CHINA - It's hugs, kisses and yellow roses for crew

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"Texas billionaire Ross Perot paid the fare for many more relatives to attend the celebration." Way to go, Perot!

NYDailyNews

It's Hugs, Kisses & Yellow Roses

Crew back in arms of families as their ordeal finally comes to end

By CHRIS McGANN in Oak Harbor, Wash., and GREG GITTRICH in New York Daily News Writers

Lt. Shane Osborn: "I'm here to tell you we did it right. No apology is necessary on our part."

Twenty-four American heroes held in China for 11 days walked off a plane yesterday and into the arms of their family and the nation.

"We love him, and we just wanted him home," said Jan Richter, wife of Petty Officer Kenneth Richter of Staten Island. "The only thing I really want to say is: They've all come home with honor and that's what counts."

The plane carrying the freed crew of 21 men and three women triumphantly circled above Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, touching down just before 7 p.m.

After several long minutes, the passenger door of the plane opened to cheers from 10,000 family members, military personnel and well-wishers who spilled out of a hangar adorned with a huge American flag.

"This has been overwhelming, vastly overwhelming, to find out that so many people that you have never met care about your son," said Pat Hedlund, mother of Seaman Jeremy Crandall.

First off with a smile and a steady walk was Lt. Shane Osborn, the pilot of the U.S. spy plane crippled in flight by a collision with a Chinese jet fighter on April 1.

Richter was the 13th crew member to step down onto a red carpet rolled out on the tarmac. He hurried to his wife, kissed her and drew his 8-year-old son Patrick into the family circle.

Jan Richter, who last saw her husband on March 5, traveled all night with her son from Misawa, Japan, where her husband is stationed.

"In my eyes [pilot Shane Osborn] is a hero," she added. "I can't wait to shake his hand and thank him. They all did great."

With the song "Proud to be an American" playing in the background, Osborn appeared to wipe away a tear before reaching his family and a wall of flag-waving Americans, many of whom clutched yellow roses.

"This is more than anyone can imagine," Kristi Young said moments after her brother Rodney, a cryptologic technician 3rd class, stepped off the plane.

Joined by Navy brass and political leaders, the green flight-suit clad crew walked single file down the red carpet through the middle of the crowded hangar to heartfelt cheers.

Osborn was honored with a standing ovation at nearly every mention of his name during the roughly two-hour official ceremony.

"Throughout the past two weeks, the nation has anxiously awaited your return," Rear Adm. Michael Holmes told the crew. "Your actions made us all proud to be Americans."

Holmes, commander of Pacific reconnaissance, also heaped praise on Osborn for muscling the U.S. spy plane to a safe landing on China's Hainan Island.

"Lt. Osborn made the right decisions, and I credit him with saving the lives of his crew," Holmes said."

The crew members said the Chinese treated them fairly well, providing medical treatment for those who needed and giving them enough food, even Coca-Cola, at lunch and dinner. But they also said the Chinese interrupted their sleep frequently to question them.

"We were happy to be on the ground once we got there [in Hainan] despite the fact that we weren't at the airport where we wanted to be," Lt. Patrick Honeck said.

Cryptologic Tech. 1st Class Josef Edmunds echoed that sentiment.

"When I got off the plane, I was so happy to be alive," he said. "I had a big grin on my face."

The crew members initially were allowed to talk to each other, they said, but eventually were split up and held in different rooms.

"We were tight," Crandall said. "We talked to each other. We played cards. You know, anything to keep up the spirits."

"I'm a U.S. service member," he added, downplaying his and the crew's bravery. "I do my job. I don't worry about it. I have support from the U.S. government and the U.S. people."

After 11 days in captivity, the crew was summoned to a meeting where they learned that they would be going home soon. No one erupted with emotion.

"Lt. Osborne turned around and ... smiled at us," said Lt. j.g. Richard Payne. "We didn't want to have any kind of outburst."

The crew finally let out a roar of delight once aboard a U.S. flight to Guam, and Josef Edmunds soon called girlfriend Sondra White on Wednesday night with a marriage proposal. She accepted.

In days leading up to the reunion, the crew's far-flung relatives had trekked across the country to gather at the naval air station, about 50 miles north of Seattle near the Puget Sound.

"We almost lost them," said Nikki Cecka, the wife of Petty Officer 2nd Class David Cecka. "This is a big deal. My 4-month-old almost didn't get to see his dad."

The Navy took care of the traveling expenses for immediate family members, and Texas billionaire Ross Perot paid the fare for many more relatives to attend the celebration.

"I'm just excited, and I can't wait for when I can hug my son again," Ramon Mercado said in anticipation of greeting his son, Petty Officer 2nd Class Ramon Mercado Jr. "This is the top of all reunions."

