New York – Jewish Captain Guides USS Truman Aircraft Carrier.

New York – Capt. Herman “Herm” Shelanski, a native of Wynnewood, Pa., is a 27-year Navy veteran who has risen from a young aviator piloting E-2 Hawkeyes to being the commanding officer of one of the Navy’s elite weapon systems.

The Truman is a Nimitz-class nuclear aircraft carrier whose air wing of more than 80 tactical and support aircraft – including squadrons of the latest F-18 Hornets and Super-Hornet jets – can project America’s strength around the world.

Shelanski, who is married and the father of two teenagers, took command of the Truman in the spring. Put to sea In the Atlantic Ocean in September, some 200 miles from its home port of Norfolk, Va., the Truman will sail to the Persian Gulf, where its aircraft and pilots will be flying missions providing support for US troops fighting in Iraq.

Shelanski’s role is to be, as he put it, “mayor of the city” – of a floating airport that’s home to more than 5,000 sailors and aviators. The Truman, as long as the Empire State Building is tall, is a vessel whose maze-like compartments below decks can take sailors weeks to find their way around.

Shelanski is the grandson of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants to the United States who settled in Philadelphia in the early 20th century.

Asked what would prompt the son of a prominent doctor, who was a bar mitzvah at Har Zion Temple and a graduate of Lower Merion High School in the 1970s to join the Navy, Shelanski answers simply: “I always wanted to serve my country. And a lot of that has do to with being Jewish.” [jpost]