NEW VINEYARD – Yeoman Brian Ellis shook hands with President George Bush Thursday aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. His father, Lenny Ellis, watched his son greet the president on television from his home in New Vineyard.
“It’s a nice honor for the kid,” Lenny Ellis said Friday. “I’m proud of him.”
When the elder Ellis was in the Army, he met two presidents, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
His 23-year-old son, Brian, is in the U.S. Navy and has been aboard the aircraft carrier with about 7,5000 sailors in the Middle East for more than nine months.
As the carrier was pulling into San Diego Friday, Ellis was watching. His son was shown several times, he said.
Ellis operates the hangar bay with two other sailors aboard the ship, his father said. “Brian has been calling us off and on during the war,” Ellis said. “We knew he was safe.”
He called a couple of nights ago, he said, and “he’s doing great. They just want to come home.”
The carrier’s trip home was delayed a few days so it could meet up with the president.
“He’s excited,” Ellis said. “It’s a good thing to be 23 years old and to meet the president.”
Brian is expected to be home in New Vineyard at the end of May.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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