Subase Newsletter Archive

I had the pleasure of dining with Jim Doll and Don Ostenson last Wednesday at the Olive Garden in Bloomington.  We had a great time and talked over the past for a few hours.  They are both doing well and their health is hanging in there.

I spoke on the phone with Johnny Johnson shortly after the New Year.  He is retired and enjoying the good life.  He said he is in contact with Charley Schmidt and Sam Wolvert from time to time.  It would sure be good to see them all again.

I also spoke to Harold Kruse and Ed Borgen yesterday.  It was a real pleasure talking to them again.  Ed has two daughters in college.  It just doesn't seem possible.  The last time I saw the girls they were playing hop scotch and jacks.

If there is anything you would like to see posted on this website let me know.  I just got my pictures out of my storage locker today and am going to start scanning and posting them tonight. It will probably take a couple days.  I paid for two years access for this site, so it will be up for that long at least.  I consider this to be your website.  I am the administer of the site, but as far as I am concerned the site belongs to all members of Det. 716. Just to get you thinking, a couple ideas I had was posting awards, medals, retirement letters, Shadow boxes etc. And obviously sea stories.  They don't have to be funny necessarily; they can be serious stories like the time Randy Jeske wrestled the purse snatcher to the ground.  See what I mean?  If we fill up this 1GB space, I'll upgrade it to 5GB. Anyway, let me know.

As you can see I have been busy.  At this time I have forty-five photo's posted in the photo gallery.  The web page for the image files I decided to use lets me post a maximum of forty images per page, depending on the size.  I was able to get thirty-one on the first page then had to add another page which I named "More Photos".  There are undoubtedly several mistakes especially in the spelling of some of the names.  So if you catch them, please let me know so I don't look like an idiot too long.

My thanks to Ed Borgen for taking the time to put together a complete muster sheet. I edited the information he sent me and put all the names in alphabetical order.  Then I added another page temporarily to get all these names on the site sooner.  There is missing and incorrect rates. It will take some time and effort to fix all this information, so as you can see; feedback becomes all the more important. I will start working on merging the two pages together and ending up with only one page called "Muster".  Putting together this site has been a lot of work, but it has been fun.

I added a counter to the home page that keeps track of the total number of hits to this site.  The total number is low, but the site is only three days old.

I have been a busy beaver today.  I spent the entire day on the phone calling shipmates.  I spoke with Opem, Flom, Hendrickson, Fabricus, Fosse, Hurley, Arboleda and Good.  I left messages for Hovind, Harmon, Doug Olson, McNichols, McConnaughay, Gregonis and Esler.  Hopefully I will hear back from them soon.  The general feeling I get is the site is welcomed and appreciated.

An FYI, Martin Opem is now serving as Mayor of New Hope.  I don't know why this surprised me though, as Marty always gave 110%. Some people just keep giving and giving.

I spent all day on the phone, sending e-mail, scanning photos and entering them on the website.  I think I am going to need a Secretary.  The good thing that is happening is that people are telling people.  I called a couple shipmates that told me someone had already given them the address. That's great....keep it going.  This site is growing larger then I had originally anticipated.  By the way, I intend to remove some of these blurbs, but I want to keep them up for awhile as a lot of shipmates have not read them yet, so I apologize to those of you that have read them.

Short and to the point.  There are now 93 photos on the site.  I'm tired and am going to bed.

I am going to try something new.  I'm not sure how it is going to work out, but I am going to give it a try.  I am going to make available High Resolution Photos to anyone that wants to download them.  Here is the way this is going to work:

1) I am going to limit the downloads to three photos per session.
2) A scheduled time for the downloads must be prearranged.
3) The person making the request must let me know the number of each photo they wish to download. (Each picture will have a number preceding the text below it.)
4) I will put the photo or photos on a separate page called "*Download" where it will remain for four hours. After this time the photo will no longer be available.
5) The resolution of the picture will be 1200 dpi unless a lower resolution is requested.
6) Additional downloads will require a new prearranged session.
7) Obviously anyone who logs onto the site during a period of time when these downloads are posted can also download them by simply right clicking on the photo and selecting "save as".

There's more photo's up guys and gals.  I just added twenty nine more for a total of 122.  They are also numbered now.  I hope no one takes offense at these photo's or the text I have written. There is no ill intent. If anyone has issues with any of this material, please let me hear about it.
You have to check out the latest addition to the site. I have added 62 new photos to the site.  We now have a grand total of one hundred and eighty four pictures on the site.  Two of the photos finished off the page called "More Photos", and sixty photos were added to a new page called "Slide show".  This new page is great!  It shows the photos just like the other pages did, but in addition you can view them at different resolutions, view them as a slide show and download them.  I have some editing to do with the page, but it's not bad just as it is.  This website far exceeds my original expectations.  This site is one week old now and I am learning something new daily.  I even know how to edit HTML text now.  And they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

There are a few new photos on the site.  My thanks to Sturt Anderson and Dorn Hendrickson for supplying me with more pictures.  You guy's and Gal's are the greatest.  The membership is growing daily due to your taking the time to tell your shipmates about it.  Also thanks to Ed Borgan as he managed to get in touch with Charles Fitzsimmons.  And Charley said he would let Chief Ulbricht know about the site, as Don has a boat over there.  I was on the phone with Stu when he called and Ed was in a hurry as he was going somewhere, so I didn't get all the details.  I also wish to thank Joe Fisher as he provided me with some missing information on Jim Wallen. Like I said, you guy's and gal's are the greatest.  The website wouldn't be where it is without your efforts.

Check out the latest photo added to "Slide Show".  Charley Fitzsimmons as Santa wearing an Aloha shirt.

Please see the "*Updated Info." page for an important update.

