Briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
NAVY
Ex-Pearl Harbor sub now in Guam
The USS San Francisco, a nuclear attack submarine once stationed at Pearl Harbor, has become the second of at least three subs to be based in Guam.
Families, sailors and residents of Guam recently welcomed the submarine at Apra Harbor after it arrived from Norfolk, Va.
The 24th Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine built by the Navy, the San Francisco now is part of Submarine Squadron 15.
The USS City of Corpus Christi arrived in October from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire. A third attack submarine to be based in Guam, and expected to arrive in 2004, has yet to be named.
Capt. Joe Mulloy, commander of Submarine Squadron 15, told Stars and Stripes that the U.S. Pacific Fleet submarine force based at Pearl Harbor is evaluating whether to bring more than three submarines to Guam.
ARMY
Tripler nurse earns award
Capt. Kristen Vondruska, a nurse at Tripler Army Medical Center, was the recipient of the Chief Army Nurse Corps Award of Excellence recently presented in Washington, D.C.
"I was so shocked. I just sat in my seat for 30 seconds. It was wonderful," Vondruska said.
Vondruska, 30, has served in the Army for eight years and has worked at Tripler for more than three years. A representative from each treatment facility Armywide was nominated for the award.
Since August, Vondruska has been head nurse of the Medicine-Oncology Ward. Army officials said Vondruska always has a positive and caring attitude toward her staff and patients. She served as chairwoman of the Human Animal Bond Committee, a program that involves pet therapy and interaction with Tripler patients.
AIR FORCE
Spy plane makes stop at Hickam
Hickam Air Force Base recently hosted an aircraft not often seen, and trained for the arrival of one that hopefully will never make a visit.
The U-2S, the airplane the Air Force describes as its "premier reconnaissance aircraft," made a recent stop-over on its way home to California after completing a mission in South Korea.
Firefighters from the 15th Civil Engineer Squadron, meanwhile, recently trained for an emergency landing of the space shuttle at Hickam. The air base is one of eight emergency landing sites in the Pacific.
TRANSPORT
Philadelphia has military seaport
The Port of Philadelphia has made its debut as a military seaport, which is expected to help the city compete for cargo business and federal money.
Workers at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal loaded three helicopters and other heavy equipment Saturday onto a barge bound for Panama. The equipment belongs to the New Jersey National Guard and will be used in a training exercise, said Maj. Mike Cashner, commander of the Army's 956th Transportation Company.
The port won the military seaport designation, which allows for military cargo to be shipped through the port, in October after three years of planning by port officials and the Delaware River Maritime Enterprise Council.
The lack of military certification had long hurt the port, which is in competition with seaports in New York and Norfolk, Va., for cargo business and federal money for port improvement.
