Truman group deploys amid tearful farewells

[unhappycamper]

Truman strike group begins 7-month tour.


Truman group deploys amid tearful farewells
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 5, 2007 17:24:01 EST

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. — The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group left homeport here Monday morning, bound for the waters of the Middle East, where it will relieve the ships and sailors of the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, also based in Norfolk.

Strike group commander Rear Adm. Bill Gortney said the deployment will last seven months and it will be the first for 70 percent of the nearly 7,500 sailors involved.

Asked how high tensions with Iran weigh on the mission, Gortney said, “We’re going to answer to the orders of our president.”

Capt. Herm Shelanski, skipper of the Truman, said a major part of the mission is the mere presence of massive combat power. He spoke highly of the sailors in his crew and air wing — whose average age is 20 — saying, “We’re the best there is.”

In addition to the Truman and Carrier Air Wing 3, the strike group consists of the attack submarine Montpelier, cruisers Hue City and San Jacinto, destroyers Carney, Oscar Austin and Winston S. Churchill, fast combat support ship Arctic, the Canadian frigate Charlottetown and the British destroyer Manchester.

Cmdr. Patrick St.-Denis, captain of the Charlottetown, said with Canadian troops in Afghanistan, these types of deployments are well supported at home.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_truman_071105/

[Captain Hilts]

1. To think that Truman hated the navy and killed the carrier United States project. nt