COVERING PUGET SOUND NAVAL NEWS FOR BREMERTON | BANGOR | KEYPORT
NAVY NEWS Kitsap
VOLUME 1, NO. 46 | 10 FEBRUARY 2012
www.kitsapnavynews.com
Veterans board seeks changes to assistance program By JJ Swanson
jswanson@soundpublishing.com
The Kitsap County Veterans Advisory Board Wednesday unanimously voted to suggest changes to the veterans assistance that focus on “basic needs to survive” and cap maximum amount of monetary aid to individual veterans. Under the old guidelines the maximum monetary aid a veteran could receive from the fund was $1,200 for the year. The new policy seeks to lower that amount to $900 per veteran
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Sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz salute to Taps during a memorial service for Lt. Cmdr. Regina Mills, the aircraft handling officer, aboard Nimitz Jan. 27, 2012. Mills was struck and killed recently as she assisted others in a traffic collision near Bremerton, Wash. U.S. NAVY PHOTO BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST SEAMAN RENEE L. CANDELARIO
First female handler remembered aboard Nimitz
BREMERTON (NSS) – More than 2,000 family members, friends, and shipmates recently assembled aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to pay respect to Lt. Cmdr. Regina Mills who was struck and killed by a vehicle when she stopped to assist others involved in a traffic collision in Gig Harbor Jan. 23. “Regina was a great leader and officer,” said Capt. Paul O. Monger, USS Nimitz commanding officer. “She was a leader and mentor, not only to the Sailors and officers in the Air department, but throughout the ship. It would be difficult to find anyone aboard Nimitz whose life or career here wasn’t positively influenced by her. “Tasked with ensuring optimum safety on board an aircraft carrier, an inherently dangerous environment, she died as a result of trying to assist
a person faced with potential danger. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family. Regina will be sorely missed,” said Monger. During the ceremony, family members and close friends shared memories and impressions Mills left with them. “Personally, she taught me to put the needs of others before that of your own,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Mills, Mills’ husband. “She lived by that motto. She died by that motto.” “Life is not measured by how many years you live, it’s how you live the years you have,” said Cmdr. Lisa Ketterman. “And she made it count every day.” The Louisville, Ky., native enlisted in the Navy in 1986. After graduating recruit training command in Orlando, Fla., Mills was assigned to Helicopter
Maritime Strike Squadron 41 aboard Naval Air Station North Island, Calif. In January 1990, she reported to U.S. Naval Support Force Antarctica where she deployed with Operation Deep Freeze. Her next duty station was Naval Air Station Whidbey Island from July 1993 to February 1998. Mills then went to serve as an Aviation Boatswain’s Mate 1st Class aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. She was one of the first female Aviation Boatswain’s Mates to work on an operational flight deck. During her tour aboard Lincoln, she earned a commission as a naval officer through the Limited Duty Officer program. Mills became the Navy’s first
SEE NIMITZ | PAGE 5
THIS EDITION NBK wins competition with cupcake .................pg. 3 Nimitz sailor shot and killed in Seattle ...............pg. 3 Dinner with the Smileys continues ...............pg. 4 USS Mead was one tough tin can ........................pg. 9