THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512120335
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
OPERATION JINGLE: Military personnel who can't go home for the holidays can bring their immediate families to Norfolk Dec. 23-26, where they can stay in hotel rooms for free, donated by more than a dozen hotels. Operation JINGLE (Join In Giving A Little Extra) is coordinated by the Norfolk Hotel/Motel Association, the public affairs office of Norfolk Naval Base and the Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau. Last year 21 hotels and motels participated, filling 140 rooms and giving away $23,400 worth of accommodations. Interested service members may reserve the rooms by calling the public affairs office at 444-7955, or the Norfolk convention bureau at 441-5266. The deadline is 4:30 p.m. Friday. The only cost is a $10 donation per family to the Navy/Marine Corps Relief Fund.
EUSTIS TROOPS BACK: Nearly 300 soldiers from the 7th Transportation Group at Fort Eustis returned home Friday from Egypt, where they participated in exercise Bright Star, a joint service maneuver sponsored by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. About 550 soldiers deployed in September to support the exercise, operating port terminal services and watercraft. Two of the group's logistics vessels, the Gen. Frank S. Besson Jr. and Spec. James A. Loux, as well as the 331st Transportation Company, returned to Fort Eustis in November.
FREEDOM SHRINE: Forty residents of Meridian, Miss., flew to Norfolk last week to dedicate the Freedom Shrine on the carrier John C. Stennis. The shrine is one of 11,000 that have been dedicated throughout the country by the National Exchange Club. The Freedom Shrine boasts a collection of copies of 28 of the most important and historical documents of the United States, including the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. Other locations where shrines have been established include schools, airports and libraries. Members of the Exchange Club of Meridian have worked for more than six years to organize the dedication.
E.R.'' ON A NAVY SHIP: Two hospital corpsmen stationed on the amphibious assault ship Inchon were awarded the Navy achievement medal for saving two shipyard workers burned at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., where the Inchon is undergoing renovation. Corpsmen Paul Langrehr and Matthew Beltz saw the workers on a nearby ship and responded immediately, removing the workers' smouldering clothes and administrating oxygen and an IV. The Inchon, formerly based in Norfolk, is being converted to a mine warfare control ship.
CORPSMEN MEMBERSHIP: The American Association of Navy Hospital Corpsmen is accepting active membership and renewals for 1995. Those eligible are pharmacist mates or hospital corpsmen, Navy physicians, Navy nurses, widows or widowers and those in the Army, Coast Guard or Air Force who served in similar capacity in naval service. For additional information, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Joe B. Havens, founder of AAONHC, 43 Pleasant Valley Road West, Greenbrier, Ark. 72058.
HOLIDAY ILLUMINATIONS: Celebrate the holidays by attending the illumination of the Old Cape Henry lighthouse. The annual event will be held at 5 p.m. today. The lighthouse will be illuminated from 5 to 9 p.m. through New Year's Day. For more information, call the Fort Story public affairs office at 422-7755 or the Military Police at 422-7141. Also, Operation Decorama, the holiday lighting of Norfolk-based ships, will continue through Jan. 3 at Norfolk Naval Base. The public is invited to see the Navy ships lighted between 6 and 9 p.m. each evening.
COMINGS & GOINGS
CHANGE OF COMMAND:
Cmdr. Raul R. Garcia will relieve Cmdr. Jacob P. Wilkins as commanding officer of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 125 (VAW-125) in a ceremony Friday at Norfolk Naval Air Station. Garcia most recently served as the squadron's executive officer. Wilkins' next assignment is to the Ukraine as a naval attache.
Cmdr. Bob A. Brauer will relieve Cmdr. Richard C. Bedford as commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 41 Friday. Brauer most recently served as the squadron's executive officer. Bedford's next assignment is as strike operations officer for the Sixth Fleet.
- staff report by CNB