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The First Class Petty Officer Association (FCPOA), Women at Sea and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR), sponsored several events such as a Halloween party on the mess decks, a door-decorating contest, bingo, a haunted Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department (AIMD) tunnel and You’ve Been Booed.
You’ve Been Booed and the door-decorating contest began early in the month to get Sailors in the Halloween spirit. You’ve Been Booed started with three goodie bags placed on random doors. The bags were filled with candy to be shared amongst the Sailors in those divisions. The caveat was once a division was “booed,” it became their turn to create a goodie bag and place it on another division’s door. The door-decorating contest was open for all departments to creatively decorate their doors in a festive Halloween manner. The three winners of the contest were Engineering at 02-118-2 in first place, CO’s Admin at 03-159-1-L in second place and AIMD at 1-13-0-Q in third place. Each were awarded gift cards for their efforts.
“Celebrating a holiday underway, such as Halloween or Thanksgiving, brings motivation and lets others know we are in this together and here for one another,” said Kathleen Varner, Abraham Lincoln’s fun boss. “While we all want to be home around those times, we have a mission to do, and that’s why we are here.”
The day of the holiday, Sailors had the option to wear Halloween costumes to enhance the Halloween spirit throughout the Abraham Lincoln. Sailors from the forward mess decks to the engineers working aft could be seen dressed in their costumes.
“For me Halloween has always been my favorite holiday” said Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class Tyler Sisk. “I’ve always celebrated it with my family no matter how old we got. Being able to dress up now on deployment gives me that tiny piece of home.”
Women at Sea, an organization that builds camaraderie through problem-solving, empowerment, and education for all leaders, teamed up with MWR to organize a Halloween party with activities like dancing, a costume contest and water pong, while snacks, a DJ and games were provided for entertainment. Winners of the costume contest were Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class Tyler Sisk dressed as Pennywise for Most Spooky, Chief Aviation Structural Mechanic Dynasty Palaganas dressed as Bananas in Pajamas for Best Homemade Costume, Information Systems Technician 1st Class Anthony Hale dressed as Pennywise for Best Store Bought, Master-at-Arms 1st Class Elizabeth Luna dressed as a Rita Repulsa for Most Creative and Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Kevin Pitchford dressed as Jerome for Crowd Favorite.
“I think it’s a great way to get people together,” said Aerographer’s Mate 2nd Class Madelyn Laughlin, a member of Women at Sea. “We can’t be home with our kids, but we can all have fun together as a family.”
To top off the holiday, the FCPOA set up a haunted AIMD tunnel for Sailors to walk through - if they dared. Volunteers dressed to scare, strobe lights, spooky props and more were waiting beyond the entrance waiting for their next victim.
“It feels great to help Sailors celebrate Halloween while they are on deployment,” said Personnel Specialist 1st Class Robert Bobo, president of Abraham Lincoln’s FCPOA. “We had fun setting this up and getting super involved with making ideas and plans on what to do and how to do it.”
As Sailors entered the haunted AIMD tunnel they were greeted by a variety of scary costumes. Some were covered in what appeared to be blood, while others resembled something from a horror movie, such as Pennywise from IT. Sailors made their way through a maze of cargo nets and near pitch-blackness with only faint hints of light to guide them. Screams could be heard from hangar bay one where the line of Sailors awaited their upcoming doom.
“I don’t normally get scared, but that scared me,” said Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Cassandra MartinezRoman.
“It was way better than what I expected and they did a lot with limited resources,” said Personnel Specialist 2nd Class Gino Philoctete.
Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated on Oct. 31. Its origin dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of the Samhain when people would don costumes and light bonfires in order to ward off ghosts. During the 8th century, Pope Gregory III made Nov. 1 a day to honor all saints, calling it All Saints Day and incorporating some of the same traditions from Samhain. The evening before All Saints Day was called All Hallows Eve and over time became the Halloween we know today.
| Date Taken: | 10.31.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.31.2019 14:24 |
| Story ID: | 357907 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Abraham Lincoln Gets Spooky With It, by PO3 Tyler Priestley, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
