Crystal Lake native baptized aboard USS Harry S. Truman

A Crystal Lake native was baptized last month in the hangar bay of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Ionian Sea.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Samantha Sfondouris, assigned to the air department, V-4 division, was one of 15 sailors baptized on Easter Sunday after Easter services provided by Truman’s Command Religious Ministries Department, according to a U.S. Navy news release.

Sfondouris serves as an aviation boatswain’s mate (fuel) and frequently attended gospel services while the Truman’s estimated 5,000 crew members were deployed in the Mediterranean earlier this year.

“I was baptized when I was younger,” Sfondouris said in the release. “Being out here on deployments and being in the military has brought me a lot closer to my faith over the years. I wanted to have the experience and opportunity to get baptized out at sea.”

The aircraft carrier, which left Norfolk, Virginia, on Dec. 1, is on a regularly scheduled deployment to the Mediterranean Sea, where it has been operating with NATO militaries conducting dual and tri-carrier operations, enhanced patrols and bilateral military exercises. In early March, the carrier sailed into the North Aegean Sea, an area where a U.S. carrier never had previously operated.