THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 27, 1995 TAG: 9512270122
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
CARRIER COOKIE OPS: Nine cooks aboard the Norfolk-based carrier America, on deployment in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Bosnia, worked overtime to make 5,250 extra Christmas cookies to be delivered to NATO and UN troops on duty in Saravejo. Two of the ship's SH-60 ``Seahawk'' helicopters delivered them just before the holiday. ``These little cookies (made with 300 pounds of flour, 200 pounds of sugar and 30 pounds of raisins) are made with love,'' said Mess Management Specialist Seaman Robert Bishop. Knowing what it is like to be away from home for the holidays, the cooks wanted the troops ashore to know they weren't forgotten. ``And we packed them in heavy-wall repack boxes, layered with wax paper, so they won't break,'' said Bishop. ``It'll take some heavy knocking to break those things.''
BOSNIA CONNECTION: Friends and relatives back home can use their computers to send holiday greetings to U.S. soldiers deployed in Bosnia, the Pentagon has announced. The electronic mail, directed through the Defense Department's ``BosniaLINK'' site on the World Wide Web, can't be earmarked for an individual. But a selection of messages will be distributed to the troops through military print media and the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. To send a message, computer users should access BosniaLINK at http://www.dtic.dla.mil/bosnia/. A form under the heading ``Send your holiday greetings to the troops in Bosnia'' can then be filled out and sent by clicking on the ``send message'' button.
SHIPS CONNECTED TOO: Costing $41.4 million, the Navy is accelerating plans to equip key ships with a commercial communications system that provides high-speed transmission of photos and data, along with voice lines that let sailors call home cheaply. The ``Challenge Athena'' package, first used on the Norfolk-based carrier George Washington last year, will be added to nine more ships in 1996. Next to get the system will be the command ship LaSalle, flagship of the 6th Fleet. The Norfolk-based carriers Theodore Roosevelt and Enterprise will be getting the system in 1996. The system lets the Navy use commercial communications satellites to send messages to ships around the world almost instantaneously. Detailed intelligence photos transmitted over the lines can give Navy pilots more accurate and up to date information than is now available about targets and threats. Medical X-ray pictures transmitted on the system have allowed specialists ashore consult with shipboard doctors about injuries to sailors.
NAPLES HOUSING: The Navy's largest and most critical quality of life project in decades - new housing for military families assigned to Naples, Italy - has been approved. Instead of substandard leased housing, an Italian developer will provide 500 modern housing units, with an option to build 500 more, in an area north of Naples, easily accessible by a modern highway. The site will include schools, hospital, recreation facilities, a commissary and exchange. Construction is to begin early in 1996 with occupancy by the summer of 1997.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
SHIP/SQUADRON RETIREMENTS:
With the new year comes an updated list of Norfolk-based ships and aircraft squadrons the Navy plans to retire. Specific decommissioning dates for each unit will be announced individually, within the month indicated. They are: destroyer tenders Puget Sound and Yellowstone, January; destroyer tender Shenandoah, September; oiler Kalamazoo, September; salvage and rescue ship Edenton, March; carrier America, September; and submarine tender L.Y. Spear. Aircraft squadrons are: Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 2 (HC-2), March; and Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 122 (VAW-122), March.
RETURNING:
The fast-attack submarine Finback returned home Friday after completing a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and covering 22,000 miles. Commanded by Cmdr. Vernon Hutton III, the 130-man crew made it home in time for the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays.
- staff report by CNB