GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Sailors and Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit man the rails on the USS Peleliu this morning. The 820-foot amphibious assault vessel, the flag ship of the Navy's new Expeditionary Strike Group-1, pulled into Pearl Harbor this morning.
Navy’s new combat
unit sails into PearlIts 5,000 sailors and Marines have a brief
stop here on their way to a long deployment
More than 5,000 sailors and Marines belonging to the Navy's newest combat unit -- the Expeditionary Strike Group-1 -- arrived at Pearl Harbor this morning on five San Diego-based warships.
The strike group, led by Rear Adm. Robert Conway, will be here through Monday, when it leaves for an eight-month deployment to the western Pacific, Indian Ocean and the Middle East.
The Navy says the strike group is "designed as a flexible striking unit, enabling the United States to conduct shaping operations in the global war on terrorism."
The group includes nearly 2,000 Marines of the 13th Expeditionary Unit from southern California.
The Navy believes that an expeditionary strike group will give it the ability to land Marines while at the same time providing substantial fire power to support them with Tomahawk missiles, anti-aircraft rockets and cannons.
Eventually, the Navy hopes to have two strike groups in the Pacific Fleet and one in the Atlantic Fleet.
When the strike group leaves Pearl Harbor, it will be joined by the Pearl Harbor-based nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville and the cruiser USS Port Royal.
The eight-month deployment is several months longer than the normal overseas deployment.
However, Cmdr. Lee Hankins, skipper of the 360-foot Greeneville, believes his crew of 140 sailors is prepared.
"My chief of the boat (the Greeneville's highest enlisted sailor) believes that sailors take tough news well, as long as they are well informed and their families are kept informed," said Hankins, a 23-year Navy veteran.
"They understand the reason behind it since our country is at war."
Chief Petty Officer Michael Merino, Greeneville's administrative officer, said the hardest part of the deployment will be leaving his family, especially his 11-year-old daughter, Arraya.
"I always help my daughter with her homework," said Merino, a 1987 Kalani High School graduate. "It's because my wife's from Thailand and she has a harder time ... my dad lives with us, but he's older and he would rather watch Tiger Woods on television."
Petty Officer Lolito Dela Cruz, another Greeneville crew member, added that being away will be harder on his mother.
"She's always calling me when she thinks something is happening," said Dela Cruz, who joined the Navy shortly after he graduated from Waipahu High School in 2000. "She told me to be strong and eight months will seem like a short time."
Hankins believes that the past 18 months of preparation will pay off and he personally is "excited on being the ground floor" as the Navy tries out this new concept.
