Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric R. Bowen recently returned from a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas and the Persian Gulf with the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, the lead ship of the USS George Washington Joint Task Group.
He was one of 5,000 sailors and Marines who completed the 51,000-mile voyage that included duty off the coast of Bosnia-Herzegovina and enforcing the "no-fly zone" over southern Iraq.
The Joint Task Group participated in the 50th anniversary of D-Day, traveled the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and Red Sea twice and crossed the Indian Ocean into the Persian Gulf.
Petty Officer Bowen is the son of Robert M. and Linda Bowen of Eldersburg. He is a 1990 graduate of Liberty High School who joined the Navy in November 1990.
FIRE
* Eldersburg: Sykesville and Gamber investigated the report of a fire at Liberty High on Bartholow Road at 2:01 p.m. Wednesday. Units were out for 20 minutes.
Winfield responded to investigate the report of smoke in the area of South Klee Mill Road at 8:49 a.m. Wednesday. Units were out for 20 minutes.
Gamber responded for the odor of gas in the 5500 block of Sykesville at 10:40 p.m. Tuesday. Units were out for 36 minutes.