The Shuttle March 16, 2012 Issue“We are Legend”Newsletter Edition

USS Enterprise (CVN 65)

Photo and story by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Kristin L. GroverUSS ENTERPRISE, At Sea – Sailors and Marines serving aboard aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) are provided with nutritional information and a variety of healthy diet options every day while underway.

The Health Promotions Committee, along with the Food Service team, work hard to ensure the crew is offered as many opportunities as possible to maintain healthy eating habits during deployment. “Sailors need to understand the balance in weight, weight gain and obesity and how it relates to our nutrition intake,” said Lt. Clifton Butler, assistant coordinator for the Health Promotions Committee. “I advise them to take advantage of the information provided on the ship to ensure they are getting enough nourishment to sustain their bodies and avoid the fatigue and tiredness that commonly affects Sailors while underway.” In the upcoming months, the Health Promotions Committee plans to focus on making sure everyone aboard the Big E is educated on proper nutritional balance. They plan to spread the knowledge through various resources such as the ship’s newspaper, TV programming and by posting food guides on the food serving lines. The information distributed will discuss food groups and explain how to utilize tools like choosemyplate.gov, which

NUTRITION continued on page 2

Panetta Visit Is Met By A ScareBy Greg Jaffe, WASHINGTON POST

KABUL — The Afghan man involved in the Wednesday attack that occurred during Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit to Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan died from burns, said Lt. Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, the number two American commander in Afghanistan. The Afghan, an interpreter at the base, tried to run over a group of U.S. Marines who had assembled on the runway ramp to meet the secretary’s plane. He was driving a stolen pickup truck. He then crashed the vehicle and appeared to set himself on fire, Scaparrotti said. The attack occurred around the time Panetta’s plane landed. There were no explosives involved, but the Afghan may

have been trying to set the car on fire with fuel that he was carrying with him. The Afghan passed away while being treated for his wounds. “His burns were extensive,” Scaparrotti said. “We don’t know his intent... or what motivated him,” Scaparrotti said. He said the man, who was not armed, had “tried to hit the [U.S. Marines] on the ramp,” but missed them and crashed his vehicle. He struck and wounded a British soldier while stealing the pickup truck. “I personally don’t believe it had anything to do with the secretary’s arrival,” the U.S. general said. Wednesday’s attempt appears to be the latest in a string of attacks aimed at U.S. forces while they were inside secure NATO bases or Afghan government

facilities in recent weeks. Six U.S. soldiers were killed in multiple incidents by Afghan soldiers or police following the inadvertent burning of several copies of the Koran by U.S. troops in February. The incident occurred about the time of Panetta’s 11 a.m. arrival at Camp Bastion but was not disclosed by Pentagon officials until about 10 hours later, after some details of it had leaked to the British news media. Panetta’s visit came three days after a U.S. soldier allegedly killed16 Afghan villagers in Kandahar province — a massacre that has provoked widespread outrage across Afghanistan. The unidentified Army staff sergeant involved in Sunday’s killings was moved

Big E Lifestyle: Nutrition

PANETTA continued on page 3

Friday, March 16, 2012Page 2 The Shuttle

Big E Happenings

The Shuttle is published and printed daily underway and bi-weekly in port by the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) Media Department, FPO AE 09543-2810. This newspaper is an authorized publication for members of the Department of Defense. Please direct all story ideas, questions and comments to MC1 (SW) Steve Smith at smithsw@cvn65.navy.mil.

Public Affairs OfficerLt. Cmdr. Sarah T. Self-Kyler

Executive OfficerCapt. G. C. Huffman

Commanding OfficerCapt. William C. Hamilton, Jr.

EditorsMC2 (SW) Kristin L. Grover

MCSN Harry Gordon

The ShuttleUSS Enterprise (CVN 65)

Command Master ChiefABCM (AW/SW) Eric M. Young Yesterday’s 3M answer:

One of the purposes of INSURV is to determine the suitability of ships for

further service.

3M Question of the Day: Who is responsible for all the

maintenance and material condition of individual departments?

3M

NUTRITION continued

Walk-ins for Cruisebook

Photos will be taken at ANY TIME from

0900-11301300-16301800-2100

is the national website the Navy uses to demonstrate the proper balance of what Sailors should be consuming. The ship’s food services team is responsible for ensuring that the 4,600 Sailors and Marines currently aboard can implement what they have learned about good nutrition. Sailors like Culinary Specialist 1st Class Tiesha Drakos work with the leadership in the Big E’s Supply department to plan healthy meals for Sailors to enjoy while underway. “We provide nutritious meals to Sailors and offer healthy snacks for people to grab on the go,” said Drakos. “We may not be able to accommodate everyone, but we try to offer a little bit of everything at each meal.” Meals are planned off of a 14 cycle-day menu and are designed to decrease the amount of fat intake throughout the entire Navy. “The Navy is changing our menus to where everything, even our fried chicken, is being baked,” said Drakos. “We’re trying to get away from frying things and it cuts down on a tremendous amount of fat.” Suggestion boxes are available at each of the mess lines

to allow Sailors to give their input about the meals and make requests. “They make a great effort to listen to out opinions and give us as many options as possible,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Airman Apprentice Brittany Stewart, a food service assistant. “The food is good and there are always healthy items to choose from.” Although the option to eat healthful meals is readily available, many Sailors need added encouragement to avoid the vending machines and other snacks that are also available aboard Enterprise. “Nutrition is a lifestyle modification, it’s something that you have to work at to do,” said Butler. “You have to make a conscious effort to make healthy choices.” Butler added that the Health Promotions Committee is dedicated to informing the crew about all aspects of health maintenance, not just nutrition. Sailors are encouraged to contact a committee member regarding fitness, nutrition, spiritual awareness, mental health, smoking cessation or general wellness.

