Blogger Embed Opportunities

Via

All-

Missed the opportunity to embark aboard the USS Kearsarge during Operation
Continuing Promise last year? Embedded with the Kearsarge and want to do it
again? Here are two more opportunities, one is just around the corner, and
the other is a few months away.

In mid-January, Africa Partnership Station (APS) aboard USS Nashville will
depart for a five-month deployment to the Gulf of Guinea. There will be
opportunities to meet the ship in several of the ports in the Gulf of
Guinea. Consider embarking aboard USS Nashville in Rota, Spain or Dakar,
Senegal in late January/early February timeframe. APS Nashville will also
visit Ghana, Gabon, Cameroon, and Nigeria. The time in between major
deployments is covered by mobile training team visits, maritime patrol
aircraft exercises and port visits by individual naval vessels.

APS is an international initiative developed by United States Naval Forces
Europe, which aims to work cooperatively with U.S. and international
partners to improve maritime safety and security in Western Africa as part
of U.S. Africa Command's Theater Security Cooperation program.

If you are interested in embarking, or would like additional information
about the deployment or APS, please contact Lt. Patrick Foughty, public
affairs officer for this initiative. He can be reached at (see below)
or via e-mail at patrick.foughty(at)eu.navy.mil. (Where possible, please
include me on your correspondence, as we'll be helping coordinate blogger
participation in this mission.)

Embark Opportunity #2: Operation Continuing Promise 2009 aboard USNS
Comfort:

In early April, consider embarking aboard Military Sealift Command's
hospital ship USNS Comfort. Operation Continuing Promise 2009 is a
four-month deployment which will be visiting such countries as Dominican
Republic, Haiti, El Salavador, and Panama. If you are interested in
embarking aboard USNS Comfort, please let me know.

The purpose of the Continuing Promise 2009 mission is to demonstrate U.S.
commitment and support to Latin America and the Caribbean region by
providing medical services and humanitarian assistance.

To learn more about USNS Comfort's last mission in 2007, visit United States
Southern Command's Web site
http://www.southcom.mil/AppsSC/factFiles.php?id=6

V/r,
LT Jennifer Cragg
New Media Directorate
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Defense
Media Activity
601 North Fairfax Street, Suite 311
Alexandria, Virginia 22314-2007

If anyone is interested, we have LT Cragg's and Lt. Foughty,contact information, just email us a greyhawk(at)mudvillegazette(dot)com.

On the Road in Iraq With Our Troops and Gary Sinise

With the help of the USO, my brother-in-law Jack, and my friend Jonathan Flora who used a handheld camera, you will see what happened on a seven day trip I took to Iraq last summer which will air this Saturday night on the FOX News Channel. It was my fourth trip there with the USO. My goal, as always, was to cover as many miles as possible and to take pictures, sign autographs and shake hands with as many troops as I could in the time I had. Stops included bases in Kuwait and in Iraq — Al Asad, Al Qaim, Ramadi, Habbaniyah, TQ airbase and Baghdad.

It was the first time I have let a camera follow me around on one of these trips.