USS Mason Sailors Reflect on Independence Day

Photo By Chief Petty Officer Janweb Lagazo | 160705-N-CL027-185 GULF OF ADEN (July 5, 2016) Officers aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG 87) host an ice cream social for an Independence Day celebration. Mason, deployed as part of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, is supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Janweb B. Lagazo/Released)  

GULF OF ADEN

07.03.2016

Story by Petty Officer 3rd Class Janweb Lagazo 

USS MASON (DDG 87)

By Fire Controlman 3rd Class Cody J. Fischer, USS Mason (DDG 87) Public Affairs

RED SEA (July 3rd,2016) Sailors aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG 87), assigned to the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG), took time to reflect on Independence Day by holding a steel beach picnic and ice cream social, July 3.

“I think back to the Revolution era and the patriots that fought against tyranny to give us our freedom we have today”, Operations Specialist Second Class Cody J. Majorowski-cabazuela, from San Angelo, TX, explains what the day celebrating America’s independence means. “We go through a lot of the same things they did, maybe different versions because they couldn’t speak to their families for months or even years at a time, but being gone away from everything you’ve known to support and protect the ones you love for their independence.”

Americans will celebrate Independence Day by gathering with family and friends to partake in, cookouts, fireworks, and of course honoring and celebrating our nation’s proud colors of the Ol’ Red, White, and Blue. The colors we light off into the sky will amaze the children, as well as the adults, but hopefully it reignites the flame of freedom that we should have as U.S. citizens, to realize and appreciate what it means to truly be independent.

People across America should take time to remember what it means to be free. Independence gave us the freedoms we cherish. Families all over the country are currently missing fathers, mothers, spouses, daughters, sons, brothers and sisters who are currently fighting the same fight we have been fighting for almost 300 years, to maintain the freedom of democracy for our nation.

Hospital Corpsman Jordan M. Smith, from St. Louis, MO, says, “July 4th is a day that every person should celebrate their freedom as Americans but also remember and pray for those who stepped up when it was time to fight for this prospective nation and what they believed in.”

Mason is part of the Eisenhower CSG in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. The CSG includes USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 3, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON 26) and ships USS San Jacinto (CG 56), USS Monterey (CG 61), USS Stout (DDG 55), USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), USS Nitze (DDG 94) and Mason.

Join the conversation with Mason on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MASONDDG87/.

Find more news from USS Mason (DDG 87) at www.navy.mil/local/ddg87.

For more news from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), visit www.navy.mil/local/cvn69.

• Date Taken: 07.03.2016
• Date Posted: 07.10.2016 09:41
• Story ID: 203519
• Location: GULF OF ADEN
• Hometown: NORFOLK, VA, US