The Pawtucket Times March 19, 2003
'I want my son to come home safe'
By Douglas Hadden
PAWTUCKET -- As America sits poised for war in Iraq, the Loiselle family of Oriole Avenue sits at home eager for the next bit of news from their son, 27-year-old Aviation Warfare Systems Operator First Class David Loiselle Jr., on duty in the Arabian Sea. Loiselle, who joined the Navy after graduation from Shea High School, serves aboard the USS Constellation, a 1,069-foot aircraft carrier berthed in San Diego.
"I want my son to come safe," Diana Loiselle said Tuesday.
Loiselle was deployed Nov. 2 for six months on what is scheduled to be the Constellation's last mission before the 41-year-old vessel is mothballed.
"He usually calls by phone or calling card when he has time," Diane related.
At Christmastime, the family -- also including Loiselle's father, David, sister Christine, 25, brother Adam, 21 and Loiselle's California-native wife of two years, Dionna, herself recently retired from the Navy -- made audio tapes of the holidays to send to the ship.
Diane said the family prefers communicating by audio tape and phone to e-mail. "We'd rather hear his voice. We send him these little cartridges to tell us what's going on."
Loiselle, in a job his mother said he enjoys more than any he's had in the Navy, has already served with distinction aboard the diesel-powered Constellation, among the last three non-nuclear vessels in the 12-carrier U.S. arsenal.
On Dec. 21, seven weeks after the Constellation set sail, Loiselle and two pilots responded in their SH60B Seahawk helicopter to a report of a ship in distress. "We were called in to investigate with our radar," Loiselle told The Times in a story last month.
Twenty minutes later, Loiselle spotted "what I thought was sea life or some seaweed," which closer inspection revealed was nine men clinging to the flotsam of their sunken Iranian ship in the northern Arabian sea.
Unwilling to leave anyone behind, the crew squeezed everyone aboard the Seahawk, which normally only carries five people. "We were packed in like sardines, one on top of the other," Loiselle said, but made it safely back to the carrier.
Loiselle was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for his action.
Diane said her son's wife was "excited that he got the award, but she's distraught about him being over there right now. Other than that she's just day to day, like we are," she said of the rest of the family.
She said she does not know where her son's carrier force is deployed right now, and anyway has been instructed not to reveal such information.
According to the Web site navalships.org, the Constellation left San Diego, where Loiselle lives, on Nov. 2 and arrived in Hong Kong, its first liberty port, on Nov. 22, then set sail five days later, for a time docked in Singapore.
Besides the Kitty Hawk-class carrier, the Constellation Battle Group includes two Ticonderoga-class cruisers, two Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, a Perry-class guided missile frigate and two other vessels.
A Jan. 7 article in the Chicago Tribune said the "Connie," as the carrier is nicknamed, flies about 70 fighter and supply planes and has four catapults on a flight deck that's 1,047 feet long. The ship uses 1 million gallons of diesel fuel a week at a cost of $810,000.
The Navy Newsstand Web site said the carrier displaces almost 88,000 tons and houses more than 5,500 sailors and other personnel (although only 40 women due to its old design), with about 8,000 personnel in the carrier group.
According to globalsecurity.org, the Constellation battle group in 1997 hosted 1,000 sorties enforcing the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, and again supported that effort in 1999 with 1,256 sorties in a 10-week period that began in late August.
During that deployment, the group's ships also boarded 122 merchant ships to prevent illegal exports or imports, and expended almost 44 tons or ordnance in nine combat engagements against Iraqi air and ground targets.
The Constellation traces its name to one of the first six frigates (including the U.S.S. Constitution) built by the Navy in the late 18th century, named for the constellation of stars in the American flag.
Dubbed "America's Flagship" in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, the Constellation is to be replaced by a nuclear carrier named for the former president.
Copyright © 2003, The Pawtucket Times
