Stennis group returning

From Navy Times

Stennis group returning from deployment

By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer

Posted : Tuesday Aug 21, 2007 18:09:34 EDT

SAN DIEGO — More than 5,500 sailors and Marines are heading home after a nearly eight-month deployment to the Persian Gulf.

The aircraft carrier John C. Stennis and several ships of its strike group are scheduled to arrive in San Diego on Monday, Aug. 27, where the massive flattop will unload part of its carrier air wing, Navy officials said Tuesday.

The Stennis, a Bremerton, Wash.-based carrier, spent most of the spring and summer operating in the Gulf region, supporting combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and maritime security missions in the region and most recently training with other naval forces near Guam for Exercise Valiant Shield 2007.

The carrier is spending a few days at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on its way to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, Calif., carrying hundreds of family members for a traditional “Tiger Cruise.” Two ships in the strike group, the destroyers O’Kane and Paul Hamilton, returned this week to their Pearl Harbor homeports. The crew of the guided-missile cruiser Antietam will be returning to San Diego on Monday.

Stennis’ arrival home will mark the return of its Carrier Air Wing 9’s squadrons, including:

* Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 8 and Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30 of NAS North Island.

* Strike Fighter Squadrons 154, VFA-146 and VFA-147 from NAS Lemoore, Calif.

* Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 112 of NAS Point Mugu, Calif.

* Electronic Attack Squadron 138 of NAS Whidbey Island, Wash.

* Sea Control Squadron 31 of Jacksonville, Fla.

* Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 43, HSL-45 and Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, based at North Island.

* Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323, which will return to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.

The Stennis, flagship of Carrier Strike Group 3, deployed from Naval Base Kitsap on Jan. 16, stopping in San Diego to load up its air wing before heading across the Pacific. While in the Persian Gulf, the carrier operated with the East Coast-based Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. En route home, the carrier tallied its 10,000th trap, landing an F/A-18F from VFA-154 on Aug. 13 at the tail end of Valiant Shield exercises.