Home for the holiday

NORFOLK, Va. -- Rain-soaked, shivering but triumphant, sailors on the USS Harry S. Truman hoisted a banner reading "We gave 'em freedom!" Friday as the first East Coast aircraft carrier returned from the war in Iraq.

The Truman, with 5,400 Marines and sailors on board, docked at Norfolk Naval Station as thousands of friends and relatives on the pier cheered and waved "welcome home " signs.

"It's wonderful. It's excellent," Petty Officer 3rd Class Jovantay Champagne, 25, of Providence, R.I., said as he stood at the edge of the flight deck, clutching a small American flag. "It just makes you feel like you did something important. It's nice to get a little bit of appreciation for this."

"I'm joyful and proud -- and freezing," said Seaman Miguel Ortiz, 19, of Buffalo, N.Y.

On the pier, Airman Dorian Ramsey cooed to his 4-month-old son, Dorian Jr., "Hey, young man," upon seeing him for the first time.

"He's like an angel," Ramsey said.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon Perry had to go to the hospital to see his son. Perry found out Friday morning via a Red Cross telegram that he was the 110th Truman sailor to become a father during the deployment. His wife, Savannah, gave birth to Jacob David at 10:08 p.m. Thursday.

"I wish she could have held on a couple more hours," said Perry, 22, of Charleston, W.Va.

Under heavy security

Not all the returning warriors were able to go home immediately after the 1,096-foot Truman docked amid extremely heavy security. Airman Maxwell Wollman was among some sailors on duty who won't be allowed to leave the base until Saturday.

"Truthfully, I'm not excited at all," said Wollman, a 24-year-old aviation ordnanceman from Fort Wayne, Ind. "I get to watch everybody else get off."

Still, he said he was "happy to smell American air," adding, "It lets you know you're going home."

When the carrier left on Dec. 5 for a scheduled six-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf, sailors knew they might have go to war and live up to the carrier's battle cry: "Give 'em hell."

The phrase "Give 'em hell, Harry" became associated with President Truman after someone shouted that at him during a campaign rally.

"We trained to that tempo," said Capt. Michael R. Groothousen, the Truman's commanding officer. "It's the same training we would always do, but there was probably a little more spring in our step because of the possibility we could see combat."

Early on March 20, ships in the Truman strike group launched Tomahawk missiles onto targets in northern Iraq.

Over the next 30 days, aircraft taking off from the Truman dropped more than 700 tons of bombs on targets in northern Iraq to support U.S. infantry and special operations forces on the ground. That was more than any other battle group in the war, officials said.

A total of about 8,000 sailors and Marines were on board all nine ships in the Truman strike group.

A second Norfolk-based carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, is due home next week.

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Associated Press Writer Bill Baskervill contributed to this report.

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On the Net

USS Harry S. Truman: http://www.navy.mil/homepages/cvn75/