GULF OF ADEN - U.S. Sailors and Marines celebrated the Fourth of July with a “Firecracker” fun run and steel beach picnic while at sea aboard the amphibious transport dock ship USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26). “It’s not every day you get to celebrate holidays while on a deployment,” said Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class Earnest Hightower, president of the ship’s First Class Petty Officer Association. “(W)hen that opportunity arises, we make the best of it,” he said. “I think (we) succeeded, in making this feel like a day back home as best we could.” John P. Murtha is currently on its first deployment and part of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit team. It is deployed to the 5th Fleet area of operation in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security connecting the Mediterranean and the Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. (Source: Amphibious Squadron Five 07/08/19) Gulf Coast Note: The John P. Murtha was built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., and commissioned in October 2016.
Shipbuilding and maritime related news from the Central Gulf Coast region
