USS Carl Vinson Battle Group and USS Boxer
Amphibious Ready Group deploying

NAVY WIRE SERVICE (NWS) - 9 November 1998 

by 3rd Fleet Public Affairs

     SAN DIEGO (NWS) -- More than 16,000 Pacific Fleet
Sailors and Marines began deploying for a six-month
overseas assignment Nov. 6. Ships and units of the USS
Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Battle Group and USS Boxer (LPH 4)
Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) will depart their home
ports and bases over the next month.
     USS Carl Vinson, based in Bremerton, Wash.,
deployed Nov. 6. Ships based in San Diego depart today
and tomorrow and will join the aircraft carrier for the
transit across the Pacific Ocean, joining up with
submarines based in Pearl Harbor.
     The USS Boxer ARG, based in San Diego, will deploy
in early December, with more than 2,200 Marines from the
13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), based at Camp
Pendleton, Calif., embarked.
     Damage Controlman 2nd Class Michael Enns is on his
second deployment aboard Carl Vinson and takes
inspiration from a poster he saw recently. "It has a
picture of an aircraft carrier and says, `Four-and-a-
half acres of sovereign U.S. territory, anywhere,
anytime.' I believe that," said Enns, of Reno, Nev. "It
is an important job we do, so we all develop an attitude
to do a very tough job with a great deal of pride."
     The Carl Vinson Battle Group and the Boxer ARG will
relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group and the USS
Essex ARG, which have been forward-deployed for the past
five months to the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and the
Arabian Gulf.
     The Carl Vinson Battle Group includes USS Antietam
(CG 54), USS Princeton (CG 59), USS Columbus (SSN 762),
USS Pasadena (SSN 752), USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62), USS
Oldendorf (DD 972), USS McClusky (FFG 41), USS Rainier
(AOE 7) and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11.
     The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group includes USS
Cleveland (LPD 7), USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) and
Assault Craft Unit 5.