By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Christopher B. Stoltz
U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs

GAETA, Italy – The U.S. 6th Fleet flagship, USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), welcomed more than 800 visitors while the ship was in their homeport of Gaeta, Italy, July 14.

As part of community outreach efforts, Mount Whitney hosted residents of Gaeta, providing them a glimpse of the ship’s interior and what day-to-day life is like aboard the ship.

“Today was a great opportunity to give something back to Gaeta, the wonderful community that we call home,” said Capt. Ted Williams, commanding officer of Mount Whitney. “We are always looking for ways to bring our ship and the community together, and the men and women of Mount Whitney are proud and honored to open our ship to our Italian hosts.”

Williams personally welcomed every visitor as they arrived.

“The captain’s and the admiral's rooms were the most impressive,” said Alicandro Lucia, a local business owner. “The sailor who took us around was translating the whole time and his Italian was not bad. It was nice to see some of the sailors speak Italian.”

The crew was excited to host the visitors and show off their ship. Tour groups guided by Mount Whitney sailors, showed the quarterdeck, bridge and other ship spaces.

“This is the fourth time that I’ve done an open house, and there were a lot more visitors this time,” said Information Systems Technician 1st Class Guy Jacques. “It was still really good to have so much of Gaeta come aboard to see what we do and why we're here.”

Mount Whitney, homeported in Gaeta, Italy, is the U.S. 6th Fleet flagship and operates with a combined crew of U.S. sailors and MSC civil service mariners. The civil service mariners perform navigation, deck, engineering, laundry and galley service operations, while military personnel aboard support communications, weapons systems and security.

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