Additional Photos from the Thanksgiving Trip

Team,
I received some additional photos from my trip to the CENTCOM AOR that were taken during my visits to the carrier USS HARRY S TRUMAN and cruiser USS NORMANDY. I want to share them with you because I believe they help to tell an important story. All too often all we see are photos of our aircraft carriers launching aircraft to deliver ordnance a thousand miles away in support of our troops on the ground in Afghanistan, or footage of an SM-3 missile being launched from the deck of a cruiser in the Pacific to shoot a failing and potentially dangerous satellite out of the sky. But we don’t always see the men and women below decks who are doing a variety of demanding jobs, day in – day out, around the clock that make everything else possible.

In the galley aboard the HARRY S TRUMAN -
terrific CSs getting the job done, every day.

I was very fortunate to meet and spend time with some of our finest Sailors on both HST and NOR and saw firsthand their great talent and skills at work. For example, the CSs on HST prepared a Thanksgiving meal for the crew – almost 6,000 hungry Sailors – that clearly rivaled anything you would find here at home. It’s something they do three times a day, seven days a week for as long as they are deployed. A remarkable achievement, but for our Navy CSs, it was simply business as usual. But that’s typical of all of the Sailors I met. Everywhere I went on the HST and NOR I found motivated, hard-working professionals proudly serving their ship and our Navy. It’s just who we are and what we do – around the world, every day.
All the best, JCHjr

I started my HST tour with the Aircraft Handler in
Flight Deck Control donating 50 push-ups
to their deployment push-up goal.

Another terrific CS in the galley aboard HARRY S TRUMAN

On board NORMANDY in the galley

On board NORMANDY in the General Workshop



On the bridge of HARRY S TRUMAN - getting "the gouge"
direct from our Sailors



On Flight Deck Control of HARRY S TRUMAN -
getting more gouge

In the forward SPY Radar spaces aboard NORMANDY
with some of the finest FCs in the Navy.