GROTON, Conn. (AP) – Catherine Rupp held 1-year-old Nadia Estes in her arms Monday, bouncing, swaying and cooing to keep her occupied while the girl’s mother, Debbie Estes, paced nervously waiting for her husband to return home from work.

In this case, work was a 6-month stint aboard the fast-attack submarine USS Augusta, which returned home Monday from a successful combat operation in the Persian Gulf.

Todd Estes is a petty officer on the sub, which is named for Maine’s capital.

“She’s been there for me and I’m here for her,” said Rupp, 30, whose submariner husband returned home Saturday aboard the USS Providence. “That’s the way it is for us. We support each other while our men are away.”

More than 300 people stood in the sweltering heat and humidity on the pier at the U.S. submarine station in Groton awaiting the arrival of the Augusta, which fired cruise missiles in support of U.S. and allied ground forces in the war with Iraq.

The crowd cheered as the mammoth vessel chugged slowly up the Thames River accompanied by a tug and fire boat, which blasted a spray of water to warn any smaller craft that might have been in the way.

“I haven’t seen him in, oh, 10 months or so,” said Laurie Bulkley, whose husband, David Bulkley, serves as chief of the boat aboard the Augusta. He had previously served a four-month deployment aboard the USS Hartford before shipping out on the Augusta.

“He keeps going from sea to sea, instead of from sea to shore,” she continued. “It’s tough, but that’s his job and he loves it.”

The Bulkleys have been married for 20 of the 23 years he’s been in the Navy. David Bulkley missed his wife’s 40th birthday and their 20th anniversary because he was at sea.

The Navy wives say the support they get from each other helps and comforts them through the long stretches without their husbands.

“She’s been a good friend through everything,” Debbie Estes said about Catherine Rupp. “I don’t know where any of us would be without each other. While your husband is away it helps to have someone there to pick up the slack – and if she’s going through the same things as you are then you both have someone to talk to.”

The women take part in family support groups to discuss their feelings. They and their kids attend ball games together. They go to the circus or bowling alley.

They try to live as normal a life as possible while their significant others are away.

“It’s definitely not for everyone,” Catherine Rupp said of the Navy spouse’s life. “You don’t really know what you’re in for until you start living the life.”

When their husbands return home, joy and relief replace anxiety.

The Providence sounded a long blast from its air horn as the Augusta pulled closer to its berth. Once the ship was tied up and secured, the men gathered on deck began to walk off. Todd Estes was the first to spot his wife, who bounded off the gang plank and dashed over to greet her.

She had won the right to the traditional “first kiss” in a raffle a few days earlier. Cameras and reporters were there to record the occasion. “OK you two, break it up already!” someone from the crowd shouted.

Neither of them seemed to hear it.

AP-ES-08-11-03 1922EDT