2 Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 25 December '85

SHOP AT HOME IN CAPE MAY COUNTY

Coast Guard, Community Ease Blues for Recruits

By JACK SMYTH CAPE MAY - Christmas can be a par ticularly depressing time if you are in the service and unable to get leave to spend the day with family or loved ones. There are approximately 300 young men and women at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center here who fall into that category. For some of them, this Christmas will be the first one

that they have spent away from home. Long gone are the days when the Coast Guard permitted recruits to take leave at Christmas. Nowadays, Christmas and Thanksgiving are day-long breaks in the eight-week training cycle But one day is not long enough to permit a trip home. Christmas, however, promises to be a joyful, merry time for the young men and women in training.

A FULL PROGRAM of religious services, caroli ing, recreation, relaxation, and special holiday meals ; are planned for recruits who will be on the base for 1 Christmas. [ And the generosity of ; Cape May County residents r will again provide the opt portunity for almost 200 recruits to share the special warmth of Christmas with area families. 1 Operation Fireside, a program started five years

ago by North Cape May resident and Red Cross volunteer Gertrude Reiss, last week had arranged for more than 180 of the recruits to spend the day relaxing, being entertained or having dinner with host families. FOR THE RECRUITS the holiday will begin with services in the base chapel on Christmas Eve. Protestants will be to attend a worship service at 6:30 p.m., and Catholics can attend Christmas Mass at 8 p.m. The base gym will be open during this period for any recruits who would prefer to play volleyball, basketball, of go swimming. At 8:45 p.m., the recruits will assemble in two groups to raise their voices in Christmas songs. One group of carolers will stroll down Delaware Avenue serenading area homes, while the other contingent will carol up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. After caroling, they will return to the galley for snacks and hot chocolate, and a concert by the Coast Guard band. CHRISTMAS DAY will begin with breakfast at a later-than-usuai hour. "Because of the holiday, they will be able to sleep later than normal," said Lt. Commander Robert O'Hara who oversees training in his capacity as regimental officer. By later, O'Hara said he meant companies of recruits won't be mustered out for morning coffee before 7:20 a.m. Following the morning meal, a movie will be shown in Ida Lewis Auditorium On Thanksgiving, the film was "Beverly Hills Cop," starring Eddie Murphy. Father John Maiorana, Catholic chaplain at the training center, will officiate at a 10 a m mass in the chapel. "Recruits who do not attend the Catholic service will have personal time to call home and talk to their families," O'Hara said. AT 11:40 A.M. O'Hara said, the best part of the day will begin for many recruits. That's when recruits who have opted to accept the hospitality of area families will assemble at the chapel to meet their hosts, hop in cars, and drive off the base. "For recruits not able to leave the base, there will be a noon lunch, the chance to see another movie, and then have a large Christmas dinner," said Lt. ( j.g. ) Mary Ellen McCaffrey, who helped arrange the Christmas schedule. McCaffrey said diners will have ham and turkey for the main course "plus a feast of vegetables, potatoes, a salad bar, drinks, rolls, and desserts." "I ate my Thanksgiving dinner here," said McCaffrey. "A lot of Coast Guard families come in and eat , the meal because it's so 1 nice." A feature of the meal will be ice sculptures prepared by galley cooks to lend a festive note to the occasion. McCaffrey said. "WE'RE TRYING to

make the day as pleasant as possible to lessen the impact of being away from home," said O'Hara. "This probably will be the first of many Christmases these people will miss." Not everybody will be able to spend the day as they please, O'Hara said. One company of recruits will be working in the galley helping prepare meals. "Everyone in the seventh week of training draws galley duty," he said. Most of the 160 officers and enlisted personnel who conduct training at the base will have the day off. "But many of the company commanders will be in visiting with their companies during the day," said O'Hara. O'HARA SAID about 33 members of the training center staff will have duty on Christmas Day. They include cooks, firehouse watch standers, dispensary staff, boat dock and armory. security personnel, as well as the officer of the day and the training duty officer. The majority of the recruits at the center are between 18 and 21 years of age. O'Hara said, although recruits can be as young as 17 and as old as 30. The total number of recruits at the center at this time of year normally is between 600 and 800, O'Hara said. There are only 300 because of uncertainty about federal budget appropriations. O'Hara said, "and because the number of recruits we received in October was higher than usual." WHEN GERTRUDE REISS in 1980 casually proposed the idea that there might be area residents willing to open their homes to recruits on Christmas and Thanksgiving, she had no idea how successful it would be. "It was very small the first year. I think we had about 25 recruits." she said. "But the second year, we had 150 people anxious to offer their hospitality." Reiss said the response to notices she sends to clergymen and church leaders ''is so unbelievable. The feeling, the attitude, is great." Reiss. who is chairperson of the Red Cross Service to

Military Families, accepts invitations to host recrliits "from anywhere. But most of them come from within the county." One family in Ocean City that participates in the program regularly has a bus that can hold 14 people, Reiss said. "It belongs to Austin Bechtold, a teacher, and he shares the recruits with Rev. Albert Alspach, of St. John's Lutheran Church," she said. "I DON'T KNOW. I'm just a motherly type." Reiss said when asked how she got the idea. Reiss said the program peaked in 1983 when she found 300 families willing to open their doors to recruits on Christmas. "Everybody loves the idea, they think it's great," she said. "You couldn't pay me for something like this," she said. "Just to look at the faces of the recruits as they file out of the chapel to meet their rides is reward enough." Meeting Set CAPE MAY - The next meeting of the Fishermen's Wives Association will be held 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 2. at Lund's Fisheries here. For further information, call 885-8654.

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