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USS Carl Vinson Last October, just 33 hours after assuming command of the nuclear carrier USS Carl Vinson, Capt. Richard Wren watched from the bridge as jet fighters took off to strike the first blow against Afghanistan as America retaliated for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
returns after mission
off Afghanistan
The carrier and other ships
pull in for a layover at Pearl HarborBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comYesterday, 7,000 sailors from the Carl Vinson and four other warships pulled into Pearl Harbor for a six-day layover after completing the first 73 days of "Operation Enduring Freedom."
By late yesterday afternoon most of the sailors from the battle group had made most of their first day in a U.S. port by heading out for island beaches and bars.
Included in the battle group are the Pearl Harbor-based destroyer USS O'Kane and the nuclear attack submarines USS Key West and USS Olympia. The Key West returned home Dec. 15, and O'Kane will be back later this month.
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Capt. Charles Wright, commander of Carrier Air Wing 11, said the Carl Vinson's 36 FA-18 Hornet and 10 F-14 Tomcat jet fighters flew about 30 strikes or missions a day. Wright, a FA-18 Hornet pilot, himself flew 19 missions.Wren, who assumed command of the carrier Oct. 6, said aviators from the Carl Vinson flew more than 3,000 sorties and dropped more than 2 million pounds of bombs and rockets on Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds in Afghanistan.
Rear Adm. Thomas Zelibor, who commands the nine warships that made up the battle group, said the vessels had rounded the southern tip of India and was about to enter the Persian Gulf when terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"Obviously our mindset changed very quickly," said Zelibor, who flew 30 combat missions in January 1991 during Desert Storm.
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"At first we didn't know where the threat was and what was coming our way, and we had to prepare for any mission the president might assign to us ... We became very focused, just trying to get in our own minds what would lie ahead. I think we did a fantastic job."Once the Carl Vinson received its orders on Oct. 7, Zelibor said Navy aviators flew 15 hours a day with about 65 to 70 strikes being launched daily from the carrier's 412-acre flight deck.
Wren said the first fighters left the Carl Vinson at 6:26 at night, four minutes after the first Tomahawk missiles were launched from other warships in the battle group.
The Carl Vinson was one of four carriers in the Northern Arabian Sea, 200 to 800 miles off the western coast of Pakistan.
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The flight to Taliban and al-Qaida targets in Afghanistan was 800 miles, Wright said, which meant that jet fighters had to be refueled four times in mid-air -- twice before reaching their targets, and two more times on the way back.He likened the six-hour mission to flying from central California to Vancouver and back again.
He said the air crews of the Carl Vinson considered themselves to be "the luckiest guys alive" since they flew the first missions of the war and were able to strike the first blow, and "when we left, there were no Taliban or al-Qaida forces left.
"In two months we took a country apart," Wright said. "We took an evil government out of power and replaced it with something with social decency."
The Carl Vinson left its homeport in Bremerton, Wash., July 23 for what was supposed to be a routine six-month deployment, which was to include enforcing the no-fly zone over Southern Iraq.
The Vinson will leave for the West Coast on Monday, stopping in San Diego first before returning to Bremerton.