Ed sent me an e-mail with come corrections for the "Muster" list. I deleted Albright as that was an error, added a comma after the lat name of everyone in the list, changed some rates and made sure Submarine Sailors had the (SS) after their rate.

I copied the fallowing from an e-mail Charley sent me from Hawaii.  I thought it was worth posting on the site.  I am also going to include the URL for this website to the "*Home Page".
E-mail from Charles Fitzsimmons:

You can sign up on this Web Page electronically too.  It also has some very
good "I have done it" stories.  I use their books for references on where to
find the lodging at which bases etc.  http://www.spacea.info/index2.html

I spent some time on the phone today with Master Chief Fosse.  He put together a package and mailed it to me today consisting of Photos, including the first Subase Pearl Det. 716 cruise photo, and some other information.  I will start posting them on the website as soon as I receive them and get them scanned.  Hopefully I will have the names of the "Plank Owners" on the site by the middle of next week I am going to start rescanning the photos presently on the site at a higher resolution with larger photo's that will be suitable for downloading and printing.

Now hold on, as there is more! Sunday I typed a letter and mailed it Monday to one of our long lost shipmates.  Tonight I received a phone call and had a nice lone chat with....are you ready for this...Jewell Rogers.  He is doing well, and said he still feels like a kid. I don't know why this surprises me though.  Go to the website and look at all the photos again and count the number of photo's where he is holding a beer can or smoking a cigarette.  He said he outworks the twenty-five and thirty year old kids.  Jewell is sixty two now.

All the cruise photo's I have in my possession have been rescanned to a larger size with better resolution, and posted on the site.  They are the first eighteen photos in "Slide Show".  The first photo is believed to be the first Subase Pearl Detachment 716 cruise photo.  We are trying to identify five Shipmates in the photo.  They are in the first row and are the five sailors between Don Ostenson on the far left, and John Johnson on the far right.  If you can help identifying these individuals, we would appreciate it. This photo and the names of the personnel in the photo will be posted on a page called "Plank Owners", coming soon.

Another change to the website is the addition of a page called "Honors".  The only person honored on this page currently is Keith Arboleda. Check this page out.  I don't know how the rest of you feel, but I am proud to have been associated with the fine person.

I have been busy calling Shipmates again today.  I have been able to contact Jerry Gregonis, Jim Doll, Chief Bentfield, Rick Husak and left a message for Bill Lambert to call me back. I haven't added anything new to the site today, but plan to scan some more photo's that Master Chief Fosse sent me, and post them on the site sometime today.  We have identified a few more names of the Shipmates in the original Cruise photo.

I've added a dozen new photos on the site, and have been busy all day on the phone calling different Shipmates.  In addition to the names I posted earlier today, I have been in contact with Kevin Busko, Roger Hale, Jerome Hietala, Grant Carmichael (Now a Lt. Commander), Chief Ron Kjellman and Chief Dennis Potvin.  And for those of you that knew MM2 Lowell Mann, a Plank Owner pictured in the center of the first row of the First Subase Cruise photo, I spoke with his sister today and learned that Lowell has passed away.  I gave her the URL to the site so she could log on and experience of the comradely we share at Subase, I didn't have the pleasure of meeting Lowell, but I am sure he will be missed by all.  I am going to add a new page to the site as a memorial with his name and as much information as I can acquire along with the name of another Shipmate, Steve Balsis.  Fair Winds and Following Seas to these fine Shipmates.

Today I spoke with Capt. Hernandez, Capt.  Petit, Josh Mattox, Bill Lambert and received a call from Capt. Taylor.  By the time I got home it was too late to call Capt. Taylor back, but I will call him tomorrow morning.  Also I got Dan Nelson's number from Bill Lambert who I will call in the morning also.  Dan and Bill are now retired from the Reserve.  Josh Mattox told me he spoke with Steve Harmon today and said he gave him the URL.  Steve is in Florida soaking up some sunshine.  We would like to get in contact with CWO3 Sellers also. If anyone knows how to contact him, it would be appreciated if they would share the info with us.  There was another warrant officer in our unit.  I want to think his name was Abrahanson or something like this.  It would be nice if we could contact him as well.  I have been trying to contact CDR Rewaldt with no luck. Hopefully Mr. Taylor will be able to provide me with some information tomorrow when I talk to him.  There are still many to contact, but it is happening.  Capt Petit told me he had a ton of information regarding Subase personnel during his tenure as C.O. of the unit that he would send me.  Please note a change to the "Muster" list.  I have added an asterisk before the name of all the Shipmates I have been in contact with.  Please let me know of anyone without the asterisk before their name that you have passed on the URL to, and I will add an asterisk to their name as well.  That way we will have a better overall picture of where we are and how many more Shipmates we need to contact.

I've added more pictures and rearranged some of them in the "Slide Show" I managed to put all the Cruise photo's on the first page.  Some have been rescanned at a higher resolution, ad the rest will be as time permits.

We are still having some problems with some people not being able to sign the Guest Book. When you go to this page you should see the heading Guest Book followed by the welcome message and then I pen icon.  Below this, you should see the area where you can enter the information that you want to be entered in the Guest Book followed by the four to six security numbers and a blank box to enter them in. Last you should see the submit info tab.  I am told that some of you only see a blank black screen below the pen icon.  If you are experiencing this, please let me know.  I am going to call support tomorrow and see what we can do to remedy this.
Today wasn't as productive. I only got in contact with CDR Kimball and Dan Nelson. I got Mr. Taylor's voice messaging and left him a message.  I haven't heard back from him yet.

The Issue with the problems of some people not being able to sign the Guest Book still has not been resolved.  I am still working on this.  I am posting a new temporary page to the site with step by step instructions for an alternative method of signing the Guest Book.  This page will be on the site until the glitch in the software is fixed.  If you have not signed the Guest Book please try this alternative method.  If you still are unable to accomplish signing the book let me know by phone (preferred) or e-mail.

