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CNN Live Today
U.S.S Stennis Returns Home
Aired May 28, 2002 - 12:16 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: And one of the Navy's monster fighting ships is returning home today, after its own fights against the war, or at least with the war on terror, after months at sea.
With that story, CNN's Frank Buckley in San Diego, the home port of the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis.
Frank, I've been enjoying your live shots all morning. What a fantastic opportunity to be on board.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really has been. This ship has been incredibly hospitable to us on this visit and on my previous journey to the Stennis, back in mid-December. We were on the Stennis for their first week engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom, when they were launching their strikes over Afghanistan. These crew members have been fantastic with us.
And I want you to think about the fact they have been deployed since November 12th. Everything that you have done since then, all of the anniversaries or birthdays or births of children, deaths of family members, all of the life events that have been going on over a period of more than six months. All of these sailors have been at sea, day after day. At one point, they had 111 straight days of flight operations. That's every day without any days off. So these folks have been at sea working and involved in this war since November 12th.
I want to give you a sense of what they are experiencing now. They are finally home. They've finally moored here. We just heard the announcement, "Moored shift colors," suggesting that the first lines have gone across, an elevator has gone down.
And, now, if you look from the pier side at the Juliet (ph) looking back up at the ship, you'll see what all of the family members are seeing here. All the sailors manning the rails here. This has been a fantastic day so far for them.
Let me just tap one or two of them on the shoulder and talk to them -- what's your name?
LANCE (ph): My name is Lance (ph).
BUCKLEY: Lance (ph), you've got a rose here. Who is that rose for?
LANCE (ph): That's for my wife, Melinda (ph).
BUCKLEY: And you haven't seen Melinda for more than six months now. What are you going to say to her?
LANCE (ph): I think I'm just going to hug her first and words are going to be pretty hard at that point.
BUCKLEY: Tell me what has been the most difficult part of this deployment for you.
LANCE: The uncertainty. Most deployments are never this -- without planning like this. And we left two months early, and it's been really hard. I mean, there was no goodbye period or anything like that.
BUCKLEY: Thanks for spending time with us, Lance (ph).
Let me scoot over here. What's your name, mister?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BUCKLEY: And who are you going to be meeting here at the pier?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, actually, all my family is in New Jersey right now, but I'm going to go back home in a couple of weeks for leave, and then afterwards just (UNINTELLIGIBLE) my family, tell them I love them. And just enjoy the leave period.
BUCKLEY: All right. Well they may not be here at the pier, but I'm sure they're watching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) excited. And looking at all these people, the crowd right now, it's amazing. There's so many people out there. Right in front we've got all of the newborn babies and the mothers waiting for their fathers to come home and get off the pier.
BUCKLEY: Well welcome home, sailor. Appreciate it.
I'm going to throw it down there to Juliet (ph), to the pier, to my colleague, Thelma Guttierez, who is down there on the pier -- Thelma.
THELMA GUTTIEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Frank, I can tell you that the excitement out here is building by the minute. Now some of the people who have been out here actually came out to the pier several hours ago. Gee, it is quite loud out here.
If you take a look at this group of women and children, now this is the new mothers area. There are 60 babies that will meet their fathers in person for the very first time this morning. When the men went to sea, most of the mothers here were pregnant. The women say that it is a very emotional day, because the fathers missed the births of these babies.
Now they are standing here, some with tears in their eyes, some screaming, holding sleeping babies. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
Brianna (ph) is four months old?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's three months old.
GUTTIEREZ: Three months old today. Tell me, now, we've heard about how tough this deployment has been on the fathers, what about the new mothers?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's equally as tough, you don't have no one to help you out with the middle of the night feedings.
GUTTIEREZ: You had to do it yourself?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All by myself.
GUTTIEREZ: What is the first thing you want to say to your husband?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to give him a big kiss and a hug and say (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
GUTTIEREZ: Great. Well, Duna (ph), you were one of the first people to actually come out here this morning. You told me that you have been standing here on this pier for five hours.
DUNA: Yeah, that's right.
GUTTIEREZ: You've been screaming the whole time.
DUNA: Yeah, I've been screaming and I've been crying. Yeah, because I'm very, very happy.
GUTTIEREZ: And who are we looking at right here?
DUNA: The baby.
GUTTIEREZ: What's her name?
DUNA: Abigail (ph).
GUTTIEREZ: Abigail (ph), huh? What do you want to say to your husband?
DUNA: I love you and we miss you. He'll never leave me anymore. No more.
GUTTIEREZ: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the corner. Lori (ph), you say that you can actually see your husband aboard the Stennis.
LORI: Yes, I saw him and we were waving to each other.
GUTTIEREZ: What do you want to say to your husband when you see him?
LORI: Welcome home and I've missed you so much. GUTTIEREZ: Now you have a little bundle to show him as well.
LORI: Yeah, 10 weeks old. This is Steven (ph).
GUTTIEREZ: Steven (ph) has never met his father.
LORI: No. This will be the first time.
GUTTIEREZ: Again, I asked one of the other mothers how tough it is to have to hold down the fort all by yourself. You have three children. How tough has it been for you?
LORI: Yeah, it's busy. It's a busy life. Very busy.
GUTTIEREZ: You've been doing it all by yourself, too.
LORI: Yeah, with two other ones. So I just get it done, you know? (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
GUTTIEREZ: Thank you very much to all of you.
Now behind me, if we can look at the group that has gotten together behind this fence, there are thousands of people out there who have been waiting for this moment. They're waiting to greet their loved ones, they're carrying signs, balloons, some have been screaming the names of the loved ones. And, Frank, this is sure to be a very happy and very emotional reunion. We're just wondering now when the men will actually -- the men and women, I should say -- will be able to get off of that ship -- Carol back to you.
LIN: All right. Thanks Thelma, and thanks to our woman on the scene and our man on the scene.
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