Nimitz Sets Off for Persian Gulf

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 2, 2007 at 4:27 AM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The nuclear powered Aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, is scheduled to sail out of San Diego Bay at about 10 a.m. to join two other strike forces already in the Persian Gulf. KPBS reporter Alison St J

The nuclear powered Aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, is scheduled to sail out of San Diego Bay at about 10 a.m. to join two other strike forces already in the Persian Gulf. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The USS Nimitz, her accompanying destroyer squadron and a submarine are headed out of San Diego to join 15 American warships already in the Persian Gulf.

Commander Jack Hahnzlik of the Navy’s Air Force Command says the Nimitz has 5 thousand 500 hundred men and women aboard, and almost 70 aircraft.

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Hahnzlik: You’ve got F18s, H60 Helicopters, E2 Hawkeyes, and EAB electronic attack aircraft .

Hahnzlik says the mission is to join the Stennis Strike group and support ongoing operations. The USS Stennis arrived in the Persian Gulf two weeks ago and began training maneuvers last week with the USS Eisenhauer to simulate attacks on enemy aircraft, ships and submarines. The last time the U.S. had two US Aircraft carriers in the Gulf was when the invasion of Iraq began. The USS Nimitz will join them in a matter of weeks. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.