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Baked French Fries For Crew Of USS America - San Diego's Newest Ship

Culinary Specialist Seaman Recruit Laura Osorio, assigned to future amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), serves food during a reception for Chilean dignitaries, military officials and distinguished guests in the ship’s hangar bay as part of a scheduled port visit to Valparaiso, Chile.
U.S. Navy
Culinary Specialist Seaman Recruit Laura Osorio, assigned to future amphibious assault ship USS America (LHA 6), serves food during a reception for Chilean dignitaries, military officials and distinguished guests in the ship’s hangar bay as part of a scheduled port visit to Valparaiso, Chile.

As the USS America makes its way to its new home port of San Diego, the crew's dining options have been quite different from what other sailors usually experience during deployment - no free soft drinks, and french fries that aren't actually fried.

The Marine Corps Times reports the America does not have any deep fryers or free soft drink machines on board. Instead, America's crew has been served baked french fries, and if a sailor wants a soda, she must buy it from a vending machine.

Navy Rear Adm. Fernandez “Frank” Ponds, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, told the Marine Corps Times less junk food on board makes for healthier sailors:

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“How can we make [sailors] better and more capable warfighters? What you take in is who you are. So we try to eat healthier. It’s a lifestyle, and that lifestyle starts here, so we create good habits.”

The America departed the Ingalls Shipbuilding shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi in July for its maiden voyage to San Diego. Because the 844-foot-long amphibious assault ship was too large to fit through the Panama Canal, it circumnavigated South America.

On Sept. 3, the America left Peru, its last stop on its “America Visits the Americas” goodwill tour, according to Times of San Diego.

The Commissioning Ceremony for USS America is scheduled for Oct. 11, 2014 at Pier 30-32 in San Francisco.