Subase Newsletter
20 Oct. ‘09
Between helping June get ready for winter, producing a video DVD of my family reunion in Missouri earlier this month and working on several DVD's of the unit, including the VHS tape from 1987 at Hickam Harbor of the unit party I haven't had a lot of free time to do anything else.
I have copied the VHS tape of the Hickam unit party to a video file and as soon as I do some editing to clean it up a little, I will start the burn process. I also have captured news presentations from channel 4 and channel 11 of the 1991 Veterans Day Parade in St. Paul which many of the Subase Shipmates marched in with CDR Musselman in charge. Several of our old shipmates are seen marching including Mark Flom, Paul King and Stu Anderson. I brings back some old memories. I intend to burn this as well to a DVD and make it available to all of you. In the meantime I have temporally added the 6 minute news clips to the website on a new webpage called ‘Veterans Day Parade' for your viewing. The reason I say temporally is because I intend to do some editing to it as well and put it back on the site. I have also already burned the Subase Luau to a DVD and will be adding the Subase First Reunion to this DVD and make them available. I would like to hear from everyone interested in obtaining a copy of all or any of the DVD's. Even if you have already expressed an interest I would like to hear from you as I intend to make a folder in my mail box and store the e-mails of those interested and when all is said and done will then ship them. There will have to be a small charge as this all costs to produce and mail. I will set the charge as soon as I determine the actual cost. Any monies left over after defraying the cost will be added to the Subase Reunion account.
The original Slide Show is back up and fully operational. I have added to the last page of the Slide Show some pictures that Bruno sent me from Hawaii where he is spending his honeymoon with his new wife Lisa.
There is going to be a big change to the website soon as the URL or website address is changing to a shorter name. For reasons I won't go into I have decided to register our own domain which will be: http://www.suabespearldet716.com . This will take effect any day now. When it happens I will e-mail everyone with the URL. You will be asked to remove any reference to the URL at freehosting.net and replace it with the new one. If you have any questions or problems entering the site let me know by e-mail or phone. I have had the .com domain for a year and a half and have played around with building our site with a different website host but I never liked the webpage software so it never got off the ground. When the change takes place everything will remain as it is and no noticeable change other then a shorter URL.
15 Sept 2009
I have been busy the last couple day's editing the Luau Slide Show. I wanted to time the display of the pictures being displayed to coincide with the background music. To do this it is necessary to set the transition time for each photo to the desired time which is not an easy task using Microsoft Power Point since the only options you have is to change all photos to a specific time or each one to a specific time. Too bad the writers of the program didn't take into account the fact that the user might want to change a range of pictures or a random number of pictures to a specific time.
So to make everything work the way I wanted it to the individual photos are now displayed anywhere from 4 to 7 seconds before the next picture is displayed. With a lot of work and patients the slide show is now finished and updated on the site. I think you will be impressed with the production.
Some interest has been received from our Shipmates for the breakfast get-together the 26th of this month so it looks as though we are going to be doing it. I have to cut out by 0845 as I have a Ham Radio VE session to set in on at 0900 on that day that I can't get out of without disappointing the other VE's as they will be short handed this month. Let me know if you can attend the breakfast.
We still have 40 Unit Ball Caps for sale so if you want one or have purchased one and not received it yet I will have them with me.
Jim Doll volunteered to help me move the boat that got trapped in the back yard while building the garage so he stopped over the other day and had with him Rick Husak and Dan Lieder so the four of us got the boat and the utility trailer moved which was extremely appreciated. After 29 years I've finally learned what HT's are good for <grin>. I was then able to pull the utility trailer to the landfill the next day and offload the construction waste from the Garage Raising project which started a year ago next month. It was a good feeling to get this all accomplished. I wish to thank Jim, Rick and Dan for taking the time to come down and help out. It is a good feeling to have good friends like these fine gentlemen.
I added my second editorial to the "Editorial" column. It is short and to the point.
Summer will officially end in a few days. I don't know where it went. This summer seemed especially short to me due to the cooler then normal weather we had this year. I am not looking forward to spending another long winter in Minnesota. I would rather spend it on Don's boat in Hawaii or at Charley's place in Honolulu. Not to be though <sigh>.
