‘Holiday Salute’ returns for its 39th anniversary; this year’s show focuses upon USS Truman Strike Group [Video]

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

“Holiday Salute” is back!

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. …