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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, April 23, 2003

Navy frigate Crommelin returns home from duty in war on drugs

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

As U.S. Navy ships cruise the Persian Gulf, the Pearl Harbor-based frigate USS Crommelin returned yesterday from another war — the war on drugs.

Chief Petty Officer Juanito Liwanag has a dockside reunion with daughter Jhunette. He said he's planning to spend a weekend in a Waikiki hotel with his family from Royal Kunia.

Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Several hundred family members and friends welcomed Crommelin's crew of more than 200 with lei and hugs for sailors who'd been gone for the past six months.

The Crommelin, which operated in conjunction with the Coast Guard, another Navy frigate and a P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft, saw duty in the eastern Pacific, transited the Panama Canal, and monitored the Caribbean and western Atlantic coasts for drug smugglers.

The frigate chased a "go-fast" boat, recovering 1.7 tons of pure cocaine that was jettisoned.

It later recovered a similar amount of cocaine with the intercept of two other vessels, one of which was set afire by its crew, the Navy said. The second boat was found the next day, and its crew of 11 was detained.

"We were able to interdict 6 metric tons of cocaine valued at $140 million, so I think the guys felt pretty good," said Cmdr. Bruce Stewart, the Crommelin's commanding officer.

Stewart said it was a unique mission for his ship, which has been involved in shorter-duration drug missions before.

"It was the first time that we've ever done the counternarcotics mission as a six-month deployment," Stewart said. "We have standing forces that do that out of Florida and San Diego."

Petty Officer 1st Class Tony Guist's wife, Vicki, won the raffle for "first kiss" and got to greet her husband on the gangplank. Daughter Danielle, 5, a big smile on her face, hung on tight to her dad's leg.

"She's not going to let me go," said an equally happy Guist, a master at arms on the Crommelin.

Asked about general conditions in the regions that the ship visited, Guist said, "Same as here — hot. It's a tropical environment."

The ship made stops in Panama City; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Ecuador; and Costa Rica.

While on deployment in the Southern Command region, the guided missile frigate rescued 174 Ecuadorans from a leaky vessel and was involved in rescues involving two other vessels.

A detachment of two SH-60B helicopters from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 37 out of Kane'ohe Bay with Crommelin took part in the narcotics interdictions.

Shannon Dominguez of Honolulu, waiting on the pier for her boyfriend, Petty Officer 2nd Class Edwin Flores, a computer technician, said she was "really happy" that the Crommelin's mission was the war on drugs rather than the Iraq war.

Chief Petty Officer Juanito Liwanag from Royal Kunia, 36, was greeted by his wife, Rosette; father, Juan; son C.J., 10; and daughter Jhunette, 8, who held a placard reading "Welcome Home Daddy.

Liwanag, a mess specialist, said he'll be trying to "catch up on lost time" with the family, with a weekend at a Waikiki hotel planned.

But C.J. had other plans.

"I thought we were going to Dave & Buster's," he said.

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