The USS Enterprise Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society Fundraiser has begun!The NMCRS is committed to ensure that all available resources are used to assist personnel of the Naval Services - active, retired, and their eligible family members - to achieve financial self-sufficiency and find solutions to emergency needs.

The mission of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society is to provide, in partnership with the Navy and Marine Corps, financial, educational, and other assistance to members of the Naval Services of the United States, eligible family members, and survivors when in need; and to receive and manage funds to administer these programs.

Contact your division NMCRS representative and donate today!Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society Fundraiser ends March 31, 2012.

Have a Great Navy Day!

Friday, March 16, 2012 Page 3The Shuttle

World News

The head of a powerful committee vowed Mar. 14 to fight defense budget cuts already set by Congress and boost funding for weapons programs including Navy ships. Just weeks before the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) will write its version of the Pentagon policy bill, Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) outlined his military priorities yesterday during a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. He described a “three-pillared philosophy towards revitalizing our military forces,” intended to reverse $487 billion in longterm cuts imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011, prevent roughly $500 billion more in “sequestration” reductions, and “restore and rebuild” the military. “We should ask ourselves, will this be the moment, right now, when America abandoned its special role in the world, and transformed itself from a superpower to a regional power?” he

asked yesterday. Arguing he will “not be complicit in the dismantling of the Reagan military,” he said if the entire defense budget is cut the nation would still have a “massive deficit” because of entitlement programs. McKeon has been fighting to prevent the sequestration cuts, which will likely start in January unless Congress crafts a plan to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit. He touted yesterday anti-sequestration legislation he crafted, which would prevent the first year of those cuts through federal-workforce reductions. The HASC chairman further called for undoing the first round of 10-year defense cuts brought by the Budget Control Act, which the Pentagon says amount to a $487 billion reduction to its planned spending. “One of my top priorities is getting that half a trillion dollars back,” he said. “We’re past cutting the fat and past the muscle, now we’re cutting

McKeon Calls For Reversing Cuts, Outlines PlansBy Emelie Rutherford, DEFENSE DAILY into the bone,” he said. “Less than 20

percent of our federal spending goes to defense. But 50 percent of our deficit reductions have come from defense. The consequences are being felt.” McKeon lamented that President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget request, in line with spending caps in the Budget Control Act, cuts $43 billion in spending. He cited concerns about Navy ship and Air Force cargo plane reductions, saying the nation must invest in the two services’ modernization if the administration truly wants to enhance the U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific. “We will seek to modernize airlift capabilities, including C-130s and C-5s that predate the Reagan administration,” McKeon said. “We will try to hold back cuts to the Navy’s cruiser force, finding the money for our cruisers to undergo proper upgrades, instead of mothballing vital ships needed to sustain the shift to Asia.

out of Afghanistan to Kuwait, Scaparrotti said. Some Afghan officials had demanded the staff sergeant be tried in Afghanistan.“We informed the [Afghan] government that we were going to move the individual,” Scaparrotti said. “Their response was that they understood that.”The soldier’s unit is from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash., and it is likely that he will face prosecution there if he is charged. A decision on whether to convene a court-martial would be made by an Army general in the soldier’s chain of command.Amid continuing furor over the slayings, U.S. officials showed a base surveillance video of the staff sergeant surrendering to Afghan security guards upon his return to his combat outpost. The video, recorded from a spy balloon floating over the outpost, was released as part of an effort to knock down rumors that other U.S. troops might have been involved.Panetta, making his third trip to Afghanistan, pledged during his visit that a recent string of setbacks would not force the United States to alter its strategy here.

PANETTA continued Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus, the senior Marine commander in southern Afghanistan, virtually ruled out further restrictions on night raids, which have drawn repeated criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and have been a major stumbling block in talks on the framework of a long-term security relationship. “I don’t know how much more accommodating we can be with what is a critical element of a counterinsurgency fight,” Gurganus said. All the night raids are being conducted by joint teams of U.S. and Afghan forces, he said. Speaking to U.S. and Afghan troops at Camp Leatherneck, Panetta sought to tamp down worries about the course of the U.S. war effort after Sunday’s killings in Kandahar province, as well as the nationwide riots that followed an inadvertent burning of Korans last month by U.S. troops at a base north of Kabul. “We have been tested time and time again over a decade of war,” Panetta told the U.S. and Afghan troops who gathered in a stuffy tent. “That is the nature of war... Each of these incidents is deeply troubling, and we have to learn lessons from each of these incidents.”

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Big E Entertainment

Airman Takeshia Johnson from Spartanburg, S.C., joined the Navy one and a half years ago because she wanted to better herself financially, physically and culturally. In her spare time, Johnson enjoys reading. Her future plans include striking the AZ rating and learning to speak at least two additional languages.

AirmanTakeshia Johnson

Sailors of the Day

IC3 Mercedes Smith from Columbus, Ohio, joined the Navy five years ago to make a difference. Smith enjoys spending time with her family in her spare time. In the future, she plans to get out of the Navy and earn a degree in nursing.

Interior Communications Electrician 3rd ClassMercedes Smith