
DATE: Sunday, November 23, 1997             TAG: 9711230029

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  102 lines

USO SHOW SENDS A GREETING CARD OVERSEAS VIDEO OF FAMILIES WILL BE DELIVERED TO THOSE DEPLOYED OVER THE HOLIDAYS.

The Oak Hill families were feeling all warm and fuzzy Saturday.

It could have been the weather - 70-plus degrees. It could have been the hearty holiday make-over of Hangar LP2 at the Norfolk Naval Air Station - heavy on the artificial snow.

More likely, it was the sweatshirts. Whatever the cause, the warm, fuzzy feeling oozed out of the Oak Hill wives and stuck to their sweatshirts in iron-on letters that read ``I love you Scott'' and ``I miss U Daddy.''

They were excited, pumped up and ready to wave at their husbands, shout ``Merry Christmas!'' and throw a little holiday kiss halfway around the world.

The dock landing ship Oak Hill went on deployment on October 3, and will be gone until March. It is out of town, out of port, out of arm's reach for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's and Valentines' Day.

So, on Saturday, the Oak Hill wives - and the families of crew members on 17 other ships and submarines, as well as those in other military services - were at the hangar to take in the USO Holiday Show, sit on Santa's lap, and - most importantly - tape a holiday greeting to send to the deployed sailors, soldiers and pilots just in time for Christmas.

The videos are short segments of all the families from one ship crowded together on stage to chant a greeting, hold a sign and wave and whistle for maybe 60 seconds. They had to maximize the opportunity, and that's what the sweatshirts were for.

``I love you Scott.'' Janet Shaw stood front row and tugged the edge of her warm, fuzzy sweatshirt to make the letters straight. The little Shaws sat at her feet, holding hand-lettered signs for their dad to read. In case he missed the point, Janet had taken a black magic marker and written ``Janet loves Scott'' on her sleeve.

Jessica Reno cuddled the littlest Reno, whose shirt read ``I miss U Daddy.''

And a banner was unfurled across the stage: ``We (heart) U Oak Hill.''

Yvonne Lyall waved her pillow case over her head so her husband could read ``Happy Christmas Danny lots of love Yvonne.'' She didn't mind that it was a week before Thanksgiving and short-sleeve weather outside and all those fuzzy Santa hats and velvet dresses and sweat shirts were just making things seem that much warmer inside.

On the stage, big fuzzy costumed characters Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear sang and danced and pretended to be in the snow. They sang ``Santa wants us to pick up our toys and be good girls and boys'' and the words rolled around in the ECHO-ECho-echo that an empty hangar fills itself with when it's not filled with airplanes.

The camera crew roamed the crowd, trying to capture every single face on tape at least once, to send overseas.

Aisha Thomas was ready. She held a hand-lettered sign just over her pregnant tummy, with an arrow pointing down and the corners of her mouth curling up, way up. She also carried a framed color portrait of her husband, Johnny Thomas.

Baby Johnny is due March 19, but Aisha is hoping she delivers a little late so her husband can make his own due date with the port, March 27, and still be home for the birth. Aisha got an e-mail from her husband just after his ship, the cruiser Normandy, was ordered to the Persian Gulf.

She heard about the USO show just a couple days ago, and hustled down to the hangar to tape a video message.

``I want to get every opportunity to speak to him that I can,'' she said.

Even families of the aircraft carrier Nimitz took the stage, and the wives of Langley's 27th Fighter Squadron, just dispatched to the Middle East, took their turn.

Throughout the hangar, little girls in velvet dresses - red, black, green, blue, purple - trotted around in patent leather pumps. Little boys wore fuzzy Santa caps.

The Oak Hill wives stood on their chairs when Santa rode into the hangar in the back of a police car.

The fuzzy costumed characters and the Miss Virginia USO troupe and the other performers joined in a final rendition of ``Let There be Peace on Earth.''

In the spirit of the occasion, 4-month-old Remington Dean wore his Santa suit. Mom Rina waved his little hand at the camera as she and the other Oak Hill wives tossed their kisses.

``I'm hoping his dad will be able to pick him out,'' she said. ``He was born eight weeks premature. Dad's never seen him smile.''

The Oak Hill is on its first six-month deployment. It's due back on March 27, 1998.

``At 9 a.m.,'' Janet Shaw added.

It was easy to see that she was a Shaw because the Shaw family had ``Shaw'' spelled out in fuzzy letters across their backs. And they had their signs, and they had their arms warmed up and ready to wave and throw kisses.

``We went all out for this,'' she explained. Then she turned and surveyed the decorated hangar.

``This turned out really good,'' she said. ``I'm really impressed. This is a good thing for the ships while they're gone.'' ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Inside hangar LP2 at the Norfolk Naval Air Station, Saturday, Kelsey

Campbell, 4, front center, and other children wave hand-made signs

during the USO Holiday show. Videotapes will go to shipbound

parents.

From left, Jessica Reno, Michelle Smith, Suzanne Hull, Judy Hudson

and Janet Shaw, all wives of crewmen on the dock landing ship Oak

Hill, sing a holiday greeting for their husbands. The USO show

``turned out really good,'' Shaw said. ``I'm really impressed. This

is a good thing for the ships while they're gone.''