Throughout the tightly knit city of Oak Harbor, near the base, "Welcome Home" signs, red, white and blue balloons, and flags popped up among yellow ribbons.

Local children spelled out "WELCOME HOME VQ1" — a reference to the returning crew's unit — in giant letters at an elementary school near the Navy base.

"We are so proud of a duty well performed," Washington Gov. Gary Locke said. "As Americans, we can look at this as a crisis diverted and say that our government rose to the occasion and succeeded. We overcame the obstacles and brought these 24 men and women home."

President Bush stayed away from the celebration. White House press secretary Ari Fleisher said that Bush "does not believe that politicians need to always insert themselves into tender moments."

Following yesterday's official welcome, the crew will get a much-needed month of rest and relaxation, said Capt. Bill Marriott, commander of Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 10 at Whidbey.

As the crowd departed last night from Whidbey, Ens. Richard Bensing held his infant daughter, Katilyn, who was dressed all in pink

Turning to get on a bus, Bensing said, "I'm just happy to have a chance to hold her again."

With Maki Becker and News Wire Services

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

Answers

i'm glad they are alive and back. but this hero stuff is crap. they saved their lives and provided the chicoms at least some new technology. they should have ditched.

of course, if they were just following orders, then they are somebody's hero, aren't they?

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001


Just makes ya feel warm all over, huh?

So glad they made it home. And yeah, Perot gets a big thank you from me for making it possible for more family to attend. That was real nice.

Think he'll run in 2004?

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001


BWD, they were following orders, from what I gather. Apparently, the safety of the crew was uppermost in this particular situation.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001

OG, don't know if you heard today, but the pilot had the option, apparently up to him, of ditching or landing. once he stabilized, he decided to land. don't know if that was the ORDER or not, but that is what is reported. heard him say it.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

I also heard him saying that he decided the ditching was too dangerous, he thought he would lose some crew, so decided on the landing. Have to remember about all them sharks in the South China Sea! I think the sharks got Wang Wei. BTW, in one of life's great ironies the pronunciation of the Chinese pilot's name--Wang Wei--is "Wong Way."

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001


OG, i hate to sound cold, but saving the lives of the crew seems to have been more important to the Lt. understandable - they're probably all good drinking buddies. i'd be curious if the rest of the mil brass really feel that their lives were as important as the technology transferred and the incident which has been stirred by chicoms receiving an intact reconaissance aircraft (intact being a relative term)? it's not as though folks are going to be coming forward right now saying they shoulda died or risked death. i mean, they're heroes and everything right now. i'm given to wonder if our expectations about our military operations have slipped to a different attitude where loss of life on our side is to be avoided at whatever cost? maybe they and we are being conditioned to think that future military campaigns should and will be as (relatively) cost- free as the Gulf War.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

Dave, I know how intense and ongoing Sweetie's training was. Navy pilots are frequently in flight simulators, going through every possible (and impossible) scenario and making split-second decisions on what steps to take in an emergency. The lieutenant didn't even think about what he was doing--I'm sure of it. I've known a lot of Navy pilots and their lives truly depend on their intense training. They're also very logical and don't have nearly the same thought processes as most people. The pilot went into automatic mode, dictated by the training he and the crew received, his brain processing bits of material just like a computer. Emotions had little or nothing to do with it. He wouldn't have been drinking buddies with the enlisted members of the crew, but might have been with the co-pilot(s); however, as senior officer and the guy in charge of the aircraft, he would feel a strong responsibility for the crew and their safety--that's dictated in large part by his training too.

Sweetie, as well as being an S-3 (ASW) pilot, was also Squadron Legal Officer. As such, it was his job to participate actively in various disciplinary procedures. Often, he would be flying down the deck and looking at his maintenance crew with their thumbs up--and they would all have been before him at some point or another, all of them punished in some way! Not a comforting thought! You can't go drinking with people you're likely to discipline at some point.

Finally, there's this:

Link

April 13:

"An internal Navy memo says Lt. Shane Osborn, pilot of the EP-3E surveillance plane detained by China, made the correct decision to land the crippled turboprop in China rather than risk ditching in the South China Sea. "The EP-3E aircraft commander and crew, presented with compound emergencies, complex tactical considerations and complex diplomatic considerations, succeeded in keeping his crew safe and intact," says the memo from an Navy aviation official."

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001


"The EP-3E aircraft commander and crew, presented with compound emergencies, complex tactical considerations and complex diplomatic considerations, succeeded in keeping his crew safe and intact,"

-- "even though that is not what we had in mind for this particular mission." might be one way of finishing that thought.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001


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