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CNN Saturday Morning News

Enthusiastic Crowd Greets Return of USS Enterprise

Aired November 10, 2001 - 09:32   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: As we await the president's address, we'll take you to another significant event ongoing in Norfolk, Virginia, that is the return of the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been following events for us down there. She joins us now with an update -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, there was just a flurry of activity a minute ago. They lowered those elevators on the sides of the ship. Those are usually used to move the aircraft from the flight hangar up to the flight deck, and you can see some sailors have moved out there to get a little closer to their loved ones.

This has to be incredibly frustrating. They've been away for almost seven months. There are only a couple of hundred yards separating these people from their families. They want to see each other, but this process is going to take time.

A few minutes ago, we saw them starting to put in place down there with cranes the brows (ph) or gangplanks. These are going to bring the crew off. It's probably going to be another several minutes before that begins to happen, because it's a bit of a procedure.

And while this has been taking place, you see the men up there scanning the crowd, and you see the crowd turning around scanning the ship, trying to find the people they love. A lot of them have been using binoculars to try and find their husbands, wives, or whatever up there.

(YELLING)

MESERVE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you guys (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: .. Rhode Island.

MESERVE: And who are you, who are you here to meet?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Peltier (ph).

MESERVE: And what relation is he to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son. I miss him a lot, a real lot. I can't wait to see him.

MESERVE: I can tell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, everybody back at home in Rhode Island.

MESERVE: What are you going to say to, what are you going to say to your son when you...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I love him, and I miss him so much. I'm going to squeeze him. He gives great hugs, he gives great hugs, I can't wait for one.

MESERVE: You're going to see your brother?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's my cousin.

MESERVE: Your cousin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, first cousin.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this is his dad.

MESERVE: And this is Dad back here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing?

(CROSSTALK)

MESERVE: Did you ever think your son was going to end up out there in this deployment, actually seeing some action?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that? I couldn't hear you.

MESERVE: They ended up in military action out there. Did you ever expect this to happen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not really, no, I didn't. But they're doing a great job, and that's all I can say. I'm glad they're back.

MESERVE: And are you proud?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very proud.

MESERVE: Wonderful. Thank you both for joining us here today.

They're all unbelievably excited about this homecoming, and one can understand why. Up there you see the sailors, they're waving, yelling occasionally, and as I said, looking, looking, looking, trying to find the people who they love down here in the crowd.

Back to you, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Jeanne, how is this all going to work? You're sort of standing in between no-man's-land there. You've got the vessel on one side, thousands of sailors, thousands of family members on the other. How will the two get together? MESERVE: Well, it's going to be a mob scene, I'm sure. But they do have snow fences up here. Andy, maybe you can take a shot of that. These are intended to keep the crowd back. I mentioned earlier, these are also part of the force protection that's under, that's under way here, because of the new concerns about security. They want to keep the crowd at something of a distance.

Also, I don't know if we can see any right now, I don't think so, but there are helicopters up there buzzing around the ship. They've had smaller boats going around, making sure that the water is safe for the ship to come in, unprecedented force protection here.

As to how the reunions take place, you see those brows that they put in place, or are putting in place down there. The first thing that's going to happen is the first kiss. There was a lottery on board the ship, I understand, that two people have won it. Their spouses are going to be trotted out and up onto those platforms, and those sailors will be the first off, and they will have a very public reunion down there.

And after that is done, then we'll start to see people coming off. The officers will come first, and then the enlisted men. I'm told this is a process that's going to take hours. And I would be surprised, frankly, if these storm fences hold through all of that.

Back to you.

SAVIDGE: Well, let's hope that they're not too bashful for that first kiss. Jeanne Meserve, live in Norfolk, Virginia, thank you very much.

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