Carrier returns from deployment
By MICHELLE MORGANTE
Associated Press

CORONADO, Calif. — With “California Dreamin”’ blasting from the speakers, thousands of sailors streamed from the USS Nimitz Wednesday and waved to their loved ones after an eight-month deployment to the Persian Gulf.

The Nimitz became the last aircraft carrier sent home from Iraq when it pulled into port in the San Diego Bay. The 6,000 sailors were met with embraces and tears of joy as they saw their friends and family members for the first time in months.

“I couldn’t wait. I was up there on the ship dancing,” said Petty Officer Mauricio Andre, 24, cradling his 7-week-old daughter Gabriella, who wore a blue velvet dress and a bow in her hair.

The nuclear-powered carrier led a strike group that included the USS Princeton guided missile cruiser and the USS Bridge combat support ship. It joined five other carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf to form an unprecedented floating air force within striking distance of Iraq.

Many of those on the pier had been waiting since before dawn.

Cloressa Orr, 22, came prepared with a sign painted with red lips and Xs and Os, to attract the attention of her husband, Petty Officer Thomas Orr, 23.

She stood with her 2-year-old son, Trenton, and 6-year-old daughter, Samantha, who carried a sign that said “I love my daddy.”

“I want him to come home,” she said. “There’s just so much going on, I need him here.”

Sixty-four women with children born while their husbands were deployed lined up with strollers near tents where troops were meeting their babies for the first time.