A good portion of the day was spent on the phone with support for the website trying to fix the glitch in Guest Book.  I gave them some additional information that hopefully will get the problem resolved once and for all.  Capt Petit was successful in signing the Guest Book using the alternative method.  I have posted instructions of how to enter your information on the site.  I know this is redundant but, please take the time to sign in.  Ed Borgan is helping me with editing the information on the site.  My sincere thanks go out to Ed and all those that have contributed to this site.  We are going to have the best Subase Pearl website in town.  Master Chief Fosse has provided me with some contact information for obtaining prescription glasses at the government's expense for retired Sailors.  As soon as I get a chance to call them and get all the details and a website URL, I will post it.

Capt Petit mailed me a package containing a lot of information including names, rates, and contact information for Subase Detachment 716 during his tenure as C.O. of Subase.  I haven't had a chance to go though it all yet, but what I have gone through has helped a great deal.  My thanks to the C.O. I knew they were good for something.  Just kidding C.O.

I took the day off from working on the site, so there are no new additions.  The problem with the Guest Book still has not been resolved.  I hope to hear from website support tomorrow.

A new addition to the website has been added called "Lost Shipmates".  This page is intended to be a memorial to those Subase Shipmates who are no longer with us.  There are currently three entries to this page.  I pray to God that this page will forever be small with few entries.

I took the day off from the website today as it was Moving Day....ugh!!!  Still not done moving yet.  We have about three hours left, and then I get to start the cleaning of the old apartment, oh joy. I am going to love the new apartment.  I have two bathrooms here, and when you get my age you can't have too many of those.
I have a couple additions coming up to the site.  You probably will start to see some changes by Monday.

I did some editing to the "Honors" page.  It is now called "Honors and Awards".  I also added two more awards to the page.  If you send me a photo and supporting documentation for your awards, I will post them as well.  Charley Fitzsimmons sent me an e-mail about a site that posts upcoming Space-A travel, but neglected to send me the website URL.  As soon as I hear back from him I'll log onto the site and share the information on the "Home Page", so watch this section of the site for changes.

I have been working feverishly with the Guest Book issue.  I think I have the problem resolved. If you were not able to view the data entry area on the Guest Book page and sign in, please take the time to view this page again.  If you can now see the entire screen, and have not signed the Guest book, please do so at this time.  It is my hope to see a lot of new entries in the next few days.  If you still are unable to view the entire screen please let me know as soon as possible. Remember you must have Java Script installed on your computer to view this page in it's entirety.  I have posted information about Java Script previously on this page.  If you do not know if you have Java on your computer and need assistance in determining this or need information on how to obtain it, let me know.  Subase Sailor's Rock!

20 Feb 2008

Charley Fitzsimmons e-mailed me today and informed me he is going to be Off Island for the next two weeks as he is vacationing on Guam.  He requests that we do not send him e-mail until he gets back on March the 7th.

I added ten new photo's to the Slide Show today.  You will find them on page 8, the last five, and the remainder on page 9.  You will notice that most of the photos posted with exception of the Cruise Photos and the Unit Function pictures are of Shipmates that I budded with.  I would like to see some pictures on the website of some the other Shipmates.  If you would like to have your photos posted, let me know and we can go over some options of getting them to me so they can be displayed.

I have a VHS tape of at least one of our cruises shot at our unit picnic.  I intend to transfer this to DVD.  If you would like to obtain a copy, let me know.  If there is enough interest amongst you, I will look into the best and most economical way this can be accomplished.  It may be it will have to be done professionally if there are a lot of copies to be made.  As soon as I hear from you I will work out the details.  To each and every one of you "Fair Winds and Following Sea's".

22 Feb 2008

Ed Borgen played with his Internet Explorer settings and finally got it to work with the Guest Book.  He can now access the entire screen.  He had two computers at home and one at work that wouldn't work with the site page.  He changed the settings on all three and they now work.  I had a laptop that would not load the entire screen as well.  I made the change that he shared with me and mine now works as well.  So I have posted easy to fallow step by step instructions with pictures on the site.  The new page is called "System Settings".  If you have not been able to sign the Guest Book, please take a few minutes to change the settings on your computer and try again.  I can't put it into words how important to me to have you do this, but it let's me know you have seen the site at least once.  It also gives your Shipmates an avenue to reach you.  There have been close to eleven hundred hits on the site since it conception less the a month ago, but I have no way of knowing whether it is twenty Shipmates logging on a lot or fifty (the approximate number of people who I know are aware of the site) logging on a little.  It also gives me information such as your last rate so we can make sure the Muster page is as accurate as possible.  So you can see a few reasons why it is important to me. Remember if you are hesitant to sign it because you feel uncomfortable filling out some of the information on the form, don't let that stop you.  You are not obligated to fill it all out, simply leave the questions blank that you are uncomfortable with.

Now moving on....the fix or work around solution that Ed came up with only applies to systems running Internet Explorer.  It is not a fix for problems with FireFox or any other browser.  The information only applies to systems running Windows XP.  Early Windows operating systems and Vista (later system), I am not sure of. Try changing the setting, and if it works, then great.  If it doesn't, change it back.  In the instructions there is a Disclaimer.  Please read it and make your changes to the settings are what you are comfortable with.

Ed normally runs FireFox as his browser and is going to try to find the necessary settings to make this work as well.  We will post the information as soon as it is available.

I still have support working on the problem.  Hopefully they will find out what it is in their program that our systems don't like, and advise me as to what changes I need to make to the site.

Note that I just started adding a date of the post to the Blurbs.  I wish I had thought of this before.

23 Feb 2008

New Addition! A new webpage has been added called "Subase Made the News".  Check it out.
I spoke with Charley Schmidt and Jim Nordstrom today.  I also called Kenny Wendlund and left him a message to call me back.  Charley and Jim both said they would log onto the site.

