NAS Pensacola holiday gate hours ...
Thanksgiving Day – Gate 7 at NASP Corry Station and NASP’s West Gate will be closed Nov. 27; will reopen Nov. 28. Christmas – Gate 7 and West Gate closing Dec. 19 at 6 p.m.; will reopen Jan. 5 at 5 a.m.
Naval Hospital Pensacola open Nov. 28 ... Naval Hospital Pensacola (NHP) will be open Nov. 28, following Thanksgiving.
All NHP clinics and departments will be open that day including pharmacy, lab and the internal and family medicine clinics. All of the Medical Home Port Teams (Blue, Orange, Green and Gator) will have same-day appointments and will be available for questions by either calling 505-7171 or through secure messaging via RelayHealth. The Urgent Care Center is also available 365 days a year from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. for all TRICARE beneficiaries.
Vol. 78, No. 46
VISIT GOSPORT ONLINE: www.gosportpensacola.com
November 21, 2014
Sailors sworn in as American citizens By Lt. Cmdr. Troy Sallee NATTC PAO
Students assigned to Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC) became United States citizens during a naturalization ceremony at the National Naval Aviation Museum Nov. 13. During the ceremony 67 citizen candidates, including nine NATTC Sailors, swore allegiance to and became citizens of the United States. This event was different from most other citizenship ceremonies because several of the new American citizens had already sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States when they became U.S. Navy Sailors. “Many people are surprised to learn that American citizenship is not a prerequisite to joining the American armed forces. In fact, for many service members, the armed forces are a means to obtaining citizenship,” said Capt. Alan Dean, NATTC’s commanding officer. AA Alen Samardzic, originally from Croatia, is a student
Chief U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers and Senior U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier applaud at the end of a speech by AN Paulo Bermudez during a naturalization ceremony Nov. 13 at the National Naval Aviation Museum. Bermudez, an aviation professional apprentice career track (APACT) student at Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC), was one of 67 people who became United States citizens during the ceremony, which was held in honor of military veterans. Photo by Janet Thomas
in NATTC’s Aviation Professional Apprentice Career Track (APACT) Course. “It was important for me to become a citizen because I have lived here pretty much my whole life, and it’s all I know,” said Samardzic. “I want to take ad-
vantage of everything the U.S. has to offer – military service, freedom and everything else.” Samardzic and his parents moved from Bosnia to Croatia, and ultimately the United States when he was 2 years old to escape the conflict in Bosnia. He
grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and joined the Navy mostly to take advantage of the travel and the benefits. He also admits, though, that he has always wanted to be in the military and the path to citizenship was a small consideration.
“My dream is to one day become an officer, and possibly a pilot,” he said. “I would like to ultimately become one of the Blue Angels.” Another NATTC APACT student who became a citizen was AA Arturo Gourentchik. He was born in Peru and moved to Newark, Del., when he was 8. “I joined the U.S. Navy to travel and see new things, but also because I plan to take advantage of tuition assistance and the GI bill to finish my civil engineering degree,” said Gourentchik. “I would have become a citizen anyway, but when you are in the military the process is shorter by at least several months.” Looking for a better life and future, AN Fel Bellaflor moved to the United States from the Philippines last year. He worked in a warehouse filling, clearing and packaging containers for seven months until he could go to boot camp. He was disappointed that the job did not have any benefits.
See Citizens on page 2
Mustin Beach gets sand replenishment makeover From NASP Navy Natural Resources
Mustin Beach, near the Naval Air Station Pensacola (NASP) Mustin Beach Club, has received a makeover. Ten years of disappearing sand was replaced in recent months during a project completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in conjunction with NASP and the U.S. Coast Guard. “This project involved moving more than 41,000 cubic yards of beach sand that had built up on the side of the Coast Guard boat basin and transporting the sand to Mustin Beach, where more than 200 feet of sand had eroded due to storm activity,” said Mike Malsom, project manager and biologist for the Mobile District Corps of Engineers. The project, officially termed “U.S. Coast Guard Pensacola Sand Bypass Project” was initially planned more
and Ted Bridis, U.S. Coast Guard Miami Civil Engineering Unit. The sand that had accumulated near the Coast Guard Station was causing a problem by spilling over into the boat basin, while the eroded area along nearby Mustin Beach needed sand. The decision was made to physically move the sand to Mustin Beach. Malsom and the Corps of Engineers team worked with the Coast Guard to plan the project and to obtain funding and permits. The actual work took a month to complete, resulting in four acres of a “new” white sandy shoreline at Mustin Beach. “The project was a great team effort involving a lot of Re-purposed sand has been deposited on a beach area dedicated people and the base is glad to get Mustin Beach near the Mustin Beach Club onboard NAS Pensacola. back to its pre-hurricane width,” Gibson said. “Mustin Photo from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Beach is part of the base’s Adopt-A-Beach program and than five years ago during discussions between Mark the (Naval Hospital Pensacola) Second Class Association Gibson, Navy Natural Resources manager Pensacola, will now have a full new beach to monitor for cleanup.”
USO Thanksgiving feast Nov. 27-30 From USO of Northwest Florida
USO of Northwest Florida will present its seventh annual Thanksgiving Feast & Festivities Nov. 27-30 at the Naval Air Station Pensacola center. The weekend will kick off on Thanksgiving Day with a meal served by volunteers and staff. Other weekend activities will include a chili cook-off, football feeding frenzy, an XBOX One tournament and a movie marathon. The USO is open for active-duty military members and their families as well as retirees. Visitors must show military ID to attend. It has been the goal of the USO for more than 70 years to provide a touch of
home to local military service members. This year, USO Northwest Florida plans on serving a traditional Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings to 1,500 local service members. The USO is in need of help to make the Thanksgiving events successful. Donations of food and money for the event are being accepted. For more information on volunteering for the Thanksgiving weekend, contact the USO at 455-8280, option 4. Donations can be brought to the USO at 153 Ellyson Ave., Bldg. 625-D. Monetary donations can be mailed to: USO NWFL PO Box 33135 Pensacola, FL 32508 or made online at uso.org/northwestflorida.
BRITE@Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show ... BRITE, the U.S. Navy’s Energy mascot, made an appearance at the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show Nov. 7 to promote energy awareness. Reducing energy consumption remains one of the top priorities for CNIC. The Navy has had success with various energy reduction goals, reducing shore energy consumption by 19 percent since 2003 and producing or consuming 23 percent of its shore energy from renewable sources to date. Photo from NavFac SE
Published by Ballinger Publishing, a private firm in no way connected with the Department of the Navy. Opinions contained herein are not official expressions of the Department of the Navy nor do the advertisements constitute Department of the Navy, NAS Pensacola or Ballinger Publishing’s endorsement of products or services advertised.