.

When asked if they had any children, she said: “No, but you can be sure that after today we will. I wouldn’t be surprised if nine months from today we have at least one.”

While the Smiths may be celebrating a new arrival next year, Commander Sheila Graham said that at least 75 sailors returned to sons and daughters who were born while they served in the Persian Gulf.

A tent was set up especially for new mothers and babies, so they could sit comfortably while awaiting the return of their husbands and fathers. In keeping with Navy tradition, the new fathers were the first ones allowed off the ship.

Lt. Stephen Smith, a supply officer from Chicago, Ill., was greeted by a sign that read, “Daddy, your twins are over here.” Paula Smith had brought a portable crib for 7-month-old Kaitlynn and Aerielle. The twins were 3 weeks old when Smith and the Ranger were deployed to what was then Operation Desert Shield Dec. 8.

The Garcia family arrived at the dock at 6 a.m. to stake out a good spot in anticipation of Raoul Garcia’s return. The family came from Mission Viejo and Riverside to welcome home Garcia, a 24-year-old jet mechanic. However, they were told that their welcome-home sign was too big, and they were moved to the back of the crowd.

“It was nerve-racking at first. I thought that the first two months he was gone were going to kill me. Then time just flew by. I started paying off all our bills,” said Michelle Garcia.

However, her husband’s deployment also turned out to be an expensive separation, she added. After leaving the Persian Gulf, Garcia called her from several ports.

“The cost was about $150 per call. We would talk for more than an hour. I never wanted him to hang up,” said Michelle Garcia.

A contingent of New Mexicans found an ingenious way to mark their location in a sea of people, for the benefit of their servicemen. The crowd gathered under a huge banner that resembled the state’s yellow and red flag.

Garett Rex, 21, a sonarman on the Ranger, also made it easy for his mother, Judy McNeese of Albuquerque, N.M., to pick him out from the sailors lining the deck. Rex and another sailor from New Mexico were holding up the state’s brightly colored flag as they stood on deck.

“There’s Garett. There he is,” said McNeese to other family members.

The Ranger’s crew also received another welcome that has become a San Diego tradition when Navy ships return from a particularly dangerous or lengthy deployment. The local owner of a string of topless bars took 15 dancers on his boat and sailed in San Diego Bay, alongside the Ranger.

The women, most of whom wore G-strings, danced for the cheering men and posed provocatively while the Ranger slowly made its way to its home port at North Island Naval Air Station.

The dancers may have welcomed the Ranger home for the last time. On Saturday, Navy officials said that the 34-year-old carrier will be decommissioned in 1993, following a final six-month deployment from San Diego.

Operation Desert Storm saw the Ranger do a three-month stint in the Persian Gulf, arriving Jan. 15 following a 39-day transit. Less than 48 hours after arriving, the Ranger’s air wing began pounding Iraqi troops in Iraq and Kuwait.

The planes flew more than 4,200 sorties against the enemy and dropped more than 4.3-million pounds of bombs. One aircraft with two pilots aboard was lost.

“The sense of patriotism and mission were clear,” said Capt. Jay Campbell, a Vietnam veteran who commanded the 2,200-man air wing. “Our fighting crew was disappointed that we didn’t have more of an opportunity to engage them (Iraqi warplanes),” he said.

The Ranger was the flagship of Battle Group Echo, composed of eight ships. The frigate Harry W. Hill and the cruiser Valley Forge were part of the battle group and also returned to San Diego Saturday. Their crews docked at the 32nd Street Naval Station.

Capt. Ernest E. Christensen Jr., the Ranger’s commander, praised his sailors.

“Three or four years ago, they were the kids who were your neighbors,” he told reporters. “If anyone should ask if there are any great patriots left, you can say, ‘Yes, there are.’ ”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.