Military

USS Carl Vinson Resumes Journey Toward San Diego

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published February 1, 2010 at 3:15 PM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

The aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson has left Haiti and resumed its scheduled journey toward San Diego. The Vinson will be the third nuclear powered aircraft carrier to be home-ported in San Diego Bay.

The Vinson has left behind ten of the helicopters that were ferrying supplies from the ship to earthquake victims in Haiti. The crew has handed over relief duties to other Navy responders.

Captain Bruce Lindsay says two-thirds of his crew had never been to sea before. He says they saw plenty of action while they were diverted to Haiti.

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“We flew 2,226 helicopter sorties, made 1,783 food drops, including 89,000 gallons of water and almost 40,000 pounds of medical supplies. We also did 476 medi-vacs, says Lindsay.

Lindsay says most days the ship operated three to five miles off the coast of Haiti and sent hundreds of crew members ashore to help deliver food, water and medical supplies.

He says the ship is now sailing toward Florida, where it will drop off some helicopters, pick up its contingent of fixed wing aircraft, and set off for San Diego via the Cape of Good Hope.

The schedule arrival date has not changed -- it is still April.

Military

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.