www.flagshipnews.com | The Flagship | Section 2 | Thursday, January 20, 2022 1
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NAS Pensacola Capt. Terrence Shashaty assumed command of Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola from Capt. Tim Kinsella during a change of command ceremony Jan. 13 at the National Naval Aviation Museum. PAGE B3
Weathering COVID, Cold and Flu nothing to sneeze at By Douglas Stutz
Naval Hospital Bremerton/Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Bremerton Public Affairs
Food Network personality Robert Irvine encourages Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Louis Lubin and his team as they prepare plates of food for the annual Army/Navy Cook-off at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, PA. CS2 Lubin represented the White House food service team and was declared the winner. (RUSSELL STEWART)
Navy Culinary Specialist Wins Army/Navy CookOff at PA Farm Show By Samantha Lohr
Naval Supply Systems Command Public Affairs
HARRISBURG, PA, — A Navy culinary specialist won the Army vs. Navy Cook-off at the 106th Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Jan. 13. Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Louis Lubin led a team of local media personalities, Paola Tristan Arruda and Jeremy Jenkins from Harrisburg’s WGAL Channel 8, to create the most appealing dish from surprise ingredients in only 30 minutes. Each team was given ingredients from the PA Preferred program, which identifies and promotes food and agricultural products grown, produced or processed in Pennsylvania. Some of the ingredients were London broil, potatoes, honey, dill flavored hard-boiled eggs, garlic and jalapeno jam. Both teams had to incorporate everything
from their surprise bag into the dish. A team of four judges rated the dishes based on taste, presentation, harmony of ingredients, visual appeal, and originality. The judges said Lubin’s London Broil was cooked to perfection and precisely sliced for optimum taste. The Pennsylvania Farm Show is held every January at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg. It is the largest indoor agricultural event in the United States, offering 24 acres of exhibition space under one roof. The event attracts more than half a million visitors every year. The iron-chef style competition was hosted by Food Network personality Robert Irvine. He helped guide both teams during the competition and engaged the audience with food tips and tricks. “The Navy has more than 8,000 culinary
specialists (CSs) serving nutritious, wholesome food every day to support warfighter peak physical and mental performance,” said Cmdr. Leanne Riley, director Navy Food Service, Naval Supply Systems Command. “This competition highlighted the skill of our Navy’s culinary professionals, and was a great way to show how our CSs use innovation to increase effectiveness and efficiency of food service operations.” NAVSUP’s mission is to provide supplies, services, and quality-of-life support to the Navy and joint warfighter. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and employing a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel, NAVSUP oversees logistics programs in the areas of supply operations, conventional ordnance, contracting, resale, fuel, transportation, and security assistance.
It’s the viral “Triple Threat” of respiratory illnesses which public health experts grimly knew could happen. The Omicron variant of the COVID-19 outbreak, along with the annual winter cold and influenza season(s) are making it difficult for a number of people to weather the winter. Officials at Puget Sound Military Health System (MHS) commands such as Naval Hospital Bremerton (NHB), along with Madigan Army Medical Center and Naval Health Clinic Oak Harbor are helping to prevent the pandemic as well as protect patients from the common cold and flu. NHB subject matter experts strongly advocate that everyone should continue to take practical preventive measure to ward off the three highly-infectious viruses. “Since we began administering COVID19 vaccines on Dec. 23, 2020, that is the best tool we all have to help protect us against COVID-19, slow the transmission of the virus and also reduce the possibility of new emergent variants,” said Dr. Dan Frederick, NHB/NMRTC Bremerton population health officer and public health emergency officer. Frederick also advocates for all those vaccinated to get a booster shot. “Being vaccinated strengthens our immune system against the disease. If someone does get the highly-contagious COVID-19 virus or the flu, any symptoms will be less severe and not result on needing to be admitted for in-patient care,” explained Frederick. The viruses are spread from person to person, especially between those in close contact — six feet or less - with each other. All are shared by droplets that occur when someone with the illness coughs, sneezes, or talks. The droplets spray out and land on someone else and get inhaled into their lungs. A person can also get physically infected by shaking hands, touching a handrail or door knob that has the virus on it and then touching their own nose, eyes or mouth. There are also multiple protective measures which everyone can apply daily to mitigate the potential spread of the viruses, such as hand washing; avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands; avoid close contact with sick people and maintain social distancing of at least six feet; cover cough/sneezes and discard used tissues and wash hands immediately afterwards; clean/disinfect frequently touched surfaces at least daily and cover your nose and mouth with a face mask when around others. Even for the common cold, of which there is no known cure, the CDC notes people can reduce the risk of getting a cold by hand washing often, for at least 20 seconds with soap and water and avoid touching your face with unwashed hands. With the Omicron variant surging over the last several weeks, it is now the dominant strain of the pandemic in the U.S. It is also causing a rise in COVID cases throughout the Puget Sound MHS and Turn to COVID, Page 7
NAVFAC Family Coach Canines in Support of Veterans By Matthew Stinson
Naval Facilities Engineering Command Washington Public Affairs
DC, — It was the Fall of 2019 and Luke and Kimberly Armstrong were searching for an opportunity to give back to their community. They wanted to find a veteran-focused charity to support, as they both were raised in military families. In the early days of their marriage, they had each decided to make community service a core value for their own family and sought out an organization in which their two children could serve as well. Before long, this family of four was on their way to welcoming their first four-legged student into their home. Luke and Kimberly each serve Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) in Washington D.C. Kimberly is an environmental engineer who has served at NAVFAC commands around the world for the last twenty years. Luke joined NAVFAC in 2007 as a community planner and is currently serving as the Facilities Management Division Director for Naval Support Activity Washington. They met each other in Guam while serving at NAVFAC Marianas, fell in love, got married and have two children, Lily and Lex. All together, the Armstrongs are a true NAVFAC family. The Armstrongs leveraged the Combined Federal Campaign, the world’s largest and most successful annual workplace charity campaign, to find the right veteran-focused charity to support. They chose Semper K9,
an organization that rescues dogs from shelters and trains them to be service dogs at no cost for disabled veterans. “Years ago, a friend of mine at Naval Support Activity Bethesda, Steve Clagett, introduced me to the idea of fostering and training dogs into service animals,” said Luke Armstrong. “It took some time to find an organization that would allow, at the time, a six-year-old and an eight-yearold to volunteer. After research and then participating in an orientation with the trainers and volunteer coaches, we knew we had found an organization our family would love to support.” The entire family began training to become canine coaches. Over the course of six months, they all took classes and were examined on their canine coaching capabilities. After passing with flying colors, they received their first dog to train in June 2020. Upon successfully graduating their first dog, they were assigned their second. That dog’s name is Sammy. Sammy is part poodle and part cattle dog. He has a friendly personality and is agile and intelligent. Just the right combination of attributes to be a standout service dog. “At just six-months-old, we were already working with Sammy to be able to retrieve keys, phones, and medicine bottles—all items that a veteran may need assistance with at home,” Luke said. “He loves to play and run in the backyard and on playgrounds with the kids. Being part poodle Turn to Family, Page 7
The Armstrong family trained a service dog for a disabled veteran through the organization Semper K9. (COURTESY PHOTO)