THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512220086
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
LIBBY VOETSCH of Virginia Beach won't be spending the holidays with her husband because he has business elsewhere this December.
The Navy needs him in the Adriatic Sea.
Cmdr. Stephen S. Voetsch will open his Christmas gifts and ring in the new year with his squadron aboard the carrier America in waters not far from the Balkans, where thousands of U.S. troops are helping bring peace to a place that has known war for the past 43 months.
Before Voetsch and other members of VS-102 left Norfolk on the America last August, they carried aboard a Christmas tree to be set up and decorated in the squadron's ready room. Libby Voetsch and the other wives of the VS-102 airmen will be looking to see that tree, and their husbands gathered around it, when local ABC affiliate WVEC airs ``A Navy Christmas'' three times this weekend.
``A Navy Christmas'' premieres tonight at 7 and will be repeated Sunday at 7 p.m. and again on Christmas Day at 9 a.m. This marks the 10th time that WVEC has sent reporters and photographers far from home to bring together Norfolk-based sailors and Marines with their families at Christmas - a reunion on videotape.
Reporter Joe Flanagan and photographer Bryan Barbe spent two weeks in the Mediterranean, Persian Gulf and Adriatic, hopping from ship to ship to photograph dozens of men and women pulling duty with the America battle group. If you know somebody aboard the America, Wasp, Monongahela, Shreveport or Elrod, park yourself in front of the ol' TV tonight at 7.
And crank up the VCR.
Chances are you'll catch a glimpse of your special someone on ``A Navy Christmas.'' Flanagan ho-ho-ho-ed his way into the VS-102 ready room in a Santa suit, bearing gifts from families back home. This is his ninth assignment on ``A Navy Christmas.''
There wasn't a lot of time for Santa's visit, said Flanagan. As the day approached for 20,000 U.S. troops to set up headquarters in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the pilots aboard the America picked up the pace of operations.
``They were humping noon to midnight,'' said Flanagan.
His bunk was just below the flight deck.
The guy didn't get a decent night's sleep until his trip was over. But who cares about sleep when you've got a job to do? Flanagan, as Santa, had bags full of presents to deliver. And interviews to tape.
``It means a great deal to see our husbands if only for a moment,'' said Voetsch about ``A Navy Christmas.'' Her husband is the squadron's commanding officer. This is their first Christmas apart. Some wives are flying to Italy, hoping to see their husbands should the America tie up in Trieste.
Voetsch will stay home with her 4-year-old.
She plans to tape ``A Navy Christmas'' for her husband's parents living in Jacksonville, Fla.
Cynthia Lima, WVEC's co-anchor on the 6 p.m. newscast and the station's military affairs reporter, appears on ``A Navy Christmas'' to talk with Navy brass and to remind viewers that the America will soon be de-commissioned. She didn't make the trip with Flanagan and Barbe.
On ``A Navy Christmas,'' WVEC brings into focus what a six-month separation means to families in Hampton Roads. Does it get any easier after the second or third time? I don't think so, judging by what comes out of the WVEC interviews.
``You have no choice but to go on with your lives,'' said Libby Voetsch of the separation that will not end until Feb. 26.
WVEC taped Voetsch and the other women married to VS-102 crewman sending holiday greetings to their husbands. The men have seen the tape and enjoyed it immensely, said Flanagan.
Tonight, it is the wives (and husbands) of sailors and Marines in the Adriatic who get to see their loved ones on tape. Ain't TV grand? by CNB