PEARL HARBOR — Families said goodbye to crew members of the destroyer Hopper and cruiser Port Royal yesterday with certainty that their loved ones will be gone for the holidays and uncertainty about the six-month mission ahead.

The ships, with about 670 sailors, joined up with the amphibious assault ship Tarawa out of San Diego and other warships. The expeditionary strike group, with more than 5,500 sailors and Marines, is headed to the U.S. 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operation, which includes the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.

Josie Castaneda was pierside to see off her husband, Jesus, 45, a storekeeper first class on the Hopper.

As she tried to reach him one last time by cell phone, she said deployments now come with a mixture of safety knowing that loved ones stay on a ship, but also worry about involvement in everything from piracy interdiction to Persian Gulf patrols.

"As long as they don't go near Iraq — it's always scary over there," Josie Castaneda said. "I'm going to miss him, of course."

Hopper commanding officer Cmdr. Jeff James said, "Today, deployments are a little bit more serious" with a multifront war on terrorism. Crew members take training more seriously, he added.

U.S. Navy ships have intervened multiple times in recent weeks off Somalia as pirates seized South Korean, Tanzanian, Japanese and North Korean vessels. The East Coast-based destroyer Porter fired on two pirate skiffs that were tied up to a Japanese tanker.

The Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship that stopped at Pearl Harbor Saturday on its way back to San Diego, was in the Persian Gulf with its strike group for more than four months, where it conducted security operations, including checking for weapons or terrorists on commercial ships.

"We're prepared to do all the missions the ship is built for, and the theater commander will direct exactly what we do," said James.

The 7th Fleet area encompasses more than 52 million square miles of the Pacific and Indian oceans, while the 5th Fleet's area of operation includes the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and parts of the Indian Ocean.

Kym James, who was on the pier to see off her husband, the ship's commander, on his fourth deployment, said "it's never easy." But times also are changing.

"I just think there's a lot more out there than there used to be — things that they are fighting and watching for and defending," she said. The focus used to be the Cold War. "Now they have to be trained for any and every situation."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.