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USS Lincoln Prepares For President

Last-minute preparations are under way for the president's speech from the deck of the USS Lincoln as it steams across the Pacific headed for home.
There are a lot of firsts associated with Mr. Bush's visit.

For the first time, a president will fly onto a carrier by plane. His overnight stop is the first presidential sleepover, if you will, and Thursday night's address will be the first nationally televised speech delivered at sea, reports CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers on board the USS Lincoln.

The president is expected to announce an end to major combat operations in Iraq, but he also will honor this carrier's service to country over the last 10 months. Commander Greg Loony's Blue Wolf squadron will escort the president out to the USS Lincoln, a culmination of a mission he will never forget.

"The pride I have in being a naval aviator, commanding officer in this squadron, has magnified at least tenfold," he said.

During this deployment, Looney's Blue Wolf squadron flew 5,800 hours. That's 250 full days of flight time.

"It was hard. It was challenging, especially the extension and all that. But as we reflect back on it now, we did something important. It was absolutely worth it," he says.

Over the last few days, the USS Lincoln has undergone as major a cleanup as can be done on a ship still at sea. The president will address sailors from a podium on the carrier's 1,000-foot-long flight deck. Sandra Pool was chosen to stand behind him.

She says, "We're coming home after such a long time, and he's coming here, and we're getting the recognition we deserve."

On Wednesday, a spectacular flyover by the F-14 Tomcats highlighted the start of the carrier's fly-off. Over half the carrier's planes started their final flight heading home. Once on the Lincoln, Mr. Bush is expected to look on admiringly, almost certainly, as the remaining planes jet off on their final mission of this deployment - all in advance of Friday's arrival in San Diego and then arrival in homeport of Everett, Wash., on May 6.

The commander of the carrier strike group, Rear Adm. John Kelly, says as the USS Lincoln gets closer to home, he is most proud of the sailors and their families.

"For over nine months now, they have been doing everything that we possibly could have asked of them across three major operations. They have done it in great spirits. And they have executed flawlessly. So I'm very proud of each and every one of the folks in the Abraham Lincoln Strike group," he says.

That is why Kelly is so happy about the president's visit. "It's just outstanding. The commander-in-chief coming to acknowledge the accomplishments of these great sailors, and to recognize their wonderful families, this is really, really special and really wonderful," he says.

Mr. Bush will fly in an F-3 Viking in the navigator seat up front and thus will experience the take-your-breath-away tailhook landing which takes the plane from well over 100 miles per hour, to a dead stop in scant seconds.

This puts no small amount of pressure on the pilot. Yet Kelly notes that the pilot "has flown through extraordinary pressure in support 6 of combat operations for months now. I am very confident that he'll do a great job."

Asked whether the presidents' visit means Kelly will have to give up his room, he said he would give up whatever he needs to, to have the president on board.

"But, carrier's a big place and we've got adequate space, and to have the opportunity for him to look these great sailors in the eye, shake their hand and say, 'Mission accomplished, well done,' that's just a wonderful opportunity," he says.

The president is expected to tell the nation in his address from the carrier that the major combat in Iraq is over, but he will stop short of declaring victory.

The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler asked White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett if this morning's clashes between American troops and Iraqi citizens was the reason the president was not ready to declare victory Thursday night.

Barlett said, "There are still dangerous elements throughout the nation of Iraq. There are still those that are part of the remnants of the old regime that are trying to resist the liberating forces. And our men and women of the U.S. Army and Marines operating in Iraq are doing so in a very careful fashion with very strict orders not to fire on people who do not fire upon them first. So there are some careful instructions.

"But I think," he added, "it does speak about the larger objectives in the nation that still continue: to continue to seek the weapons of mass destruction; to continue to look for the Iraqi regime itself; and continue to help restore this country back to the Iraqi people. So there's difficult work ahead."

The president's speech will air Thursday night on CBS at 9:00 p.m. ET.

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