The amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) participates in a composite training unit exercise off the East Coast of the US in preparation for a deployment, 2013. (U.S. Navy photo/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Tamara Vaughn/Released)
NORFOLK — The good-natured argument over hugs started on the pier.
Matthew Dugger, 11, spotted his stepdad aboard the returning amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge and wanted to be the first.
“What? I thought we talked about this,” said Matthew’s mother, Katti Burns, looking over at her son.
Before the hugs and tears, there was anticipation. About 4,000 sailors and Marines who make up the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group, which includes the amphibious transport dock Arlington and the dock landing ship Oak Hill, returned Tuesday to Norfolk Naval Station and Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek in Virginia Beach after a seven-month deployment to the Middle East, the Mediterranean and African regions.
The group assisted with operations in Iraq against the Islamic State group as part of Operation Inherent Resolve and flew as many as 80 combat sorties and dropped bombs in support of coalition forces, Kearsarge commander Capt. Larry Getz said . The ready group “did a real nice job trying to help the Iraqis get Iraq back,” Getz said.
The group’s deployment was delayed by Hurricane Joaquin in October. Rain pounded the piers to mark its return.
In Norfolk, Nancy De La Fuente juggled 4-month-old daughter Camille and an umbrella while she waited for her husband, Jeremy De La Fuente, an airman aboard the Kearsarge. After seven months and with a sleeping infant on her shoulder ready to meet her daddy, De La Fuente said she didn’t mind the umbrella. She was, however, looking forward to a long, uninterrupted shower.
“I’m just wondering where he is,” De La Fuente said as she waited near the front of the crowd on the pier. “I’m wondering, you know, if he’s going to be the first person off or the third.”
The deployment included 2,200 members of the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The March 19 death of Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin offered new clues about the extent of the roles the Navy and Marines are playing in the U.S. strategy to root out Islamic State.
An enemy rocket killed Cardin at a fire base supporting Iraqi troops in the northern part of the country. He had just had helped set up the base while serving with a small detachment called Task Force Spartan.
“Although the death saddens all of us, they know that if it’s not us, it’s someone else,” Getz said of the Kearsarge’s sailors and Marines. “We hope and pray for those that are in the fight right now that we can get this job done as quickly as possible and bring everybody back.”
Capt. Augustus P. Bennett, the ready ….
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