A former South Point man is taking part in what may be the longest deployment of any U.S. vessel during the war in Iraq.

Second Class Mess Specialist Caleb Noble is sailing the seas of the Persian Gulf on the U.S.S. NASSAU. His voyage to the Persian Gulf began in August. Noble said it may be a while before he sets foot on dry land in the United States again. Meanwhile, his mother awaits the day she sees her son again.

"We have been deployed for eight months," Noble wrote in an e-mail to The Ironton Tribune. "We have only been in port for 13 of the 232 days, currently we have been underway for about 65 days.

The deployment has been a really long one, but it has been good."

Noble is on board the NASSAU with several other Buckeyes from the Columbus area and one sailor from Ashland, Ky. They are among the 882 enlisted men and 82 officers on the amphibious assault ship.

The lengthy voyage has made Noble miss some of the simple joys in life that many take for granted.

"I think it's funny because you come out here and then you realize all the little things that you miss like real showers, being able to sleep in a bed, not a 3-by-7 mattress and then a thin blue curtain to separate you from everything else.

There are little things like going to a store and being able to pick something up," Noble said.

Noble is a 1999 graduate of South Point High School and has been in the Navy for four years. He is the son of Ruth Estep of Chesapeake. He and his wife, Amanda, now make their home in Virginia Beach, Va.

Estep said her youngest son's decision to enter the military came as a surprise to her. He was a senior in high school when he first mentioned his interest in the U.S. Navy.

"We debated it back and forth for a few months," Estep said. "Then about a month before he graduated, I went ahead and signed the papers so he could join because he wasn't even 18 yet. That was hard, watching him leave and knowing he'd be gone for his 18th birthday. At first, I didn't think about it a whole lot, but then when war broke out, I was just sick -- sick and scared, and proud, too."

Estep said she stays in touch with her son by e-mail, and waits for the day she can see him again.

"I went down (to Virginia) and his wife, Amanda and I watched his ship leave in August," Estep said. "That was hard. I will go back when his ship comes in."

Meanwhile, she follows the war on television and sometimes via the Internet.

Noble said wile he knows that many Americans are proud of the job he and other men and women in the service are doing in the Middle East, he is painfully aware of the anti-war protests in some of the larger cities.

"The only thing that kills us is that you see all these people protesting about the war, but you know that

people just don't want to look at the sacrifices that the crews of the ships have to make," Noble said.

Estep said she is especially mindful that the men and women who are serving their country overseas are doing a job that few are willing or prepared to do.

"To put your life on the line for people you've never even met, that just amazes me," Estep said. "I'm proud of my son. I'm proud of all of our troops."