Gunnery Sgt. Rudy Galima, left, and Sgt. Maj. Adrian Gamboa, right, man food stations behind a fruit-filled cornucopia as other Marine staff noncommissioned officers take their shifts to serve Thanksgiving dinner aboard USS Cleveland here Nov. 26. Galima is a Hilo, Hawaii, native and Gamboa is from Chicago. They are serving with Combat Logistics Battalion 11, the logistics-combat element of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Scott Dunn

On Turkey Day, ship’s officers, senior enlisted do the serving

27 Nov 2009 | Gunnery Sgt. Scott Dunn 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit

PERSIAN GULF -- Thanksgiving dinner aboard USS Cleveland took two days to prepare, included 16 whole turkeys and fed more than 700 service members here Nov. 26.

Eighty-nine Navy and Marine cooks, messmen and food-service attendants made the fare and a presentation that included baked-bread cornucopias and alligator-shaped loaves.

Officers and senior enlisted on board took shifts serving the junior enlisted on the mess deck.

“We know who the hard workers are,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Rodrick Frierson, leading culinary specialist. “This day is for them.”

“It’s one way to give thanks to (the junior enlisted) and the work they do every day,” said Gunnery Sgt. Rudy Galima, a Hilo, Hawaii, native, who served turkey.

Galima is the logistics chief for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s combat logistics element.

The 11th MEU, a rapid-response air-ground task force, is serving a regularly scheduled deployment in the Middle East as part of the Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group, a Navy and Marine Corps team.

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