NAVY FRIGATE CROMMELIN RETURNS HOME FROM DUTY IN WAR ON DRUGS

As U.S. Navy ships cruise the Persian Gulf, the Pearl Harbor-based frigate
USS Crommelin returned yesterday from another war -- the war on drugs.

Several hundred family members and friends welcomed Crommelin's crew of more
than 200 with lei and hugs for sailors who'd been gone for the past six
months.

The Crommelin, which operated in conjunction with the Coast Guard, another
Navy frigate and a P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft, saw duty in the eastern
Pacific, transited the Panama Canal, and monitored the Caribbean and western
Atlantic coasts for drug smugglers.

The frigate chased a "go-fast" boat, recovering 1.7 tons of pure cocaine
that was jettisoned.

It later recovered a similar amount of cocaine with the intercept of two
other vessels, one of which was set afire by its crew, the Navy said. The
second boat was found the next day, and its crew of 11 was detained.

"We were able to interdict 6 metric tons of cocaine valued at $140 million,
so I think the guys felt pretty good," said Cmdr. Bruce Stewart, the
Crommelin's commanding officer.

Stewart said it was a unique mission for his ship, which has been involved
in shorter-duration drug missions before.

"It was the first time that we've ever done the counternarcotics mission as
a six-month deployment," Stewart said. "We have standing forces that do that
out of Florida and San Diego."

Petty Officer 1st Class Tony Guist's wife, Vicki, won the raffle for "first
kiss" and got to greet her husband on the gangplank. Daughter Danielle, 5, a
big smile on her face, hung on tight to her dad's leg.

"She's not going to let me go," said an equally happy Guist, a master at
arms on the Crommelin.

Asked about general conditions in the regions that the ship visited, Guist
said, "Same as here -- hot. It's a tropical environment."

The ship made stops in Panama City; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Ecuador; and Costa
Rica.

While on deployment in the Southern Command region, the guided missile
frigate rescued 174 Ecuadorans from a leaky vessel and was involved in
rescues involving two other vessels.

A detachment of two SH-60B helicopters from Helicopter Anti-Submarine
Squadron Light 37 out of Kane'ohe Bay with Crommelin took part in the
narcotics interdictions.

Shannon Dominguez of Honolulu, waiting on the pier for her boyfriend, Petty
Officer 2nd Class Edwin Flores, a computer technician, said she was "really
happy" that the Crommelin's mission was the war on drugs rather than the
Iraq war.

Chief Petty Officer Juanito Liwanag from Royal Kunia, 36, was greeted by his
wife, Rosette; father, Juan; son C.J., 10; and daughter Jhunette, 8, who
held a placard reading "Welcome Home Daddy.

Liwanag, a mess specialist, said he'll be trying to "catch up on lost time"
with the family, with a weekend at a Waikiki hotel planned.

But C.J. had other plans.

"I thought we were going to Dave & Buster's," he said.