I would appreciate getting copies of any photos shot of the Luau to scan and add to the over 500 photos already on the website. If you have taken any, contact me and we can make arrangements to transfer them. These are all treasures that should be shared with all of our Shipmates. I am meeting with Don Ostenson on Thursday to get copies of the photos he shot and will add them to the original Slide Show on the site by Friday.
04 September ‘09
The Hawaiian Luau Reunion went over well and was a huge success. I couldn't have been happier with the way everything turned out. Divine Swine did a great job with the food. The tables were decorated in a Hawaiian theme and the food was displayed well with everything labeled. There was plenty food and more important it was tasty.
The Dancers were the icing on the cake. They both did a fantastic job and were well received. I wouldn't hesitate in using either of them again for future events. Lisa (MakeMae) outdid herself with her audience participation which added a little humor to the event and a few back aches to those of us older participants.
I can't thank those enough that helped setup the facility and tear down. Everyone joined in and pulled their own weight. Workers were arranging tables to allow a stage area while others were hanging the decoration to set the atmosphere. A couple of Shipmates paid for many of the decorations with their own money and donated them which were much appreciated.
We had a total of 119 paid admissions (including the two free admissions) and of these we had had 15 no-shows which left us with 104 in attendance. Not what was originally expected but still a respectable turnout.
Kenny did a great job as MC again. He took the script I wrote for the intros and spiced them up a little with his adlibbing.
It was a pleasure having Subase Pearls first commanding officer Capt. Anderson and first executive officer Cdr. Kimball speak for us. This was Cdr. Kimball's first time back with us and it was a pleasure having him on board.
It was good to see Cdr. Rehwaldt again after all these years. I had told him that he was fifteen years behind in his "Joke of the Month" and he would have to bring with him a good one and tell it at the Reunion and wouldn't you know it....when he presented the joke I was busy dealing with the entertainers so they could be on their way and missed it. And to top it all off he told the joke as me being the character.
I took a total of 122 photos of the Luau which I have put up on the site as a Power Point slide show. There is music (the music the entertainers used for their performance) in the background but it doesn't seem to want to play on everyone's system. I am working diligently to correct this. The show can be viewed by clicking on "Photo Gallery" and then clicking on the bottom green button "09 Luau" and then simply run the show. Be patient as this file is large and takes about 3 to 4 minutes to load. You can access the show by adding this link to you browser address bar: http://subasepearldet716.freehosting.net/%2709%20Luau%20Slide%20Show/2009%20Luau.ppt#18
If you want to hear the music which adds a lot to the presentation you can opt to save it to your desktop and run it from there and you should then hear the audio. This is a work around fix you can use until I get the problem resolved.
I am looking for Shipmates with any talents in computer programming or special knowledge of certain software that would be willing to help me out when I hit these snags. I will be sending out a short questionnaire in the next few days requesting information about the special computer knowledge you might have. When you receive it, please take a moment to fill it out and return it to me and I will compile this information in a database with this information to assist me in the future.
I have posted a closing financial statement on the site showing how we turned out. In short we never went into the red this year and actually ended up with $400.00 remaining in the account after all was paid for. Of this amount about $100.00 was donated to ensure the website would remain up in the future. The site was paid for through February of 2009 but because of these donations you can rest assured that the site will continue through February of 2011.
There were questions at the gathering about the cost of the site. There were those who thought the site should be free. Let me enlighten you. There are free sites out there. In fact the provider we now use has a free service. But to own the rights to a domain which we do and to have enough storage space on the site to be able to add all of the features and information we currently have, you have to pay. We have now used up 38% of our 5 GB's of space or approximately 1.9 GB. I hope this clarifies these concerns.
I have slowed down my e-mail communication with you as I felt it was getting out of hand and becoming almost like junk mail in the mail box so frequent the site to see additions and changes. Any important changes will be talked about in this column. We are approaching 10,000 hits since the site started two years ago this coming January. I thank this is respectable for the short period of time and the small number of Subase members to draw from. This tells me the site is being used and appreciated. It is a good feeling to see the increased number in the counter each time I log on. BTW whoever is the 10,000th hit will receive a free visit to the site which can be used in the future <grin>.
