OctOber 28, 2011Vol. 28 No. 41

UnderwaterClean-up

Page 2 Page 8

Enjoy a leisurely hike

Monti Rossi is a very nicepark in the townof Nicolosi.Spend some timeoutdoors this weekendand take in the view!

Page 11

Visit Romethis

Holiday SeasonJoin MWR’s ITTon a trip to Romethis December. See all the sites and enjoythe festive spirit.

http://www.cnic.navy.mil/sigonella

NAS Sigonella community takes partin the 11th annualunderwater beachclean-up at theStazzo Port, Acireale,Sicily.

Scan for direct linksto NAS Sigonella

NAS Sigonella celebrates Navy’s236th birthday

Sailors, friends and family membersgathered at Knight’s Hall Oct. 21 forthe annual Hispanic Heritage Celebra-tion hosted by Naval Air Station(NAS) Sigonella’s Heritage Commit-tee and Latin American Association(LAA).

“This event gives us the opportu-nity to show what we’re about andshare our culture by showing how Hi-spanics live and how they celebrate,”LAA President, AM2 Alfredo Gonza-lez said.

National Hispanic Heritage Monthis celebrated Sept. 15 through Oct. 15and was started by President LyndonB. Johnson in 1968. President RonaldReagan expanded the holiday to 30days by enacting the observation intolaw August 17, 1988. Sept. 15 alsomarks anniversaries of Independencefor some Latin American countriessuch as Costa Rica, El Salvador, Gua-temala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Sept.16 is another significant date for Hispa-nic celebration as it marks the day ofMexico’s independency.

“The way I see it, it’s important toacknowledge other cultures that arecurrently serving in the Navy or Depar-tment of Defense,” NAS Sigonella He-ritage Committee President, LS1Alejandro Ozornio said.

The celebration consisted of manyLatin dance performances, brief les-sons on the history of the Hispanic cul-ture and different Latin style foodprepared by the LAA.

“We had two special performancesby the LAA and we had three otherdances performed by couples,” Gonza-lez said. “The couples dances were thesalsa, samba and bachata.”

Members from NAS Sigonella’sHeritage Committee and NAS Sigo-nella’s LAA wanted to focus on notonly teaching the audience about theHispanic culture, but entertainingthem as well.

“The event was similar but differentas well,” Ozornio said. “We tried to dothe same things but explain the historyof Hispanic heritage in different ways.Last year we did more power pointsand tried to teach a lot more and thisyear we tried to entertain and perform

Sigonella celebratesHispanic HeritageNAS Sigonella Public AffiarsBy MCSN Cameron Bramham

EVENT, continued on page 12

Members of the NAS Sigonella Latin American Association (LAA) performa folklore dance during the annual Hispanic Heritage Celebration which washeld at Knight’s Hall on NAS I, Oct. 21. The celebration included other danceperformances, a Hispanic presentation and a tasting of different Hispanicstyle foods which was prepared by members of the NAS Sigonella LAA.

NAS Sigonella celebrates naval tradition with a cake cutting ceremony at the Navy Ball. Tradition dictates that theoldest and youngest Sailor in attendance cut the ceremonial birthday cake. (From left to right) Deputy Commander,U.S. Sixth Fleet R. Adm. James Foggo III, NAS Sigonella Commanding Officer Capt. Scott Butler, U.S. Naval HospitalSigonella Commanding Officer Capt. Cynthia M. Feller, and Hospital Corpsman Elizabeth Kirkner

The Sheraton Hotel, Catania wastaken over by personnel stationed ator deployed to Naval Air Station(NAS) Sigonella on Oct. 22 for theNavy Ball and the i celebration of theUnited States Navy’s 236th birthday.

The ceremony began with the pre-sentation of the colors by the NAS Si-gonella Honor Guard and the singingof the Italian and American NationalAnthems. After the anthems werecomplete and the Honor Guard exitedthe room, Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Cau-ble gave the opening prayer of bles-sing.

