The reassuring shadows from the massive gray hulls of warships didn't make goodbyes any easier for the 5,500 sailors and Marines leaving with a six-ship convoy yesterday.

It was doubly hard for their parents and spouses, who wondered whether the ships were headed to the Persian Gulf and Iraq.

©K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune

Joined by their 6-month-old son Naythan, Marine Pfc. Vedran Drljo hugged his wife, Sheri, at San Diego Naval Base before he boarded the amphibious assault ship Peleliu for deployment to an undisclosed location yesterday. About 5,500 sailors and Marines departed with a convoy led by the Peleliu and comprising the amphibious ships Pearl Harbor and Dubuque, the cruiser Cape St. George and the destroyers Halsey and Benfold.

They got no answers from the brass.

In a brief news conference before the battle group's 10 a.m. departure, Navy Capt. Jonathan Padfield said he had not been told the ships' destination. Padfield said yesterday's deployment was a regular rotation, and the group was going as the Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Group.

Led by the amphibious assault ship Peleliu, the convoy comprises the amphibious ships Pearl Harbor and Dubuque, the cruiser Cape St. George and the destroyers Halsey and Benfold.

On board were Marines from the Camp Pendleton-based 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which took part in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, 2004 tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia and additional tours in Iraq from 2005 to 2007.

The Marines were joined by aviators from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 21 and Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron Light 45, both based at North Island Naval Air Station. Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 166 at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station also went along.

Some of the teary spouses and anxious parents who were gathered on Pier 7 at the San Diego Naval Base at 32nd Street seemed so afraid of thoughts of war that they didn't talk about the ships' destination with their departing spouses or their children.

Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin McCall, 24, was an exception. McCall wanted to be in the midst of fighting.

"I'm a combat photographer," McCall said.

McCall was on his sixth deployment in six years. He was in Iraq in 2005, where he photographed firefights between insurgents and Marines.

"I want to capture the moment when America's finest are out there doing justice," he said. "I love my job. Plain and simple."

His wife, Kelly, 20, red-eyed from crying, said she understood her husband's duties.

"You prepare yourself through the year for this moment," she said.

Navy wife Cerina Lopez seemed at a loss.

Leaving the Peleliu after saying her last goodbyes to her husband, a Marine corporal, Lopez held her 7-week-old son, Zachary Skylar Dean, close to her chest as she cried.

"We didn't talk about where he was going to be deployed," Lopez said. "We talked about his plans when he gets out next year. He wants to join the Chicago Police Department."

Unable to stand by and watch Lopez's pain, Beverly Cline, who came to send her grandson off with the Peleliu, gave Lopez a hug.

"Your baby is beautiful. He is going to be so much company for you," Cline told her.

Standing nearby, Irene Buchanan found little comfort in Cline's words. Buchanan is five months pregnant, and her husband, Ryan, a Navy engineer, went with the Peleliu.

Buchanan's sister, Betty Orman, is six months pregnant. Her husband, also a Navy engineer, deployed with the Peleliu as well.

As the cool, dreary morning wore on, Cline began walking back to her car.

"You don't want to know what I think about the war," she said. "It sucks."