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American Morning

USS John Stennis Arriving Home This Morning

Aired May 28, 2002 - 07:24   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to talk about homecomings. The USS John Stennis is arriving home this morning after serving more than six months in Operation Enduring Freedom.

And CNN's Frank Buckley is on deck side aboard the carrier and he joins us now.

Good morning, Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

We are on the admiral's bridge of the John C. Stennis. It's red in here, because it's a red light condition at night. The ship is under way right now. It is dark here in the Pacific ocean. We are a number of miles out to sea, still steaming towards San Diego for what will be an emotional day of reunions in San Diego.

As you say, the men and women of this aircraft carrier have been at war for more than six months. People have been away from their families for a number of months. And we're going to turn the light on so we can interview Admiral James Zortman here, who is aboard here and the commanding officer of the battle group.

Sir, first of all, thank you very much for allowing us to be on this ship for this special day. Give us a sense of what we can expect today pier side at Juliet.

REAR ADM. JAMES ZORTMAN, BATTLE GROUP COMMANDER: Well this is an emotional, long-awaited for day by the 5,000 sailors and Marines onboard the John C. Stennis and the other ships in the battle group. There's another eight ships that are spread out across the Pacific; some pulling in today, some over the next week to ten days. And there'll be families, there'll be friends, there'll be tears, there'll be hugs, the whole gamut of human emotions.

BUCKLEY: The folks who have been on this ship, you've been deployed since November 12th. You have been involved in so many sorties, 10,600 sorties, 275,000 pounds of ordinance dropped. Give us a sense of what it was like during this war for this particular aircraft carrier.

ZORTMAN: Well it really started on September 11th for this particular ship. It was at sea doing a completely unrelated mission. And by the time it was mid afternoon, it was involved in the defense of the western United States, launching combat air patrol for Los Angeles, for San Francisco.

It stayed at sea for a couple of weeks, came in for a very short period of time, loaded aboard and then left two months earlier than schedule. So it's been -- and then since that time, as you pointed out, planned combat sorties. The surface ships of the group involved in interdiction operations, stopping ships in the region looking for Al Qaeda and Taliban. A lot of effort, a lot of activity.

BUCKLEY: Rear Admiral James Zortman, thank you very much for letting us be aboard today, sir.

It's going to be a very emotional day again. Apologies for sort of the fuzzy signal coming from sea, but we're still out to sea, still a number of hours away from getting to Pier Juliet in San Diego for what will be a day of emotional reunions -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks, Frank. And what Frank is going to be doing a little bit later on this morning is sort of linking up some of the sailors on board that ship with one camera, with another camera on the shore, where we will be hearing from the family members who have been waiting, in some cases, for many, many hours. So look forward to hearing more from you, Frank, thanks.

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