NAS Sigonella Navy Ball Commit-tee Vice President, Lt. Brandon Elliottthen announced NAS Sigonella com-

manding officer, Capt. Scott Butler tothe podium to give his opening re-marks.

“This was my second Navy Ball andit was a great one,” Butler said. “It’sfantastic to watch the coalition peoplecome together with the Navy, the AirForce, the Army and Marines to cele-brate our traditions while also havinga great time. Being a part of an eventlike this is really special to me espe-cially with how hard this base has wor-ked this year support NATOResolution 1973.”

Following his opening remarks,Butler introduced the distinguishedguest, Deputy Commander, U.S. SixthFleet R. Adm. James Foggo III whothoroughly discussed the role NAS Si-gonella played in support for NATOResolution 1973.

“We couldn’t have done it withoutItaly,” Foggo said. “We couldn’t havedone it without our air bases inAviano, Naples and mostly Sigonellabecause of all the proponents downhere and we couldn’t have done it wi-thout our Italian counterparts.”

Dinner was served and raffle prizeswere drawn which included an X-BoxKinect, a Nintendo Wii, and a NikonD3100 digital camera, among others.

“The prize quality was really highthis year as we spent a lot of money forprizes,” Elliott said.

Elliott also said though the ball wasgreatly successful, it wasn’t always aneasy task to make it successful.

“It’s always difficult to coordinatean event for hundreds of peoplewhich also required over $30,000 in

BALL, continued on page 12

By MCSN Cameron Bramham

NAS Sigonella Public Affairs

pAge 2 oCtoBer 28, 2011

Direct LineThere are plenty of events going

on in the Sigonella Communityover the next few days and I hopeeveryone will take advantage of thechance to enjoy them. First up isMWR’s biggest festival of the year,Autumnfest, which kicks off todayat 3 p.m. and goes until midnightboth today and tomorrow. This is agreat event for the entire commu-nity – including our Italian friendsand members of the Coalition – socome out and enjoy the rides, thefood and the fun! Monday is Hallo-ween and this year I’ve authorizedTrick or Treating from 1700-2000in Marinai. Please stay alert whenwalking or driving around Marinaion Halloween: watch out for allthose strange-looking little creatu-res – and I’m not just talking aboutthe aircrew over at MEDEX!!

The end of October means thatSunny Sicily has officially enteredthe rainy season! The recent dow-npours make the roads wet and theroad conditions difficult – and po-tholes seem to magically appearovernight. This makes it hard to

drive around the area, and believeme – it’s not going to get any better!The further we get into the fall andwinter months, the wetter the wea-ther tends to become. These earlystorms are a good reminder to beprepared and to always be alert tochanging weather and road condi-tions.

Two key lessons learned fromthe December 2005 flood are thatpre-planning and communicationare vital to our safety. For thosewho did not attend the EmergencyDepartment’s exceptional, informa-tive Practical Emergency Prepared-ness Training this past week – youreally should have!! At my direc-tion, and following suggestionsfrom Command Ombudsmen, JGSomavilla and his team providedexcellent briefs and have created anumber of community awarenesstraining briefs and handouts thatprovide excellent information thatEVERYONE needs to be aware of.The time to think about what to doin an emergency situation is beforeit ever happens. If you wait until

after it has already occurred, it’sprobably already too late!

Plan ahead! Flooding due torainfall is a fact of life on this island.Sometimes local roads may be clo-sed or simply difficult to navigate.Every year, we experience floodingon our bases. Although it’s gene-rally not so bad that folks are forcedto leave their homes like in 2005,the additional water makes it extre-mely challenging to drive even onthe installations. Last year, whenrains were especially heavy, we star-ted sending alternate route maps viaAll Hands email and by postingthem on Facebook. These routeswere based on lessons learned fromthe 2005 floods and were designedto ensure the safety and security ofour personnel in the event of fur-ther rain. When the rains are heavy,if you do not need to drive, don’t!

