Connie stops at Pearl Harbor

[thedrifter]

May 23, 2003

Connie stops at Pearl Harbor

By B.J. Reyes
Associated Press



PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii ? After seven months at sea in support of military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the aircraft carrier Constellation arrived Thursday in Hawaii for a brief stopover.
Weary sailors who stepped off the carrier included Lt. Paul Slaybaugh, who met his 5-month-old daughter, Olivia, for the first time.

?It?s hard to believe,? he said. ?When you?re out there on the ship at sea sometimes you forget what it?s like to be home.?

The carrier and other ships in the battle group will depart Tuesday to their home ports in San Diego. The Constellation is nicknamed ?America?s Flagship? because it?s considered the centerpiece of the battle group and because it shares the name of first commissioned ship in the Navy.

The group left California in November on a six-month deployment to the North Arabian Sea before being called to the Persian Gulf for operations in Iraq. Its 72 Navy and Marine Corps aircraft took part in successful bombing runs early in the campaign.

One by one, sailors disembarking the carrier ran the gantlet of embracing couples, tearful parents and excited children to greet anxious loved ones.

?We got by,? Slaybaugh?s wife, Bridget, said of the time away from her husband. ?We knew that he was out there doing a good job for our country.?






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Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.


Sempers,

Roger