It was good to have Jim Harren there. I was worried that with his health issues he wouldn't be able to make it. I felt sad seeing his need to transport the oxygen bottle with him since I too have that to look forward to in the not-so-far future do to the cigar smoking. The lifestyle we choose has a price tag.
There were a few new faces at the Reunion this year and many returns from last year. I was pleased that HT1 Ron Teeman made it to the Luau. He was inadvertently left off the Muster list when it was put together. HTC Jim Doll called my attention to this and I contacted Ron who was pleased to hear about the Website and the Luau. Thanks for coming Ron. Also Don Ostenson's Son Jason graced us with his presence. I knew Jason when he was just a small boy and he has turned out to be a pleasant young man. I was impressed with how polite and respectful he is. This is a trait shared by too few of our younger generation. I am sure his dad is very proud. Thanks for coming Jason.
At this time I would like to thank the Reunion Committee Mark Flom, Dorn Hendrickson, Rick Dennis and Phil Johnson for all their hard work. Without these willing Shipmates the Luau would not have been. I would like to personally thank Dorn for the bird houses he built for us which I might add went over well. Also I wish to Thank Rick for taking the time out of his busy life to get the ball caps to the embroider and picking them up when they were finished. My thanks to Phil and his wife Sandie for their contributions of the Target gift cards for door prizes and the other items they brought to spice up the Luau scene. Also thanks Phil and Sandie for putting together the Best Dressed Hawaiian contest and donating the prizes for this event. And I can't finish this without thanking Mark for his efforts in locating and negotiating with Divine Swine and setting this all up.
Others that are deserving of special recognition are Dan and Sue Rogers for their generous donation of Cub Foods gift cards. This added a lot to the event. Dan told me he wanted no special recognition but I felt this would be an injustice. So thanks Dan and Sue. Without Shipmate like you that really care we just wouldn't be the Subase I remember so many years ago.
Also I would like to thank Mike and Vicki Glassman for their work in helping set up and their contributions of the decorations which was totally unexpected and appreciated. Also Vicki donated her time at the reception table along with Don Ostenson who insured everyone got a name tag and drawing ticket. Don and Vicki also took charge of the funds and made certain that they were isolated from each other making the final accounting easier. Thanks so much Vicki and Don.
My thanks also go out to Jim Doll for insuring we had a working sound system for the Luau. This is just one less thing I had to worry about.
Also I wish to thanks Rick Dufrene for Securing the bottled water from Nestle and Ken Wenlund for bringing the soft drinks donated by Coke-Cola. These contributions helped by freeing up funds that were spent on door prizes.
Also My special thanks to Mike Lewis with Schell Brewery for providing us with the Premium Grain Belt beer for the event and Brian Kuhnly manager of the Cub Foods store in Minnetonka who contributed two $20.00 gift cards and lastly Paul Kyono manager of the original Broadway Pizza who donated three $10.00 Broadway Pizza cards. These gentlemen deserve special thanks as they have no investment in Subase Pearl but simply wish to show their appreciation for those who served their Country. I can't overstate the importance in remembering these supporters when shopping.
And now before ending this newsletter I wish to post the names of those who volunteered their time to help set up the event. You all have my respect and appreciation:
Mike Glassman
Vicki Glassman
Bruno Doerfler
Steve Doerfler
Dan Rogers
Sue Rogers
Don Ostenson
Phil Johnson
Sandie Johnson
Rick Husak
Bill Lambert
Jim Doll
I sincerely hope I haven't left anyone out.
In closing I wish to thank each and everyone of you who attended. And to those of you that wanted to come but couldn't due to prior commitments or to something coming up at the last moment that caused you to be unable to attend I wish to let you know you were missed. To those who simply opted not to attend all I can say is talk to those who attended and you will get a pretty good idea of what you missed.
Subase Rocks....you guys and gals are The Best.
Fair Winds and Following Seas....