Navy Reserve Petty Officer 1st Class Jill F. Stokes, daughter of Bibiana F. and Norman L. Glandon, of Sigourney, and approximately 400 sailors were mobilized and deployed to the Middle East while assigned to Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group, Forward Hotel homebased at Yorktown Naval Weapons Station-Cheatham Annex, Williamsburg, Va.

Stokes’s unit deployed to relieve Navy Customs Battalion Tango to perform customs inspection missions in Kuwait and Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. NAVELSG Hotel will help ensure returning military equipment conforms to U.S. Department of Agriculture standards and ensure all gear returning with personnel serving abroad in support of OIF complies with U.S. Customs regulations.

NAVELSG is a component of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command. NECC is a global force provider of adaptive force packages of expeditionary capabilities to joint warfighting commanders. NECC serves as a single functional command to centrally manage the current and future readiness, resources, manning, training and equipping of the Navy Expeditionary Force.

Stokes is a 1985 graduate of Sigourney High School of Sigourney, and joined the Navy Reserve in February 1986.