USS YORKTOWN BACK HOME AGAIN

PASCAGOULA - There was a whole lot of smooching on the deck of the USS
Yorktown Monday afternoon as the guided-missile cruiser returned to port
after five months at sea.

Sailors hugged and kissed their loved ones, many of whom carried roses,
video cameras or signs that said "Welcome Home."

Yolanda Bradford said she was going to "just catch up" with her husband,
Michael, when they got back to Biloxi. "We'll laugh, talk, just enjoy him
returning home safely," said Bradford, who works at Hancock Bank. "I'm very
proud of him."

Some of the men, including Lincoln Guimond of Portland, Maine, became
fathers while they were gone. "It was tough," Guimond said about being so
far away from home when his wife, Doreen, gave birth in May to his son,
Lincoln Jr.

His family also moved while he was at sea, from Pensacola, Fla., to Gautier.

"I haven't seen that either, so I've got all these things to look forward
to," he said.

The Yorktown's deployment began in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern
Pacific Ocean, where it took part in training exercises with Latin American
navies. The ship later switched to drug interdiction duty, and made a major
bust in May.

After a 1,300-mile pursuit, the Yorktown seized six metric tons of cocaine
with an estimated street value of $300 million.

Lt. Cmdr. Randy Reeves said the men were thrilled to make such a big bust.

"Spending all that time in drug operations is somewhat monotonous going to
and from locations," he said. "We were very fortunate to get a bust and a
bust of this size."