When 1,000 Marines move onto USS Essex, ‘it’s three times the work and twice the mouths to feed'

[unhappycamper]

Sailors aboard the USS Essex direct 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit aircraft aboard the ship's flight deck Tuesday. The unit was embarking back aboard the ship in preparation for Thursday's scheduled departure to the Philippines. The expeditionary troops had been conducting evaluation exercises on Okinawa before this annual spring patrol with the Essex Expeditionary Strike Group.


When 1,000 Marines move onto USS Essex, ‘it’s three times the work and twice the mouths to feed'
By Cindy Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, February 14, 2008

ABOARD THE USS ESSEX — It’s a small, floating city run by about 1,100 sailors.

And when close to 1,000 Marines come aboard, the city comes alive.

“It’s crowded,” boatswain mate Petty Officer 3rd Class Daniel Merwin, 23, said Tuesday aboard the Essex as sailors and Marines moved about the ship. “You just have to accommodate it.”

For Seaman Charlene Moorehead, it seems that “the boat gets smaller,” she said.

“It’s three times the work and twice the mouths to feed,” Moorehead, a cook, said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52436