Photos by Chris Stone
The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group set off Friday for a deployment to the Western Pacific and Middle East, as thousands of family and well-wishers watched from ashore.
Families gathered as early as 4 a.m. at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado to bid farewell to sons, daughters, husbands and wives stationed on the Vinson. Expressing sadness, yet love and pride, the loved ones cheered and waved goodbye for what was a first deployment for some and a four and fifth for others.
Some of the well wishers carried homemade signs addressed to their favorite Navy personnel, while young mothers held their infants or had small children in tow for the emotional send off.
The U.S. has been conducting air strikes in Iraq against the Islamic State, an extremist group that has taken control of several cities in the northern part of the country, and is accused of genocide against religious minorities. It’s unclear if the air units aboard the Vinson will participate in the strikes.
Carrier Air Wing 17, which includes nine fixed-wing and helicopter squadrons, will be aboard the Vinson.
The deployment is expected to last at least nine months for the 6,200 sailors in the carrier group.
The vessels in the strike force, led by the Vinson, are the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and guided-missile destroyers USS Gridley, USS Sterett and USS Dewey.
The aircraft carrier is named after Carl Vinson, who served in Congress for 50 years. It has gained attention in the last several years because of the crew’s involvement in the 2011 operation that ended in terrorist Osama bin Laden’s death and a visit by President Barack Obama when the NCAA men’s 2011 basketball season opened aboard the ship.
– City News Service contributed to this report.
