SAN DIEGO, Ca. — U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld received thunderous cheers from thousands of sailors and Marines here and at Camp Pendleton as he thanked them for their efforts in the global war on terrorism.
   The secretary was rounding out a two-day trip to California to visit service members when he was piped aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Station San Diego, headquarters of the Navy's surface and air assets in the Pacific, to the cheers of hundreds of service members who welcomed him "home."
   Rumsfeld had lived in San Diego as a boy when his father was a World War II naval flier. The secretary, too, was a Navy aviator from 1954-57.
   Boasting a crew of 1,200 sailors and 1,500 Marines, the Bonhomme Richard is an amphibious assault ship. It and its crew had returned to port in mid-June from duty in the North Arabian Sea after supporting military operations in Afghanistan.
   Eighty Marines deployed from the Bonhomme Richard for duty in Afghanistan, according to Navy officials. The ship, they added, also launched Harrier jets and helicopter gunships for air missions that supported Operation Anaconda coalition ground operations in March.
   Rumsfeld happily noted during an all-hands meeting aboard the Bonhomme Richard that the ship had earned a coveted Battlefield Efficiency Award as the best in its class. The crew's efforts, he noted, had helped to rout the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan.
   "You performed difficult work, dangerous work, and you did it, I'm told, with an impressive safety record. For that, I congratulate you," Rumsfeld told the crew.
   The secretary noted that the U.S. armed services would continue to transform to meet 21st century threats like terrorists. This means, he said, changes in doctrine, changes in training, organization and leadership.
   U.S. forces, Rumsfeld added, will become lighter, more deployable, responsive and more lethal. There will also be increased interoperability among the services, "jointness," in the future, he noted. More