Sailors offer thanks between bomb runs

By Hrvoje Hranjski

Associated Press

ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT – The roar of the fighter jets in the background, Thanksgiving events kicked off on this aircraft carrier today with Miami Dolphins cheerleaders dancing and singing before hundreds of excited crew members enjoying a rare break from the war.

Some of the crew stood on airplane wings as dawn was breaking to get a better view of the seven women dancers waving pompoms to the tunes of James Brown’s “Living in America.”

“It’s good for the people’s morale, with all this fighting that’s going on,” said Aaron Glover, 24, from New York City. “It’s good to get people holding in high spirits for the holiday season.”

The cheerleaders, dressed in hot pants and green football jerseys, signed autographs and ate with the troops in the mess deck.

Petty Officer Penny Rice, 37, agreed the show was good for morale.

“But I wish the cheerleaders weren’t so scantily clad. Or at least showed up with a male escort equally scantily clad,” said Rice, echoing the thoughts of others among the 700 women among the crew of 5,500.

The show started around 1 a.m., not long after their shift began. It last about half an hour, then it was back to work. The crew works nights and sleeps during the day.

U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats and Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornets were catapulted off the flight deck, one level above the hangar bay, on yet another mission of airstrikes in Afghanistan.

The carrier’s crew don’t get much of a holiday, but at least they will have a feast. When it left its home port of Norfolk, Va., on Sept. 19, the Roosevelt was carrying another important cargo along with its warplanes and bombs: 3,000 pounds of frozen turkey.

Starting tonight, the ship’s chefs will pop the 20-pound birds in giant ovens for about four to six hours, said Petty Officer James Hodge, 34, a manager in the second galley.

The crew of 5,500 men and women, Navy and Marines, will enter the galleys of the huge ship in two seatings Friday morning. The first will sit at the tables at 3 a.m. local time, to coincide with the holiday at home. They will be replaced by those who worked the night shift at 6 a.m.

The chefs will also prepare 1,600 pounds of baked ham in pineapple sauce and 2,300 pounds of roast boneless rib-eye beef, as well as tomato soup, roast potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, canned carrots and cornbread dressing.

The dessert menu includes pumpkin pie, cherry pie, minced meat pie, lemon meringue and ice cream.

It is a massive effort to prepare the banquet, but the mess staff of 300 is not daunted.

“We’re used to it,” said Hodge, 34, of Philadelphia.

Crew members said that being away from home for more than two months is the hardest part of their mission, but that the mission’s goal is what keeps them going.

The pace of the airstrikes is so intense that most of them have little time for more than a quick check of e-mail or a phone call back home before they lie down to sleep after their shifts, dog tired.

“It’s always hard to be away from your family, no matter whether it’s holidays or not,” said a Marine F/A-18C Hornet pilot, identified only by his call sign Squeeze.

“We kind of consider ourselves a family out here,” said the 45-year-old pilot from Beaufort, S.C. “We’re obviously standing very busy, which makes for the time going a lot faster.”

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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