Recruits won't be alone this Thanksgiving
CAPE MAY COUNTY – Two hundred and fifty U.S. Coast Guard recruits will spend Thanksgiving with local families.
The U.S. Coast Guard and the American Red Cross will place the recruits with 92 families, as part of Operation Fireside Thursday, Nov. 24. The program allows recruits to celebrate the holiday with a host family while they’re separated from their loved ones during training.
“This is one of the best ways the community can give back to the military,” said Commander Miles Barrett, the chaplain for Training Center Cape May. “It shows the most junior and newest military members that people care about them and their missions.”
Since 1981, Operation Fireside has placed recruits with South Jersey families during the holiday season. The program is coordinated by the American Red Cross Southern Shore Chapter in Cape May Court House.
The families and the recruits will meet at the Training Center Cape May Guardian Chapel, and the recruits will be with the families until 8 p.m. While the recruits are off base, they will be allowed to eat as much as they want, call home, and relax before beginning training again that same day.
“We’re proud to say supporting military members is just one of our many Red Cross missions, and the families who host these men and women are also honored to have them in their homes,” said Donna Croskey, the Operation Fireside coordinator for the Red Cross. “Even after the Holidays, many of the host families attend the recruits’ graduation ceremony and stay in touch long after boot camp.”
Training Center Cape May is the Coast Guard’s only enlisted basic training program, and more than 83 percent of the Service’s workforce receive basic instruction to become Coast Guardsmen. The training center may have more than 600 recruits training to become Coast Guardsmen at any given time from throughout the United States and U.S. territories, according to a press release.
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“Even after the Holidays, many of the host families attend the recruits' graduation ceremony and stay in touch long after boot camp.” Training Center Cape May is the Coast Guard's only enlisted basic training program, and more than 83 percent of the
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He is currently stationed in Rockland, Maine, where he began serving shortly after completing boot camp in May 2011. The Citation reads: "Seaman Simonetti is cited for superior performance of duty while serving at US Coast Guard Station Rockland.
At that time, he was an active member of the US Coast Guard Reserves, joining in January 2001. After boot camp at Cape May, NJ, Deussing was assigned to Yorktown, VA where he earned the rating of a machinery technician. Deussing was then assigned to a
Mile 1/2 in 12:50. Meaning I can pass the coast guard conditioning test if boot camp graduation was tomorrow!!! #USCG
@ In 2 wks my daughter @ follows in my footsteps and reports for USCG boot camp in Cape May NJ. Gonna miss her.