No one was more relieved than Barbara Kent when she saw the television pictures of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt pulling into Norfolk Naval Station Wednesday morning.

David Gregory (right) is greeted by his brother Jerry in Norfolk, Va. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        Her boy was home, safe and sound.

        “He's been in the Navy for over 20 years now and is as experienced as it gets, but you worry anyway,” the Greenhills woman said Wednesday. “I'm a mom.”

        Senior Chief Petty Officer (SCPO) Peter Kent was one of about 5,500 sailors who were welcomed home in Norfolk, Va., by a crowd of about 15,000.

        The sailors had been gone 189 days on the 1,092-foot aircraft carrier, most of it in the Arabian Sea where 60 to 80 F-14 flights a day launched off the carrier's flight deck to pound targets in Afghanistan.

        SCPO Kent's wife and two teen-age daughters were not among the crowd in Norfolk. They live at the naval base in Jacksonville, Fla., and will see him in a few days.

        Ms. Kent, who does contract work in adoption services for Jewish Family Services, said she hopes to visit them soon.

        “The last time I saw him was in late August.”

        Ms. Kent said that during the Roosevelt's six-month deployment, she could communicate by e-mail.

        Occasionally, she said, there would be a period of a week or two when the aircraft carrier's communications with family members back home was cut off.

        “Those were some of the rough times for me,” she said.

        Ms. Kent recently joined a support group for parents of military service members formed by a social worker at Jewish Family Services, Deborah Eckert.

        Mrs. Eckert's son, Chad Adler, is a sailor on board the USS Vicksburg, a guided-missile cruiser.

        “My son, he's a tough guy, and says parents don't need a support group,” Ms. Kent said. “I told him, "Wait until yours grow up. You might think differently.'”

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