Another big change is going to take place on the site as soon as I can get the bug's worked out. I'll just leave it at that. It will be a Big Surprise when you log on after the change has been incorporated into the program.

24 Feb 2008

If you are reading this page, there is no need to tell you what I have been up to the last several hours. We now have SOUND!  Actually I have been working on this for the last week or so on and off, toying with the idea of sound, researching the various software packages out there, and attempting to get it to work.  I finally found easy of fallow instructions in the Website Builder software package I used to build the rest of the site.  I followed the instructions and walla...we got sound.  All the audio clips on the site were downloaded from the official website of the United States Navy Band.

Ed Borgen managed to track down Thorlief Sheie this weekend who is now living in Yuma AZ.  I can't believe Ed's persistence in completing a job one he starts it.  My hat's off to Ed and all the rest of you who have contributed to the growth of the site.  Whether it be tracking down Shipmates, providing me with information to post on the site, telling the Shipmates you are still in contact with about the site or simply providing me with phone numbers or other information to get in contact with some of these people, it all helps.  Again many thanks.

What's next for the Subase Website? I now fell we have no limits to what we can do with our site. The only thing holding us back is the lack of a new idea to try.  So if you have any ideas, let me know and we will give it a shot.  I still want to put together the Plank Owners page.  The only thing holding this up is the fact that all the Shipmates have not been identified in the front row of the original cruise photo.  Come on Plank Owners, help me out.

25 Feb 2008

I contacted Kenny Wenlund today who is going to check out our website.  He said he has Jim Delany's phone number and will call me with it so I can invite him aboard the website as well.  Ed tracked down Dennis Siemers today.  I just don't have the time to tell you of all the details of how he found him but I told him he is in the wrong business.  He should be a P.I. He not only found him but also found a picture of him on the web.

I changed the color of the asterisk in front of the names of all the Shipmates who have been contacted, to red.  It makes it easier to see at a glance who has and who has not been contacted.
I was delighted to see Jewell Rogers finally made it on the site and signed our Guest Book. Welcome Aboard Shipmate.  We were about to put you on report for missing muster.

The latest idea for the site is a Forum where you can post messages, and read messages posted by other Shipmates.  This will come in handy if and when we attempt to put together a reunion. That way a plan or idea can be posted and you can respond with your thoughts.

Speaking of a reunion, I would like to know if there are Shipmates out there with time to spare who would be willing to head up or chair a committee to research to avenues open to us to put together a reunion.  The more I think about doing this as early as this summer, the more I like the idea.  Let me know if you have the time to make some phone calls, collect and organize the data for putting this together.

26 Feb 2008

Busy on the phone today. I contacted Rodney Flor, Darrick Granison, Paul Bernardy, John Aspinwall and Mike Wittmann.  I also got Guy Petersen's phone numbers from John Aspinwall but his home number is not in service.  I am going to call him at work tomorrow.  Mike Wittmann provided me with information about Lyle Hinnant.  He is now living in Las Vegas.  I called him and got his voice service.  I left him a message to call me. Hopefully I will hear from him soon. Paul Clasen and Jim Deye finally made it on the site and signed the Guest Book.  To date we have contacted 75 Shipmates and 40 have signed the Guest Book.

I spent a good deal of time today working in putting a forum on the site.  I found a good software package and uploaded it.  Now all I have to do is configure it to work the way we want it to work. It should be up and running by the weekend.  The forum will allow us to create a topic of discussion and others can join in with their feedback to keep it going.  We can have numerous topics of discussion going.  Obviously there will need to be some ground rules, and I will specify them at the time of its conception.

27 Feb 2008

You will notice some big changes in the layout of the website.  The site was down for a large portion of the day due to a little....no BIG screw up on my part.  I deleted one little file accidentally...the Home Page.  I spent most of the day reconstructing it.  Thanks to Ed for his good thinking, he had saved a screen shot of the Home page.  If he hadn't had the foresight to do this, I would still be working on the repair.  I decided since I have to rebuild things I might as well incorporate a few changes.  If you haven't already noticed, there are now only two pages of photos, the Slide Show and the Photo Gallery.  The Slide Show has not changed. The photo Gallery however is a different story.  If you click on the Photo Gallery link it will take you to the same page you are accustomed to seeing, but at the bottom of the page you will see a link "Next Page".  Click on this link and it will take you to the second page which was previously called More Photos.  Then at the bottom of this page are two links, one "Next Page" and the other "Previous Page", self explanatory.  I like this way of displaying the pages as it eliminates some of the links on the left of each page and the pages don't look as busy and confusing.

In addition to these changes, I also eliminated the "Updated Info" link and page as it was redundant.  The "Daily Blurbs" page works well as a forum for the information posted on that page.  I also combined the pages "Instructions for signing Guest book" and "System Setup" into one page now called "Problems with Guest Book?"  I think the site looks better now and is easier to navigate around the various pages.

I contacted Lyle Hinnant who was very surprised to receive a call from me and happy that I called to tell him about the website.  Lyle and his wife Mary both love living in Las Vegas.

28 Feb 2008

Not much happening today.  I put Aloha Oe on the Daily Blurbs page which by now you already know.  I found a great site for Hawaiian music that you can listen to entire tunes from a pretty big list.  I have an audio capture program that enables me to record anything I hear directly from the web.  I plan to put some Hawaiian music on various page to keep things interesting.  I also put a beautiful rendition of America the Beautiful by the Navy Band on the site.

Master Chief Opem brought to my attention of a couple female Chief's, one a Senior Chief that is missing on the Muster list.  If anyone can shed any light on this, let me know so we can update the Muster.  I added CWO4 Abraham to the list as he was missing.

