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CNN Live Today

USS Stennis Squadrons Return Home Today

Aired May 27, 2002 - 13:13   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well some military families are celebrating today. Twenty-four fighter pilots assigned to the USS Stennis are finally coming home.

CNN's Rusty Dornin is at the Lemoore Naval Air Station in California where everyone is waiting for the squadrons to arrive and arrive in style, Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it's at -- it's at a fever pitch at this point because what we understand is they've been circling above to get the go ahead to come and land. And from what we understand now they've been given the go ahead and they will soon be flying in formation, 24 pilots, F-18 pilots, screaming overhead after being gone on deployment on the USS Stennis for 10 months -- excuse me -- for 7 months. But most of these pilots were actually gone for 10 months because when September 11 happened, they were on training in Nevada and then they ended up staying out and only coming home for two weeks. So many of these families have only seen these guys for two weeks since last August.

But as you can see, the families are all ready and waiting for their sons and fathers and brothers to come home. And as we say, it should be happening any minute now.

We're actually here with one of the -- one of the wives of the commanding officer of one of the squadrons, Jennifer Hoffmann, who's an anxious mother and wife waiting, right?

JENNIFER HOFFMANN, PILOT'S WIFE: Yes. Yes, we're very excited.

DORNIN: Has this been a tougher time considering what's been going on in the world for this deployment?

HOFFMANN: Yes, this has been a real long wait. We're really proud of what they're doing out there, but we're ready for them to come home.

DORNIN: OK. And Sophie (ph) here, two-and-a-half-year-old Sophie has not seen her dad in a long time.

HOFFMANN: Wan to say hi to daddy one last time?

DORNIN: Say hi to daddy. No, not right now.

What's the toughest part about him being gone this long?

HOFFMANN: The toughest part of him being gone is just the separation and bearing with that and taking care of everything at home, but we do it willfully.

DORNIN: Looks like you've got a big support group.

HOFFMANN: We do have a very large support group.

DORNIN: OK.

Anxiously awaiting here, Jennifer Hoffmann, for husband to come home.

We're going to give you a little look now out at the flight line where they expect the jets to come over those mountains in anytime now within the next five minutes. The flight crews are all ready. The planes will park 24 of them right here in front. And then the families will wait in this line here until the pilots all get out of their planes.

Now if you see there's a rope here, normally there is not a rope here for the families. But apparently the last time when the guys got out of the planes, the kids were so anxious they began running up before the planes had even come to a full stop. So for safety reasons, they have now got a rope here. We'll just have to see if these kids are going to -- and families who have not seen their loved ones in seven months are going to observe this.

A happy day here at Lemoore Naval Air Station -- Carol.

LIN: Rusty, I don't think that rope's going to do anything for those kids. I think they all want to see their dads.

Taking a look around...

DORNIN: It's already bulging in certain places.

LIN: Yes, I bet. Hey, taking a look around in that crowd, I'm wondering, do you see any newborn babies?

DORNIN: There are -- I didn't see any newborns. I've seen a couple year old. Actually, there's one in the back, but I'm not sure if it's from one of the families here, but a lot of young kids.

One of the commanding officers actually has five kids, Carol, if you can believe that,...

LIN: Wow!

DORNIN: ... from the ages of 5 to 12. We see them right here in their orange shirts right here. This is the Emmermon (ph) family all waiting for their dad, who's call sign name is Brick (ph), and he's one of the commanding officers for one of the squadrons, and they cannot wait for their dad to come home -- Carol. LIN: God, it's hard to imagine. Yes, it's hard to imagine, Rusty, how these families cope with being apart for so long. I can't imagine not seeing my husband for 10 months.

DORNIN: No, and actually that was what Mrs. Emmermon was telling me that, you know, just to be -- to be father and mother for that long a period of time is very, very difficult. And she was saying, too, she's got a 12-year-old here, Reed (ph), who's been, you know, assuming a lot of responsibility during this time. And Reed was telling us before, now how do you mark how long your dad's been gone?

REED EMMERMON, SON: We have a paper link chain and we take off one for each of the days he's gone and then the last link is the day he comes home.

DORNIN: And Rick (ph) here, we -- you were saying there's a few things you want to do with your dad when he gets here. What is that?

RICK EMMERMON, SON: Well, I want him to teach me guitar lessons, and I'm going to ask him if we can go bowling.

DORNIN: Go bowling, OK. That's something you picked up while he was gone, huh?

And we have the only girl -- we have the only girl in the family here, Randy (ph). And, Randy, what's the first thing you want to do with your dad when he gets home?

RANDY EMMERMON, DAUGHTER: Play catch with him.

DORNIN: Play catch. Yes, I can see she's been hanging out with the boys quite a bit while her father's been gone.

So as I said, there're -- they are supposed to be coming over the mountains at any moment. This, of course, they're aboard the USS John Stennis. They were involved in the campaign in Afghanistan. Some of the guys -- the enlisted guys actually had flown off the ship a couple of weeks ago. And they were telling me that it was one of the most exciting cruises they've ever taken because they were involved in an active campaign. And of course because of the timing of it, they felt they were really, you know, serving their patriotic duty and that sort of thing. But they were working -- these guys work 24/7 when they're out like that and they were serving in the northern Arabian Sea.

So, Carol, it's an exciting time. And especially because of the timing of all this, they were anxiously awaiting these guys to come home.

LIN: Rusty, we're looking at the live picture now trying to squint into the horizon to see if we see any of those planes coming over. Do you know much about the formation that they're going to be taking?

DORNIN: They're actually going to have two formations. There's 24 planes and there's 2 squadrons here. So these are F-18s, fighter attack jets, and there will be 2 formations of 12. And they will literally come screaming straight at us, go overhead. In fact, most of the folks here have been given earplugs for when the jets fly overhead. Then they will circle back around and bank and then they will land in groups of four. So actually from the time they fly the formation to the time they actually get out of the plane it's going to be about a half hour, 35 minutes, which is going to be tough for this crowd to handle.

LIN: Yes, agonizing. All right. Rusty, we're going to keep our eye on the picture. I know you'll keep your eye out live, and as soon as you see those planes, you holler and we'll come back at you.

Thanks, Rusty.

DORNIN: All right.

LIN: Rusty Dornin reporting live from Lemoore Naval Air Station there outside of Fresno, California waiting for pilots to come home -- long time in coming.

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