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Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Elizabeth Cohen
NEW YORK – Sea servicemembers welcomed more than 40 Girl Scouts and their family members from several troops across the lower Hudson Valley to tour the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS New York (LPD 21) during Fleet Week New York (FWNY) 2019, May 25.
Fleet Week New York, now in its 31st year, is the city’s time-honored celebration of the sea services. It is an unparalleled opportunity for the citizens of New York and the surrounding tri-state area to meet Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, as well as witness firsthand the latest capabilities of today’s maritime services.
New York Sailors along with visiting Marines and Coast Guardsmen talked to the Girl Scouts about life in today's maritime services and hosted a question-and-answer session with female servicemembers.
"It’s an honor to have these girls aboard," said Lt. Morgan Dankanich, attached to New York. "The entire group was very engaged and seemed to really appreciate the tour.”
Dankanich led the scouts through more spaces than the touring public typically sees including the hangar bay, flight deck, bridge and wardroom. They were also served lunch on the mess decks.
Calista, 16, experienced FWNY for her second time with troop number 1676 from Ardsley, New York. In addition to the tour, she, her fellow Girl Scouts and their family members engaged a panel of female servicemembers on what life is like in the Armed Forces.
"The military looks like a great experience," she said. “I love coming out and learning how the military is run."
Chief Logistics Specialist Starletha Boykin, the supply department leading chief petty officer aboard New York, was proud to be a part of the panel because of her previous experiences.
"It's giving back, because I was in the Girl Scouts,” said Boykin. “To have influential leaders tell me what to do to get where they were at was so important. That 10 to 13 age range is when girls start to form ideas of what they want to be. To set the example of what they might want to be means so much to me."
This was the 18th year of the Hudson Valley area Girl Scouts' Operation Cookie Drop, which offers a taste of home to as many servicemembers as possible by delivering hundreds of thousands of cases of Girl Scout cookies to military commands world-wide.
"We started as a result of 9/11," said Alison Bergman, the founder and director of Op-eration Cookie Drop. "We felt that we had to do something to let the soldiers, sailors, and all military know we cared about them."
Dankanich expressed gratitude to the scouts on behalf of the Marines and Sailors aboard New York cookies will be distributed to.
"It means a lot when people go out of their way to provide for the troops and the morale boost that it gives the crew and the troops can't be compared to anything else," she said. "One small thing like a box of cookies can change someone's day. Its nice to have people looking out for us."
| Date Taken: | 05.25.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 05.25.2019 18:24 |
| Story ID: | 323997 |
| Location: | NEW YORK, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 92 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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