29 Feb 2008

I am finally out of my old apartment and it is spanky clean.  Man am I bushed.  I didn't do much with the website today, but I did change some audio.  All five of the pages in Photo Gallery now have Hawaiian music.  I felt it is appropriate since most of the photo's are of us playing and having fun.  I also did some editing of the Lost Shipmates page.  I took all the background out of the picture of Steve Balsis and changed the audio on that page to a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace done traditionally and in Hawaiian.  Please let this old favorite hymn finish before you leave this screen.  I promise you, you won't be disappointed.  I really like the Navy Hymn Eternal Father but I wanted to give this a shot.  I'm sure you will find Eternal Father back on there again soon, as my plans are to change them periodically to break the monotony and keep it interesting.  In addition to the above changes, check out the awards page as I added a new photo of Bob Jannette, and for those of you that noticed his misspelled name, I corrected that as well.

01 Mar 2008

Today I tracked down CDR Rehwaldt and e-mailed him the URL to the site. He is now living in the St. Louis MO area. If and when I get the forum up and running, we will have to talk him into posting the joke of the month the way he used to start out every drill weekend. We had some great officers in Subase and Tony was right up there with them. Ed managed to track down Jim Rhode, Mourice Mazzerella, and Paul King. When he called Paul and Paul answered, he ask if this was Paul king from Subase. Ed hadn't told Paul who he was yet but Paul recognized his voice and said, "I told you Ed, just give me a little time and I will pay you back the money I owe you". What a character! Paul is living in Texas. The list of Shipmates that have been contacted is now up to eighty five. There is still a lot of Shipmates that have not signed the Guest book. I am going to keep after you to do so until you either tell me why you can't or won't. If you don't want to sign the Guest Book let me know and I will write you off and get off your back. If you can't, I'll help you, or you can e-mail me the info and I will enter it for you.

02 Mar 2008

We have added three more red asterisks to the Muster list.  Ed contacted Mazzerella, Olander and Ken Erickson.  Slowly but surely the list of those contacted grows.

04 Mar 2008

We contacted a couple more Shipmates,  Gullickson and Guy Petersen.  We are up to ninety now.  We still have a way to go but we are making progress.  I hope to reach the half way mark by the end on the month.

I received a call tonight from Gary Hovind.  We are going to meet for breakfast tomorrow morning out here in Excelsior.  Dennis Zarembinski wants to have breakfast with me sometime also.  I have to contact him and set something up as it would be a pleasure seeing him again.

I am still trying to get a discussion forum installed on the site.  I am having some problems accomplishing this as the software packages I have looked into and tried are a little...no a lot out of my league.  I believe they are available only for the person that has a fairly strong knowledge of programming in perl.  I am looking into another program now.  If that isn't any friendlier I am going to cry uncle and seek some help.  If anyone out their has any knowledge in this area,  let me know.

09 Mar 2008

No I am not dead or on an extended vacation.  I have been busy for the past week trying to build a forum that will work on our site.  After about ten to twelve hours a day for the past week we finally have one up and running.  You can get there two ways.  You will notice that I have added a link to it on the Home Page toward the bottom called "Subase Forum".  You can click on this link and it will take you out to the Forum Page,  or you can get there by using the fallowing URL:  http://subasepearldet716.freehosting.net/cgi/forum/Blah.pl and pasting it to the address bar of your browser. You will need to register an account with a user name,  e-mail address and password to be able to freely move around on the page and use all of its features.  Be sure to save you log in information as you will need to log in each time you visit the site.  I expect there will be bugs that will have to be fixed,  so if you encounter any problems please let me know on the board called "Website Problems" if you are able to create a new thread and post them.  If not e-mail me at ab0ot@juno.com .

Obviously because we live in a PC world where it is no longer acceptable to hurt any ones feelings,  keep your posts clean and be respectful of others as anyone can see what you post. Please reward me for all the time I spent creating this avenue of staying in touch with your Shipmates by using it. 

The page at first glance looks confusing but it is really pretty straight forward and easy to use.  I suspect however we wont see too many Torpedomen using the site.  Just kidding Johnny.

We have had several Shipmates sign the Guest Book since I last posted comments on this page.  To all the new sign in's,  Welcome Aboard. 

Ed Borgan has corrected a lot of the information on the Muster Page and contacted several Subase members.  I am extremely grateful for his efforts.

Master Chief Fosse is in Naples Florida soaking up the sun and I understand Ken Erickson just left for somewhere in Florida as well.  It's hard to break old habits of going somewhere warm in March.  I suspect they both left the snow shovels here when they left.

To all my beloved friends and Shipmates....Fair Wind's and Fallowing Seas.

10 Mar 2008

Ed contacted CDR Anderson,  the first C.O. of Subase today.  We are hoping he can help of in identifying the Plank Owners.  Ed also contacted Jim Weseman which runs the list of those contacted up to ninety-one.  A few Shipmates have been on the Forum page today and a couple of log in accounts have been created.  Mark Flom squeaked in and posted a comment to the Subase Reunion thread without creating an account.  I put a stop to that as soon as discovered it and changed the permission to post messages to members with an account only.  So Guests can look all they want to but cannot create a thread or add on to an existing thread.  Now here is the reason I did this.  The software does not keep track of Guest activity.  It only records activity from members with an account.  Because I want to be able to see how this site is doing,  the numbers help because it creates a history.  So bottom line is,  register an account when you visit the site.  You must enter a Name (actual or pseudonym is fine),  an E-mail address (must be valid)  and a password.  It is wise to choose a password with six or more letters, numbers or a combination thereof for security reasons. That's it.  No Stinking Security Bar to copy as in the Guest book (wish I could get rid of that) that is difficult to tell what the letters and numbers are and whether the are upper or lower case.  They drive everyone nuts that have to deal with them,  but automated systems can't duplicate them because there is no binary code for the graphics symbols,  which greatly improves security. 

