Saturday, April 14, 2001

By Carlos Bongioanni, Stars and Stripes

HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii — "God bless America."

Those were the words Navy Lt. Shane Osborn told a cheering crowd of several hundred flag-waving well-wishers here Thursday who welcomed home the 24 crewmembers of a Navy surveillance plane released by Chinese officials.

Osborn was the mission commander of the Navy EP-3E Aries II aircraft when it collided with a Chinese fighter nearly two weeks ago. Military officials called him a hero for safely landing the crippled aircraft at a Chinese military base on the island of Hainan.

The crew had been on deployment to Japan and was flying routine missions out of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, when the incident occurred. The crew is now island hopping its way home to its stateside base on Whidbey Island, Wash.

A commercial aircraft transported them from China to Guam on Thursday. After a five-hour stopover, the crew boarded the Spirit of Bob Hope, the military C-17 transport plane that carried them to Hawaii.

The crew faces two more days of medical and psychological examinations and mission debriefings. Navy officials said the crew will be flown to Whidbey Island on Saturday, where they will begin 30 days’ leave.

Osborn told the crowd at Hickam that the crewmembers were exuberant about being back on American soil and were anxious to see their families. Navy officials said they were not aware of any family member who came to Hawaii, but The Associated Press reported there were families at Hickam for the ceremony.

Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly said the Navy had told families not to come to Hawaii.

"These guys are going to be very tied up the next couple of days with debriefings, and they don’t need the added stress of having their wives and mothers here," he said.

Kelly Dunbar, a spokeswoman for the Navy, said that as of 6 p.m. Thursday (Hawaii time) none of the crewmembers were aware of any family members who were in Hawaii.

Military officials are still tight-lipped about the details of the incident with the Chinese fighter. No information will be released until the debriefings are over.

While the world waits to hear those details, Staff Sgt. Corey Carter said he knows enough to know he wouldn’t want to experience what the EP-3 crew went through. Carter is a loadmaster on the C-17 that flew from Guam to Hawaii, and he had an opportunity to talk to some of the EP-3 crewmembers.

"I learned that it’s definitely not something I ever want to go through," he said.

The C-17 crewmembers said they felt honored about bringing the EP-3 crewmembers home.

Major Rich Bryan, a pilot on the C-17, is getting out of the Air Force in two weeks. He thought the mission was "a pretty great way to end" his 14 years of military service.

Except for Osborn’s brief comments, none of the EP-3 crewmembers spoke to the media after they landed in Hawaii. But they all seemed upbeat and grateful for their freedom and the words of encouragement they received while in Guam and from radio transmissions while in flight, said the C-17 crewmembers.

"They really appreciated a 5-by-9 flag that a maintenance unit from Kadena Air Base gave to them," said Maj. Matt Smith, the C-17 aircraft commander.

U.S. and Chinese officials are to meet Wednesday to discuss the future of the EP-3 surveillance plane that is still dismantled on a Chinese military base in Hainan.

The C-17 aircraft and its crew are from the 437th Air Lift Wing, Charleston, S.C., staged out of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. They had been on standby for four days. Other aircraft and crews are on standby throughout the Pacific theater and ready to fly to China on short notice in the event the Chinese government allows the United States to retrieve its plane.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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