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George Washington Strike Group to Deploy

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS040113-05

Release Date: 1/13/2004 4:15:00 PM

From U.S. 2nd Fleet Public Affairs

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Nearly 7,600 Sailors will leave their homeport as the USS George Washington (CVN 73) Carrier Strike Group (GWCSG) begins a routine deployment Jan. 20 in support of the global war on terrorism.

The strike group wrapped up a month-long Composite Training Unit Exercise (COMPTUEX) in mid-December, successfully completing a series of complex training events, which included naval surface fire support training and air-to-ground bombing off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. COMPTUEX is an intermediate level exercise designed to forge the strike group into a cohesive, fighting team and is a critical step in the pre-deployment training cycle.

This training exercise marked only the third time a strike group used the comprehensive Training Resource Strategy (TRS), which better coordinates use of existing East and Gulf Coast range training facilities, and improved simulation technology to prepare combat ready forces. The previous two strike groups to use TRS were the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) CSG and the USS Wasp (LHD 1) Expeditionary Strike Group.

Commanded by Rear Adm. H. Denby Starling II, commander, Carrier Group 8, the GWCSG includes the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier George Washington with its embarked air wing, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7, the Norfolk-based guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf (CG 72), the Norfolk-based guided-missile destroyer USS Bulkeley (DDG 84), and the combat logistics ship USNS Supply (T-AOE 6) from Naval Weapons Station Earle, N.J. HMCS Toronto, a Canadian Halifax-class patrol frigate, will also deploy with the GWCSG.