If there are any specific discussion topics you would like to see on the Forum,  let me know.  Leave your comments on the board called Scuttlebutt or e-mail me.  You want it-you got it.  We have plenty bandwidth now as I upgraded the site to 5GB.  We have only used 3% of the total capacity as of now.

Leave your thoughts about a reunion,  pro or con so we can make a decision as to whether we are going to do this or not this year.  So far the Reunion is the only thread with any activity.  And just so you understand,  you are not limited to only adding to an existing thread.  Create a new one yourself.  As long as it is tasteful and doesn't hurt any ones feelings too much (Torpedomen exempt) <grin> then go for it.

13 Mar 2008

I've added two new topic boards to the Forum.  One called Forum Navigation and the other called Humor.  I posted some "How To's" in the first.  Check out the Forum,  don't be shy,  and register.  We need input big time regarding a Subase Reunion if there is any possibility of it happening this year.  I was talking to Dennis Zarembinski today who is willing to help out in putting together a Reunion,  and he mentioned that all the areas that we might wish to hold a reunion are already being reserved.  So needless to say if we hold back too long we might not be able to reserve a location,  and at best be limited to someplace less appealing.  If it is going to be one here it will have to be a place where there is a pavilion in case of bad weather.  So log on,  register,  if you haven't already and voice your opinion!

The second board is an area where you can post clean and politically correct jokes.  Your up Mr. Rehwaldt.

15 Mar 2008

I sent an e-mail to everyone today which was a questionnaire regarding a Subase Reunion.  There has been some response to the e-mail already.  However it is too early to compile any information as to the general feeling and pass it on to you.  But rest assured,  as soon as the information becomes available I will make it available for everyone to see.  If you did not receive the e-mail for whatever reason, I have added a temporary page to the site called "Reunion" where you can view it.  Please let Dennis Zarembinski, Ed Borgen or myself know your answer to the seven questions and any comments you may have ASAP.  Our e-mail addresses are on the form.

As I said in the e-mail, Dennis has volunteered his services to head up a Reunion committee but will require help.  Tom Kremer has volunteered to help out.  Many thanks to both Dennis and Tom for their unselfish offers.  I know that a lot of work will be involved in putting this together.  I can't think of anyone better the Dennis to chair this committee as I know he will put all his efforts into the task to find us a suitable site to hold the Reunion.

17 Mar 2008   

Today Ed, Dennis and myself met for breakfast and went over the responses from those that had filled out the questionnaire, which was approximately 20 to 25% of the total number of Shipmates that were sent the questionnaire, and came to the following conclusions:  The count for Outdoors,  No alcohol, August, Guests included was almost unanimous. The choice for Children included was pretty much either.  So with this information, we decided to go ahead and attempt to secure a site for the function.  Dennis spent the rest of the day visiting a couple sites, checking out sites on the internet and making phone calls.  He found a site on Sucker Lake in Shoreview that will accommodate our needs and after talking to me, called them back and reserved the location.  The pavilion will seat eighty people, which I hope is too small if you get my drift. I know it is far too soon to bring this up and I will try to remember to mention it just before the Reunion, but a couple lawn chairs in the trunk might not be a bad idea. 

You will notice that all my posts have had words capitalized where normally they should not be.  Believe me this is intentional to make key words stand out.

I was overwhelmed at the number of Shipmates that volunteered to help pull this off.  I don't know why I was though, as that was just one of the many reasons that Subase was such a great unit.  Dennis has been on the phone with these people to thank them for their offer and let them know that know what they can do to help.

We would still like you input though, so if you haven't filled out the questionnaire, please do so.  At some point in the near future we need to have a pretty good idea as to the total head count for the function so we can start pricing food and beverages.  Once we have a fair idea as to the total price this venture is going to cost us, then we can let you know what the price will be for each person.  Also, in spite of the fact that generally people didn't care about the alcohol issue, Dennis is getting a permit so we can have it if we want it.  The permit doesn't cost us anything.  So sometime later we will work out the details regarding this matter, and probably be asking for your input.

Guys and Gals, it looks like we are having a party!  The first annual Subase Reunion.

18 March 2008

Mark Flom called to my attention the fact I had neglected to include the date of the Reunion.  The facilities are reserved for all day on August 9th.  Here is a link to the site showing the Pavilion and the information for the facility:  http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/parks/parks/VadnaisSuckerLake.htm

As I said,  all the details have not been worked out yet,  such as the time for the event,  cost per person, food and drink,  etc.,  but we have a lot of time to work out the details.  If you have any input,  take a minute to post them on the Forum page.  That way everyone can see your input,  not just me.

I am extremely disappointed in the acceptance of the Forum.  I honestly thought this would go over big time and I put so much work into getting it up and running, not to mention cost, only to have not being used.  It is the only avenue of free posting your thoughts to the site without going through me.  There have been no restrictions to what you can post other then I ask you to keep it clean and politically correct.  If you want to start a discussion about sports, automobiles, movies, technology or whatever, or talk about your new grandson, you family, your vacation, your pets or just about anything, then post it.  If the interest of a particular subject grows we will add a board for that subject.  Okay, I am climbing down from my soapbox now.  I hope to see some new posts....enough said.

18 Mar 2008

NEWS FLASH!

We now have a new reason to log onto the website and the Forum and register as a member and post messages.  Yahoo Search Engine is looking at our site and gathering information for its search engine.  If it sees a enough activity, it will add key words to their search engine to enable others to find the site.  Just think Johnny, if they pick us up, you will no longer need to send me your weekly e-mail asking me to send you the URL again.  Great huh?  BTW this also goes to you Master Chief Fosse <grin>.  I love being in charge of this column as it gives me the opportunity to get even with John and the other Torpedomen for all the times they grossed me and others out at Subase.  Again <grin>.