Be in touch! I will use every pos-sible avenue to communicate andincrease the odds of reaching all ofyou. Options will include notifyingyour chain of command, putting no-tices on our Facebook page (face-

book.com/nassigonella), em-ploying AFN Radio and Tele-vision (AFN Atlantic ordecoder Channel 20), AllHands Mass Emails, Com-mand Phone Trees and Com-mand Ombudsmen. If you areever unsure what is going on,please actively search for infor-mation from one of thesesources!

Be ready! I can’t tell youhow important it is to be readyfor any potential emergency.Professionals recommend youkeep a five-day supply of foodand water, as well as an emer-gency kit that should include abattery-powered radio, fla-shlights, and batteries.

I also want to take a moment tocongratulate the members of theCoalition forces that have been de-ployed to our Base for the past sixmonths in support of OperationUNIFIED PROTECTOR. As weall know, the Libyan people are nowfree and this means that these forcesare now preparing to return home

after an historic and successful ope-ration. I have been honored to servealongside so many incredible menand women from Denmark, Tur-key, the UAE, Sweden, Canada andFrance – and I have been incrediblyproud of the support that the entireSigonella Community has providedto them this year. Brazo Zulu on ajob very, very well done!

NAS SigoNellA CommANdiNg offiCer, CApt. SCott Butler

The

Sign

atur

e CommanderU.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella

Capt. Scott Butler

Executive OfficerCmdr. Eric Vosler

Command Master ChiefCMDCM David Graham

Public Affairs OfficerLt. Tim Page

timothy.page@eu.navy.mil

Deputy Public Affairs OfficerDott. Alberto Lunetta

alberto.lunetta.it@eu.navy.mil

Writer/EditorTracie Barnthouse

tracie.barnthouse@eu.navy.mil

Staff Writers/ PhotographersMC1 Christopher Delano

MC2 Gary PrillGM2 Kris Carmody

MCSN Cameron BramhamMCSA Brian Glunt

This civilian enterprise (CE) newspaper is an authorized publication for members of the military services overseas.Contents of The Signature are not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government,the Department of Defense (DoD), or the U.S. Navy. The appearance of advertisingin this newspaper,

including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the DoD orStampa Generale S.r.l.,of the products or services advertised. Everything advertised in this publications hall be made available

for purchase, use or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex,national origin, age, marital status,physical handicap, political affiliation or any other non-merit factorof the purchaser, user or patron.

A confirmed violation or rejection of this equal opportunity policyby an advertiser will result in the refusalto print advertising from that source until the violationis corrected. The Signature is published weekly byStampa Generale S.r.l., Sig. Bruno Brandi, Publisher, Naval Support Activity, Capodichino (Naples), Italy -

Tel. 081-568-7884, Fax 081-568-7887. E-mail: stampagenerale@tin.it.Editorial submissions are welcomed from all Naval Air Station Sigonella departments, divisions and

tenant commands. Editorial submissions should be sent to the Public Affairs Office via thesig@eu.navy.mil,guard mail stop #68 or hand-delivered to our office no laterthan the close of business on the Friday proceeding the

expected publication date. All articles submittedby non-staff members will be considered contributing writers.The Signature will not publish anyanonymous articles. All advertisements in this publication arethe property of Stampa Generale S.r.l. Any reproduction of advertisements in The Signature is

unauthorized without the written consentof the publisher.

The Signature editorial office is located at: Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily PSC 812 Box 3020, FPO, AE 09627 Telephone: 095-86-5440 • DSN 624-5440The Signature editorial office is located at: Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily PSC 812 Box 3020, FPO, AE 09627 Telephone: 095-86-5440 • DSN 624-5440

Email thesig@eu.navy.mil to place your classified advertisement or community announcement.

By GM2 Ericka McKim

The L.I.F.E. Onlus Association(Life Improvement For Every disa-bled: http://www.lifeonlus.com), anon-profit organization founded in1997 following the international gui-delines given by Padi project awareand Linea Mare (http://www.linea-marecatania.it/), put on its 11th an-nual underwater beach clean-up onOct. 16. NAS Sigonella Sailors andDODDS teachers, divers of the VigiliDel Fuoco (Fire Department) andProtizione Civile, the Airone Spor-ting Club, the Sigonella Scuba Club,and local fisherman and residents allassisted with the beach clean up andbeautification effort. The event took

place at the Stazzo Port, Acireale, Si-cily.

