Thanksgiving treat for sailors far from home
For many Americans, Thanksgiving is a day spent with family. It's a day of travel, grandma's sweet potatoes, football on the television, conversation, laughs.
But yesterday, approximately 150 sailors and marines experienced a different version of the holiday. They stayed on their ship, the USS Blue Ridge, and ate a festive Thanksgiving meal in Hong Kong waters.
'It's kind of different,' said Seaman Joshua Gray, 20, who helps in the ship's kitchen. 'I'm used to my grandma's cooking. And it's a little different helping cook the food here and having to eat it, too.'
But Seaman Gray, from Paragould, Arkansas, saw his shipmates as 'a bigger family'.
'Working in the galley, it's kind of like you're the grandma. You're feeding the whole family,' he said. 'They appreciate it.'
Lance Corporal Spencer Wennermark, 19, like most, missed his family. This was his second Thanksgiving away from home, but he was upbeat.
'I'm thankful for everyone I serve with, my brothers, people that give us our freedoms to make sure our families back home are safe,' said Lance Corporal Wennermark, a marine.
Being in Hong Kong is 'very special to me', he said. 'A lot of people never get the opportunity to come down here in their life. And I think it's a wonderful opportunity, very special to me personally, to experience different cultures and be out here especially during Thanksgiving.'
The USS Blue Ridge is the command ship for the US Seventh Fleet.
The ship carries about 620 sailors, and the average age of a sailor is 22, said Ensign Shawn Eklund, public affairs officer for the ship.
'Their dedication at such a young age to me is a unique story in its own right, and the fact that they're out here, forward deployed away from their family on a Thanksgiving Day, is kind of special,' he said.
Other men and women from the ship met family in Hong Kong or took part in the Meals in the Home Programme of the American Women's Association, Ensign Eklund added.