19 Mar 2008

The Slide Show is down.  There are problems on the server.  I will let you know when it is back up.

19 Mar 2008

I just noticed from typing today's date above that this would have been my mother's 99th birthday.

Anyway the good news is that the slide show is back up.  Rah!  This time it wasn't my fault.  It was a problem with the server.  I have added thirty new photo's to the Slide Show, thanks to Denny.  There is now 185 photos on the Slide Show plus 122 in the Galleries.  We have room for a lot more though.  To date we have used 3.8% of the total bandwidth of this site.  I think you are holding out on me.  I can see it now, the day of the Reunion....fifty shipmate all hand me a envelope full of photos to scan and post on the site <grin>.  Well if that's what it takes....so be it.

The response to the Reunion has been great.  Approximately 35% of those contacted have responded.  All but a couple will be able to attend, and there was a couple that said they would definitely try to make it.  I suspect we will end up with well over a hundred  at the function.  As I said the seating in the pavilion is for eighty.  If the weather is good, this will not be a problem,  If not, we will have to make do.  So the bottom line is, we definitely are going to have a reunion.  So make sure to mark your calendars on August 9th. and plan on spending the day reuniting with your old Shipmates and swapping Sea Stories.

Ed has been spending a couple hours a day on the Internet and the phone trying to locate people.  He located Jim Delaney, Randy Jeske and several others.  And do you believe this, he located John Liljiquest in Shanghai China.  All I can say is, it might not be wise borrowing money from Ed and skipping town, because it won't do you any good.  I spoke with Jewell Rogers tonight who said his computer has been down, but said he would make it to the reunion.

Note one change to the Slide Show.  I have doubled the number of photos displayed on each page.  It use to display twenty per page, but now displays forty.  The thumbnail prints did not change in size however.  The advantage is you have to change screens less often.

21 Mar 2008   

A lot of little changes have been made throughout the site today.  The most significant change is the addition of a new page called "Subase-The Beginning".  The pages effected by change are the "Home Page" with the addition of "30 April" in the column "History of Subase", the "Muster" page, and "Guest Book Problems" page.

Ed contacted another Shipmate, ST1(SS) Bob Roettger.  The numbers are growing daily.

Please take a minute to answer the Reunion questionnaire as we desperately need the information ASAP.  There is some information that I can't share with you now,  so please take my word for it that when I can share this info, you will understand why we desperately need the questionnaire's filled out and returned to us as quickly as you can do so.

22 Mar 2008

Not much going on today. I fixed a couple problems with the site. Those of you using FireFox for your browser may have noticed a couple things that were not working correctly. The audio was one of the issues. It seems that when using FireFox you didn't get the entire audio clip when you navigated around the various pages on the site. This has mow been corrected and you should not be able to hear the entire clip. Another problem was some of the links to the left of the pages bled into the text or graphics area of the screen. This problem has also been corrected.

I spoke with Terri Good, formally Terri Huddle who said she has been on the site and would go back on and sign the Guest Book. I didn't have her e-mail address so she hadn't received any mailings about the reunion so I e-mailed her the questionnaire.

Ed, who I think has set a goal to contact everyone ever associated with Subase contacted three more Shipmates today. He spoke with Bjarne Pedersen, Dan Biggar and Ted Rockne. We are now at 104 Shipmates that have been contacted. You will notice that there is a lot of red to the Muster list.

I failed to mention in yesterday's entry that CAPT Anderson sent me the copy of the first POD or POM of Subase which I have posted on the site. To access it, go to the "Subase The Beginning" page and link to the POD from there.

Also Tom Kremer sent me some photo's, all of which we already had on the site except for two photos of me re-enlisting in Pearl, which I have posted. But the good thing is that the duplicate cruise photo's Tom sent me had the month and year on them. So I have edited three of the Cruise photos with the month and year. Also the cruise photo aboard SSN-688 included the names of all the Shipmates in the photo. I can't add them all to the photo details as it only allows space for 25 to 50 characters, not sure exactly how many, but a lot less the needed to add all the names. So I will find a spot on the site somewhere for this list of names in the photo.

I wish to express my appreciation to the C.O. and Tom for providing me with this information. The information on this site becomes more complete and accurate each day, thanks to the input from all of you.

26 Mar 2008

Several more Shipmates have been contacted and their names change to red. Two of our C.O.'s, Francis and Musselman were included among those contacted. I spoke with Chuck Taft who is planning on attending the Reunion. He gave me Tony Lueck's phone number, who is living in Phoenix now. I am waiting to hear back from him.

The total number of Shipmates and Guests attending the Reunion is at eighty-seven to ninety-three. That is approximately 42% of the total membership. Approximately 3% of the total said they wouldn't be able to make it.

There has been a change to the location of the site for the Reunion. It is located in Roseville on Dale. The seating in the pavilion there is two hundred, so we need not worry about the weather. At this time I have no pictures or details to share with you about the site, however as soon as they become available I will post them on the website.

We are going to start working on the menu soon. Any thoughts you may have regarding the food issue could be shared on the Subase Forum page.

28 Mar 2008

Three more photos have been posted in the slide show thanks to Paul Clasen's contribution to the site. One of these three photos was also added to page two of the "Honors an Awards" page.

Two more people were contacted thanks to Ed's persistence. The Shipmates contacted were Jim Lindquist and Mike Dunham.

Dennis did some footwork today to get a rough idea as to the food cost for the event. It is looking like the total cost per adult attending will be in the neighborhood of twelve dollars or less. We a leaning toward burgers and brats since these choices are easy to prepare in quantity. Steaks take to long to prepare, cool off too fast and require too much special attention. Pork and poultry can be a real problem if not cooked thoroughly. But at this time nothing is carved in stone, so we welcome your input.