“It is our goal to improve the envi-ronmental condition of the Mediter-ranean Sea as the summer comes to anend. Ever year this is a fun event thatpromotes awareness of the capabili-ties of disabled people while impro-ving our waters. In water, those whohave limits on the mainland are ableto learn the custom techniques thatallow them to enjoy the beauty of ourwaters in complete safety,” CarmeloLa Rocca, President of SigonellaScuba Club and L.I.F.E. Onlus.

The event turned out more than 50volunteers with over half being divers.The divers worked in groups to extract

Dive! Dive! Dive! Knights in Shining ArmorSomething exciting is happening

at Sigonella Elementary School, andit involves a special group ofKnights. “Knights in ShiningArmor” is a group of dedicated andenthusiastic parents who have step-ped forward to take an positive, ac-tive role in continuous schoolimprovement (CSI) for the elemen-tary school. This CSI parent teammeets once a month to give feed-back on areas of school performancefrom a parent’s perspective. At themost recent round table gathering,the Knights engaged in a lively di-scussion on the school’s vision sta-

tement. Future round table discus-sions will focus on issues of commu-nication, transition, and academicsuccess.

The Knights in Shining Armorwill play a key role in this year’s ac-creditation process. Every five yearsthe school undergoes an intense eva-luation process culminating in a visitfrom an accreditation team. As theschool prepares for this visit, theoutcomes from each of the monthlyround table discussion will be sha-red with teachers and staff. Parent fe-edback will help the school betteraddress the goals of raising studentachievement, providing a safe andenriching learning environment, and

maintaining efficient and effectiveschool operation.

If you would like to join us in ourquests as Knights in Shining Armor,please attend the next round table di-scussion on Nov. 9 from noon-1pmat Sigonella Elementary School(Room 106). The topic for Novem-ber’s discussion will be math. Havequestions about the new math curri-culum? Want to see the data showinghow our school’s math scores com-pare to stateside schools? If so, pleasejoin us at the table to be an active par-ticipant in our continuous improve-ment process. Contact LuciaSaperstein at luciamorgan@yahoo.com for more information.

DIVE, continued on page 12

By Lucia Saperstein

paGe 11OctObeR 28, 2011

Friday, October 285:00pm Columbiana, PG-135:30pm Apollo 18, PG-13 7:30pm Contagion, PG-13 8:00pm Final Destination 5, R

Saturday, October 29 2:00pm Spy Kids 4, PG 2:30pm The Help, PG-134:30pm Footloose, PG-13 5:00pm Warrior, PG-13 7:30pm Shark Night, R

Sunday, October 302:00pm Dolphin Tale, PG2:30pm Apollo 18, PG-13 4:30pm Fright Night, R5:00pm Contagion, PG-137:30pm Shark Night, R

Tuesday, November 15:00pm Contagion, PG-135:30pm Footloose, PG-137:30pm The Help, PG-138:00pm Our Idiot Brother, R

Wednesday, November 25:00pm Contagion, PG-135:30pm Apollo 18, PG-137:30pm Columbiana, PG-138:00pm Shark Night, R

Thursday, November 3 5:00pm Warrior, PG-13 5:30pm The Debt, PG-137:30pm Fright Night, R8:00pm Our Idiot Brother, R

Friday, November 45:00pm Columbiana, PG-135:30pm Apollo 18, PG-137:30pm Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, R8:00pm Our Idiot Brother, R

Movie schedule is subject to change. Please call to confirm.

