Positivity: U.S. Navy Members Help Rebuild Hurricane-hit Areas

From The Navy Times (HT S.O.B. Alliance member MilTracker):

Truman sailors volunteer for Miss. hurricane cleanup
By William H. McMichael
Times staff writer
March 9, 2006

Volunteers from the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman are spending eight days helping rebuild areas in Gulfport and Long Beach, Miss., which remain devastated in the wake of last summer’s Hurricane Katrina.

The Truman, however, is nowhere near the Mississippi Gulf Coast, though it spent several weeks in the region as part of the Navy relief effort. It’s moored at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for a 10-month maintenance availability. But the carrier’s community project coordinator heard about the relief effort, gained command approval and put out the call. Departments sought volunteers, the sailors put in request chits and they were cleared for 10 days of temporary duty.

But the 25 sailors approved for the trip could only take part while on no-cost temporary additional duty orders. So they raised about $5,000 through lunchtime hot dog sales on the carrier’s fantail to pay for gas and incidentals. Most of their meals at Camp Hope, a tent-trailer-bunkhouse camp built by previous volunteers, would be provided by the First Presbyterian Church of Gulfport, which is coordinating the work.

On March 3, the sailors left in four personal vehicles and two government vans. And “Team Truman” was hoping to make a significant contribution to the ongoing rebuilding effort. “We’re going to be getting sweaty, muddy and maybe a little bloody,” said Lt. Steven Dean, the team’s leader, quoted in a press release, “but we’re going to get the job done.”

The sailors were expected back at the ship on March 13.