Fleet Hometown News Program Brings Sailors Home
Story Number: NNS081016-17
Release Date: 10/16/2008 6:10:00 AM
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (AW/SW) Monique K. Hilley, USS Theodore Roosevelt Public Affairs
USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, At sea (NNS) -- On board USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), there is a program that is seldom heard about, yet heard throughout the world. TR's Fleet Hometown News (FHTN) Program is a program that allows the stories of its Sailors to be told back home.
TR's Fleet Hometown News Program is run by the Public Affairs Office (PAO). Sailors can come to PAO any time and fill out a release form, which is then forwarded to the Fleet Hometown News Center in Norfolk. Any time the Sailor is recognized on the ship, they can update the form and the information will be passed on to their hometown newspapers and other local outlets for dissemination. Once the FHTN Center has the initial release, relevant stories, photos and other various media are forwarded to the Sailor's hometown for publication.
The program applies to all Sailors throughout the fleet and has many benefits to the crew members. One of those benefits is that their families and friends back in their hometowns across America and beyond can read about things their Sailor is doing thousands of miles away.
This program allows many Sailors a chance to be recognized in their local community by the people that matter most to them.
"The Fleet Hometown News Program is a long established program that provides Sailors an opportunity to be recognized in hometown newspapers," said Ensign Rick Chernitzer, TR's photo officer. "If it's important to a Sailor that his family and friends back home know about his accomplishments in the Navy, then this is the right program for them."
