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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, January 4, 2002

Carrier Vinson heads home from war

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Sixty years ago, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Howard Leyland Young made the first of several auspicious arrivals at Pearl Harbor by members of his family — dodging friendly fire from the ground and enemy fire from the air to land his dive-bomber at Ford Island on Dec. 7, 1941.

Navy flight surgeon Lt. Amy T. Young is headed to Pearl Harbor after spending 73 days in the Arabian Sea waging war on terrorism. Sixty years ago her grandfather, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Howard Leyland Young, had to dodge enemy and friendly fire to land on Ford Island on Dec. 7, 1941.
Flying off the deck of the aircraft carrier Enterprise on a scouting mission, and smack into the sneak attack, Young practically had to stand his Douglas SBD Dauntless on end, then zig-zag in a dive with all the vigor he could muster from the two-seater to shake the Japanese fighter that attached itself to his tail.

Aboard the USS Carl Vinson, his granddaughter, Lt. Amy T. Young, expects a warmer reception when the vessel pulls into Pearl Harbor after seeing combat of its own.

The first carrier to launch air strikes in Afghanistan, the Vinson and its battle group spent 73 grueling days in the Arabian Sea waging war on terrorism.

The supercarrier, with its crew and air wing of about 6,000, is expected to arrive in Pearl Harbor in about a week for one of several liberty stops and one heck of a party as it makes its way to San Diego and its homeport of Bremerton, Wash.

Pearl Harbor-based ships that were part of the Vinson battle group include the destroyer USS O'Kane and attack submarines USS Olympia and USS Key West. The Key West returned Dec. 15.

Young, an air wing flight surgeon aboard the Vinson who has family on O'ahu, said she feels "deeply honored" to come home to U.S. soil in the fallout of Sept. 11 and the role the carrier has played.

She has much to celebrate in operational success, Navy teamwork, and all the prayers from back home, Young said, describing U.S. support during Operation Enduring Freedom as "nothing short of phenomenal."

Young, 31, one of two flight surgeons with Carrier Air Wing 11, will get a chance to unwind, spend time with family and "soak in some rays" — all in America.

"I am very excited about pulling into Hawai'i, in that it symbolizes our return to the United States after all the homeland has been through," said Young, who grew up in San Diego. "You have to realize that we have been gone since before 9-11. No one knew what would happen next. It was agonizing to watch from so far away ... yet energizing to know that we were at the tip of the spear to launch an offensive."

The carrier and its crew were up to the task, she said. No carrier stayed on station longer or launched more air strikes than the Vinson.

"We were part of an unprecedented operation that redefined the role of carrier aviation in many ways," Young said.

That success came at a time skeptics were raising questions about the future of naval aviation, as unmanned aerial vehicles and long-range weapons systems came to the fore, she said.

For Young, the poignancy of the Vinson's arrival harkens not only to 1941 and her grandfather's combat role in World War II, but also to her father, retired Capt. Howard Leyland Young Jr., who flew F-14 Tomcats and was later executive officer and commanding officer of the VF-1 Wolfpack aboard the USS Enterprise in 1976, pulling into port at Pearl Harbor many times.

The hardest part was waiting between Sept. 11 and the Oct. 7 start of the offensive in Afghanistan, she said.

The Vinson left Bremerton on July 23 and arrived in the North Arabian Sea on Sept. 11 on its way to the Persian Gulf to patrol the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, a destination it never reached.

Once the battle group received its orders to begin air strikes, "the mission was clear, everyone was ready, and we charged full speed ahead," she said.

"I recall watching from the flight deck as the first missiles were shot from sister ships, soon after launching the first aircraft at night," Young said via e-mail from the Vinson. "I had missed the (July 4th) fireworks in 2000 because I was in Turkey in support of Operation Northern Watch with our Air Wing's EA-6B squadron, VAQ-135. I figured that this experience pretty much made up for that and any other Fourth of July fireworks missed in medical school."

Young also recalls waiting for the return of the first aircraft that flew missions over Afghanistan, and how proud she felt.

A flight surgeon with CVW-11 for the last 2 1/2 years, Young said an aircraft carrier flight deck is among the most hazardous of work environments. She recalls one medevac of an aviation electrician who had fallen off a jet while working on it, among other broken bones, injuries and illnesses.

But "every plane that left came home," she said. "... From my perspective as an air wing flight surgeon, that everyone is coming home ... is also a true measure of our success."

Like others aboard the carrier, Young worked long hours, typically in the medical department and with aircrew in the "ready rooms" 20 to 36 hours at a stretch.

She also flew on S-3B Viking tanker missions or on aircraft guard once or twice a week.

Laurie Puglia, who lives on O'ahu, plans a hero's welcome, complete with banner at Pearl Harbor and lu'au back home when her cousin arrives.

"I'm very proud of what they are doing over there (in Afghanistan)," Puglia said. "I think Amy is a big part of it. I definitely look at her as one of America's war heroes."

Young said she has been to Pearl Harbor just once, on the way to Japan with family in 1982.

"I can only imagine how poignant the experience will be, and I will carry my family in my heart — where they always are, very close by," she said.

But while the arrival seems to be a kind of rite of passage for the Young family, Amy Young said she understands her grandfather's arrival in a Dauntless on Dec. 7, 1941, to have been far different from her father's or her own.

"My grandfather exhibited a truly heroic feat by his flight to Ford Island on that fateful day," she said. "For that I will always be inspired and grateful."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.