• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

VCNO Visits Eisenhower Sailors

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100218-17
Release Date: 2/18/2010 4:58:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman William Jamieson and Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Amy Kirk

USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, At Sea (NNS) -- Vice Chief of Naval Operations (VCNO) Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert visited the crew of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) Feb. 16 to address Sailors deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR).

The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) relieved the Nimitz CSG as Commander, Task Force 50 Jan. 25, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and increasing security and stability throughout the region.

"I've been on Ike before when I was working with Fleet Forces Command," said Greenert. "The ship and the Sailors continue to amaze me."

Greenert commended the Ike crew members on their professionalism and readiness to serve and said he understood the sacrifices the Sailors were making in time spent away from loved ones in order to return to 5th Fleet less than six months after completing a deployment to the same area.

"We asked the crew to turn around and go out in less than a year," said Greenert. "They are performing marvelously."

Greenert added that the Sailors should keep an eye on family readiness even while far away from home.

"Your family is your foundation," he said. "They are the wind beneath your wings, and they are the ones that will get you through all this."

Taking time to visit various spaces aboard the ship as well as lend a hand serving dinner to the crew, Greenert said he was impressed with the high level of morale among Eisenhower's Sailors.

Greenert was accompanied by Rear Adm. Karen Flaherty, the Bureau of Navy Medicine's Deputy Chief of Wounded, Ill and Injured, and Capt. Oakley "Key" Watkins, commanding officer of Navy Safe Harbor, a program designed to support all seriously ill and injured service members, not just those wounded in combat.

Eisenhower is underway in the Arabian Gulf on a regularly scheduled deployment to the 5th Fleet. Operations in the 5th Fleet AOR are focused on reassuring regional partners of the coalition's commitment to help set conditions for security and stability. U.S. forces maintain a naval and air presence in the region that deters destabilizing activities while safeguarding the region's vital links to the global economy.