Movie Hotline: 624-4248

MidtOwn MOvie theateRSSchedule & deScRiptiOnS

On the GO with MwR

It may be hard to believe, but Chri-stmas is less than two months away!Being stationed in Europe provides aunique opportunity to spendthe holidays in a special way.For most Americans, spendingChristmas in Rome mightsound like an unattainabledream, but for Sigonellans, itcould be a great way to easethe pain of being away fromloved ones this time of theyear, and make those lovedones totally jealous!

Besides mom’s house, Italyis probably the best place tospend Christmas and Italiansknow how to do it right. Theseason begins in Novemberand doesn’t end until aboutmid-January. Decorations areeverywhere and each city hasits own official nativity displayset around every corner, oftenfeaturing famous unexpectedcharacters. The medieval cob-blestone streets are drapedwith glittering lights and a fe-stive atmosphere is ever present. Yep,Italy does Christmas the best, andRome, as the capital of Italy and oncecenter of the universe, could be thenumber one holiday destination.

Think about it... A giant sparklytree is pretty, right? But a giant sparklytree set in a Coliseum backdrop isspectacular! Christmas shopping atWalMart... sigh. But shopping at the

Christmas market in Piazza Navona...hooray! Christmas Eve MidnightMass may be nice, but Christmas EveMidnight Mass at the St. Peter’s Basi-lica delivered by the Pope? Stellar!

The holidays used to be magical,but now it seems they bring us stress.Maybe touring the ancient streets andstructures of Rome could bring backthe magic. Imagine the excitement ofstepping in to the Sistine Chapel, thePantheon or the Roman Forum! Walkthe streets from the Spanish Steps, bythe Trevi Fountain and into the PiazzaNavona. Warm up with a hot bag of

fresh roasted chestnuts while you takein the atmosphere of the Christmasmarket, full of trinkets and gifts sha-ped like Babbo Natale (Santa) and LaBefana (the happy witch.) Stand in

St. Peter’s Square while the life-sizednativity is unveiled. Sip a glass of wineon Christmas Eve under the Romanmoonlight. Buon Natale indeed.

ITT is spending Christmas in Rome,December 22nd – 26th. Don’t worryabout travel arrangements, let ITT do allthe work while you have a wonderfulholiday. Make your reservations today!Call ITT for details x4777, x4396.

By Jamie Andrews

WARRIOR – Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison

An ex-Marine haunted by his past, Tommy, returns to his hometown of Pittsburghand enlists his fathers help to train him for a MMA tournament awarding the biggestpurse in the history of the sport. As Tommy blazes a violent path towards the title,his brother, Brenden a former MMA fighter unable to makes ends meat as a publicschool teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. The three havebeen bitterly estranged, and when Brenden’s unlikely rise as an underdog sets himon a collision course with Tommy and his father, the three must finally confrontone another and the things that tore them apart; waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.(139 min.)

FOOTLOOSE – Julianne Hough, Kenny Wormald, Dennis Quaid, Andie MacDowell, Miles Teller

Ren MacCormack is transplanted Boston to small town America where he expe-riences a heavy dose of culture shock. A few years prior, the community wasrocked by the tragic loss of 5 teenagers after a night out and the town’s councilmenand beloved minister responded by banning loud music and dancing. Not onewas to bow to the status quo; Ren challenges the ban, revitalizing the town andfalling in love with the minister’s troubled daughter, Ariel (118 min).

CONTAGION – Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brayan Cranston, Kate Winslet

The worldwide medical community races to find a cure to a deadly epidemic andcontrol panic that spreads faster than the virus itself (102 min.)

DOLPHIN TALE – Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, Harry Connick Jr., Nathan Gamble

Swimming free, a young dolphin is caught in a crab trap, severely damaging hertail. She is rescued and sent to the Clearwater Marine Hospital, where she is re-habilitated and called Winter. Winter’s diagnosis without a tail is dire, but the in-genuity and dedication of the hospital staff and unwavering devotion of a youngboy bring about a ground-breaking miracle! A miracle that saves Winter and pos-sibly scores of people around the world. The real Winter plays herself in this taleas a symbol of courage and perseverance – both to able and disabled people alike(119 min.)

Christmas in Rome