Three U.S. sailors from Cincinnati will remember this Christmas as the one spent on an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, halfway around the world from their friends and family.

        But they aren't complaining.

        “This is what I joined the Navy to do. I'm part of something big,” said Seaman Brian Eberle of Fairfield, a St. Xavier High School graduate who joined the Navy in 1995.

        Seaman Eberle and fellow seamen Edward Daley of Colerain Township and David Czulewicz of Finneytown are aboard the USS John Stennis, which recently arrived in the Arabian Sea to take part in Operation Enduring Freedom. It is relieving another aircraft carrier that had been there since shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

        The seamen spoke via radio phone Thursday.

        The sailors left their home port in San Diego in mid-November, after an emotional farewell on the docks with thousands of spouses and children.

        It was a quick departure; the sailors had only a couple of weeks to prepare before shipping out on what could be a six-month stint at sea.

        “It was a little bit of a shock when we got the orders,” said Seaman Czulewicz, a Roger Bacon High graduate who left his wife on the naval base at San Diego.

        Being away for the holidays was difficult, “but that's just part of the job,” he said.

        “Somebody's got to come out here and do this. It's better than sitting home, stewing about the attacks on America. At least we are in a position to do something about it.”

        Seaman Daley, a 22-year-old from Colerain Township, said he has been able to send e-mails to his mother regularly and gets letters from aunts and uncles in the States.

        He is a machinist's mate aboard the USS Stennis and splits his days between standing watch and helping maintain the engines.

        “When I have time, I'll work out or watch a little TV; you can always find something to pass the time,” Seaman Daley said.

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