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'Holiday Salute' returns for its 39th anniversary; this year's show focuses upon USS Truman Strike Group

Program also marks the return of retired 13 News Now reporter and show founder Joe Flangan.
Credit: 13 News Now/Mike Gooding
USS Harry S. Truman.

NORFOLK, Va. — It is like the return of a long-lost friend.

"Holiday Salute" is back!

13News Now reporters Mike Gooding and Dana Smith once again shine a spotlight upon the local armed forces.

This year, they are focusing on the 5,000 men and women of the Norfolk-based USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group.

They shipped out back in September.

Besides the aircraft carrier Truman, the program also focuses on the guided missile destroyer USS Stout.

This is the 39th anniversary of this Hampton Roads broadcast tradition.

Once again, this year’s program showcases the founding father of this project -- retired 13News Now reporter Joe Flanagan -- as he reminisces with retired Navy Captain Kenny Golden about past holiday deployments they shared, when the show was called “Navy Christmas.”

Additionally, the show digs deep into the 13 News Now vault, and comes up with a segment from 1996, when Flangan chronicled the travels of Santa Claus in the Mediterranean Sea.

U.S. Fleet Forces Admiral Daryl Caudle offers up special holiday greetings in this year’s show.

And the program also takes a look at several important quality of life initiatives that the Navy has undertaken this year to try to make sailors’ lives a little better.

The 2024 Holiday Salute will air on 13News Now on the following dates and at the following times:

  • December 24 at 10 a.m.
  • December 25 at 4:30 a.m.
  • December 27 at 4:30 a,m.

Holiday Salute first aired in 1986, when it was originally titled A Navy Christmas. The show has spanned seminal events in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the Cold War, Operation Desert Storm, the Bosnia and Kosovo wars, 9/11, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Inherent Resolve. Along the way, the 13 News Now team has traveled to Iraq, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Djibouti.

The show has encompassed the administrations of seven commanders-in-chief: Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. It tells the stories of our military members on the front lines through the decades, and the families that wait for them back home in Hampton Roads.

You can watch previous Holiday Salutes and Navy Christmases on our YouTube channel as well as on our free streaming app, 13News Now+!

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