[MilCom] Re: NavNews for Wednesday, February 23, 2005

[Greg Brazil]

All you East Coasters listen up for this homecoming as it will be
there last one as they are disbanding no later than 30 Sept. 2005
Greg (SF Bay Area)
.
>                                    -USN-
> 
>  NNS050223-03. VFA-82 Plans Homecoming
> 
>  By Lt. Perry Solomon, Strike Fighter Squadron 82 Public
>  Affairs
> 
>  USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, At Sea (NNS) -- The Sailors of
>  Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 82 and their families are putting
>  the finishing touches on homecoming celebration plans for March
>  1. 
> 
>  VFA-82 will be returning to Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS)
>  Beaufort, S.C., after being embarked with Carrier Air Wing
>  (CVW) 2 aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) for five
>  months.
> 
>  During their five-month Western Pacific surge deployment, the
>  "Marauders" of VFA-82 flew training missions in the skies
>  around Hawaii, Wake Island, Guam, Okinawa, Japan, and many
>  other Western Pacific islands. 
> 
>  After a Christmas port call in Hong Kong, the Abraham Lincoln
>  Carrier Strike Group (ALCSG) steamed south in response to
>  the tsunami that devastated many islands and coastal cities
>  around the Indian Ocean. By New Year's Eve, VFA-82, along
>  with rest of the strike group, found themselves at ground zero off
>  the coast of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, poised to begin Operation
>  Unified Assistance.
> 
>  For more than a month, VFA-82 Sailors and officers
>  volunteered to go ashore and work alongside their shipmates
>  from the ALCSG. Working in the mud and tropical rainstorms,
>  the Marauders were instrumental in helping deliver more than 5
>  million pounds of disaster relief supplies.
> 
>  VFA-82's 10 F/A-18 Hornets and two cargo aircraft will return
>  the Marauders to MCAS Beaufort. Friends and families of the
>  squadron are planning a small reception in their hangar aboard
>  MCAS Beaufort.
> 
>  For related news, visit the Strike Fighter Squadron 82 Navy
>  NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/vfa82. 
>