Bursting With Pride: Shanti's Tale

   Once upon a time there was a little girl named Shanti. Shanti grew up and joined the US Navy. She toiled long and hard, was sent to amazing places, and lived aboard ships for months at a time.
Ships. Giant Navy ships. With hundreds of other sailors. For months at a time.
And Shanti loved every minute of it.

She worked her way through the ship's ranks, earning the respect of her peers and her Commanding Officers.

I would like to share with you where she is today:

picture from Shanti's blog, Adventures In Paradise

That's Shanti, sitting in the CAPTAIN'S CHAIR OF THE USS DECATUR!


Dudes, I'm all proud of myself for getting through the day without eating one of my neighbors, and getting dinner on the table at a reasonable time.

She's the COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE USS DECATUR.

I can't even begin to imagine how she feels.
And her Mom, Lynn,  was there for the ceremony- how fabulous is that??!!??

Shanti is chronicling what she can of her current deployment to the Persian Gulf on her blog. The pictures are amazing, and the USS DECATUR is astounding.

We outfitted Shanti's entire crew with wool hats for christmas this year, and are looking to cover the heads of far more sailors next year.

This was a ginormous undertaking, with more donations of time, energy, and monetary resources than you would think.

My great thanks to Lynne for organizing this monumental effort, DHL for donating the shipping costs, Shanti's Dad for providing transportation for one leg of the journey, and of course, to the hundreds of knitters who made hats, stores who donated yarn, Signature Needle Arts (yup- I bought a pair for myself, partly to show my appreciation to Cathy for her generous donation of support, and mostly partly out of pure selfishness), the many school children who made cards and sent letters, and all the volunteers who helped pack all the gifts up for shipping.
Whew!

Shanti, words cannot describe how proud and honored I am to have you in our country's service.
Give 'em Hell, Girl!