Thousands of sailors will be carving up and eating turkey in between launching fighter jets from the USS Eisenhower to strike the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
While Americans back stateside are enjoying their time off for the holidays, 5,200 sailors will spend Thursday on-duty and taking the fight to ISIS, The Associated Press reports.
Part of the crew is assisting the fighter jets to take off from the aircraft carrier, while others are more directly engaged in combat, namely by bombing ISIS targets.
For Navy Capt. Paul C. Spedero Jr., the crew being on-duty for the day doesn’t mean Thanksgiving will be ruined.
“It’s not going to stop us from having a great Thanksgiving meal,” Spedero told The Associated Press. “We’re going to watch football when we can. It’ll probably be a little bit time-delayed but we’re going to do all the things that we can do and what we can expect to do with our families back home.”
Spedero notes that 1,100 bombs have been dropped on ISIS targets since June.
Culinary specialist Antonio Brown thinks that Thanksgiving is the most important meal of the year for cooking staff–even more important than Christmas.
“It’s like the Super Bowl. We care about Christmas, yes indeed, but Thanksgiving we try to show out,” Brown said. “When everybody is able to sit down and eat a nice, healthy, nutritious meal and everything, it’s like it takes them back.”
One fighter pilot, Lt. Jennifer Sandifer, plans to grab a bite to eat of turkey in the morning before taking off into the sky in an F/A-18E Super Hornet. For 6-9 hours, she’ll strike ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, perhaps in Mosul, a strategic city in northern Iraq, where ISIS is being hammered.
Forces on the ground have severed the last remaining supply line from Mosul to Syria, leaving ISIS fighters in the city without access to assistance. The fight to retake Mosul from ISIS has raged since Oct. 17 when Iraqi troops launched their attack.
More than ever, the Navy is relying on extremely precise munitions. As ISIS fighters lose more and more territory, they’re hiding amongst civilians to ward off bombs from above.
“They’re actually using civilians in military capacity to shield them, knowing that that would stay the hand of the coalition,” said Rear Adm. James Malloy, commander of the Eisenhower strike group. “The power of the precision, responsive airstrikes that we provide is even more critical than before.”
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