Loved Ones Give 300 Seabees a Warm Welcome Home

POINT MUGU — While the Seabees avoided land mines, tore down buildings and schlepped through mountains of mud overseas, their spouses and loved ones endured hours of loneliness, solitary diaper changes and nursing sick babies for seven months.

On Thursday, the separation came to an end.

Nearly 300 members of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40 returned home Thursday evening after being abroad since June, which included a three-month stop in war-torn Bosnia.

At the Naval Air Weapons Station at Point Mugu, dozens of restless children ran around as the adults patiently waited for their loved ones.

In all, more than 100 excited relatives and friends were on hand to give the customary hugs and kisses and cry in relief.

With a chilly winter breeze blowing as the plane approached, those in the welcoming crowd bundled up and made their way to the outside landing strip.

After a three-hour delay in New York, the Tower Air 747 touched down at the Point Mugu landing strip about 7:30 p.m.

A giant red carpet was rolled out across the tarmac as the weary Seabees began to pour out of the plane.

“It’s the longest winter I’ve ever had,” said Michael Bradford, who was greeted by his 15-month-old son Aaron and his wife Alison. “I’m definitely glad to be home.”

David Perez waited with his two children--James, 8, and Krista 3--for his girlfriend, Debbie Norman. Perez won a lottery and was selected as one of two people to greet the sailors first as they debarked. As luck would have it, Norman was the first Seabee off the plane. She ran down the stairs to pick up Krista and give her a big hug.

Julie Tedder, 21, was grateful to see her husband James, who left two weeks after she found out they were going to have their first baby.

Tedder’s return was just in time, because the baby is due in six weeks.

“At least he’s home for the important part,” Julie Tedder said.

Teresa Fooks, 21, who had been waiting with 2-year-old daughter Kalinda, said she had managed to keep in touch with her husband Gary during his deployment.

“We’ve talked on the phone a lot, though,” she said. “We ran up the phone bill.”

Gary Fooks, 24, had been stationed in Rota, Spain, since June. Teresa Fooks said this is his last scheduled overseas deployment before he gets out of the service in June 1998.

In Bosnia, the Seabees dismantled base camps for the Army, which was deployed there to help in the U.S. peacekeeping efforts. The sailors lived in tents in the northern section of the country in Bosnian Serb territory. Though the locals were friendly for the most part, the weather--as low as 20 degrees some days with constant rain--was another matter, said Lt. Russell Kirk, spokesman for the battalion unit.

“The guys who suffered the most were the ones who were doing the work out there,” said Kirk, who is a military dentist. “Sometimes, they were up to their knees in mud. They just kept trudging along. The mud was just horrendous.”

Back home on the Seabee base in Port Hueneme, the biggest messes for 26-year-old Amber Bailly while her husband was gone were made by her infant son Andre.

“It was awful,” said Bailly. “He was gone for four months before, but this was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.”

But now the family is relishing being together. As her husband Eric Bailly said, “It feels ohhh-h-h-h great to be home.”

Times correspondent Scott Steepleton contributed to this story.