Truman spending Thanksgiving in Naples

With the Bay of Naples as a backdrop, Rear Adm. William Gortney, left, commander of Carrier Strike Group 10, and Capt. Herm Shelanski, commander of the USS Harry S. Truman, speak with reporters Tuesday on the USS Harry S. Truman's flight deck.


Truman spending Thanksgiving in Naples
By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, November 21, 2007


NAPLES, Italy — In her two years of service in the Navy, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ellysa McCreary has missed two Thanksgivings at home.

“I’ve got mixed feelings. I try not to think about it,” the 20-year-old sailor said Tuesday as she plotted navigational coordinates aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman.

“This year, I’ll hang out with my buddies and make the best of it, and be thankful for what I do have instead of longing after what I don’t.”

What she has is the chance to spend the holiday in Naples, as the carrier pulled into the Italian port city Tuesday morning for its first port visit since leaving Norfolk, Va., on Nov. 5. The carrier is on a scheduled six-month deployment.

Holidays away from family usually are the hardest on deployed troops, said Rear Adm. William Gortney, commander of Carrier Strike Group 10, adding that sailors aboard the Truman and other ships in the strike group will make it feel as much like home as possible for those who dine aboard the ship.

A nation at war marks “unique” challenges during any ship’s cruise, Gortney said.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50413

I spent Thanksgiving of 1988 in Cannes, France. Was invited to have a US turkey dinner at a local family, members of a French-US friendship league. It was great. I am still in touch with them to this day.