The total head count for those attending the Reunion is at ninety-eight. We are still waiting impatiently for input of a lot of Shipmates. If you haven't e-mailed us you intentions, please do so.

We are also still looking for names of people who are willing to help during this event to add to the list of volunteers we currently have. If you are interested in helping please contact Dennis.

29 Mar 2008I decided the Daily Blurbs column was just getting to long and contained a lot of information that was no longer applicable (note to Torpedomen: this means applies to). So rather then delete the information from the website, I decided to move the files over a week old to a new page called "Daily Blurbs Archive". My plan is to weekly move all files over a week old to the Archive. So bottom line is, if you haven't logged on for a couple weeks, you may want to check out the Last few comments on this new page to catch up. I feel everyone will appreciate not having to have the old comments they have already read displayed, but they are still there if you wish to refer back to them.

30 Mar 2008

Ed contacted CAPT Erickson and Dave Neu today along with others.  So far all our unit C.O.'s have been contacted except for CAPT Peterson.  Ed thinks he has his number but has been unable to reach him.

We are up to 110 Shipmates and Guests attending the Reunion.  I expect this number to grow by another forty or fifty when all is said and done.  It should be a good time for all.

My thanks to Mark Flom for letting Jerry Kolkind know about the site.  Also my thanks to all of you that have told others about the site.  It saves Ed and myself a lot of time and work in trying to track these people down.

There are no changes to the site other then one additional user on the Subase Forum.  Chuck Taft registered as a new user today.  Because he has logged onto the site,  signed the Guest book, created an account on the Forum and sent his completed questionnaire back to me, I emailed Chuck and told him he is R1.

01 Apr 2008

All the C.O.'s except for CDR Berg, who's name I left out the other day, have been contacted as Ed contacted CAPT Peterson today.  Several other Shipmates were located and called.  We are now at the half way point in contacting our Shipmates.  It is now all downhill.

The total Reunion attendance is now at 117.  I never realized how many people leave this state in the winter.  I've had a lot of people tell me they would have responded to the Reunion questionnaire sooner but have been out of town on vacation.

Jerry Gregonis called me from Detroit yesterday and said he would be attending the event this summer.  He was getting ready to go to work and fly somewhere.  He is a flight attendant for Northwest.  Somehow I have trouble picturing Jerry as a flight attendant.  I should have ask him if he gets frequent flier miles.

ET1 Bob Puelston sent me an interesting article in an e-mail today.  I read it and thought it would be of interest to us all, so I posted it on the site.  You can access the article by clicking on the link called USS Parche SSN-683.  The article makes reference to a non-fictional novel by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew titled Blind Man's Bluff.  If you haven't had a chance to read this book, I recommend you purchase it or check it out from the library and do so as it is a great novel.  I couldn't put it down.  I have the book in my possession but it belongs to Chief Harmon.  If and when I see him or talk to him I will make arrangements to get it back to him.

If you haven't returned the Reunion questionnaire to me, please do so.  The maximum number of people that can attend the Reunion is 200.  At some point we are going to have to make a decision as to where to cut it off and accept no more names.  So don't get left in the cold because you were too busy to get your names to us.

02 Apr 2008

Today I spoke with Michael Lewis, a Sales Representative for Schell Brewery in New Ulm Minnesota, who graciously offered to provide the beer for our Reunion this summer at no cost to us.  I wish to thank Mike and his company, Schell Brewery for their kind offer.  So next time you are at the liquor store buying beer please consider the name Schell as your choice.  They have a verity of styles to choose from.  I dedicated a page on our site to Mike and Schell.  Visit the page by clicking on the link "Schell Brewery".  Also their is a link to their website on this page.  I read the History of the company and found it quite interesting.

20 Apr 2008

The Subase Forum gets a Face Lift.  I contacted Martin, one of the support techs at E-blah.com, the designers of the forum we are using and ask him if he wouldn't mind making some changes to the page to make it more attractive and professional looking.  I logged on this morning and what I saw almost knocked my socks off.  All I could do was utter WOW!  I think he did a great job and we owe him our gratitude.  I knew he was good at this before asking him to take on the endeavor as he had done the same for others who had also responded as I had.  Log on and take a look.  Again the link is located toward the middle of the Home Page.

I updated the Reunion attendance list on the site.  We are at 146 attending.

I also contacted CDR Brooks Berg and changed his name on the Muster to red.  He wasn't home but I spoke with his wife and sent her the link and Reunion questionnaire.

19 Apr 2008

Yesterday Dennis and I went to the Reunion site in Roseville and checked out the facilities there.  It looks like the layout is perfect for our needs.  There is plenty of room and located near the lake shore.  The kitchen is a cook's dream come true.  I took some photos of the site and posted them on the website on a page called Reunion Site.

The membership and Reunion Attendance remains unchanged.  Activity has come to a halt.  I must be due to the change in the weather...no time for setting in front of the computer.

To those of you who have taken the time to e-mail us with you commitment to attend the Reunion or let us know you can't make it, I offer my sincere gratitude.  To those of you that have not, I will continue to hound you with e-mails.  If you are unsure as to whether you will be able to attend or not, let us at know and I will put you on hold until you make your decision. 

The Subase Forum seems to back up and fully operational again. 

17 Apr 2008

I added a new board to the Forum today called Making Rate.  For those few of you who have taken the time to register an account on the Forum and been able to view the members, there is no longer any Baby Members.  A few people have told me they didn't like the term.  The new board explains how you now can progress from Seaman Recruit to Officer.  The progression is Seaman Recruit, Seaman, Petty Officer, Chief then Officer.  My apologies to you red strippers.  I had to choose a name and Seaman won out.  If I can later figure out how to edit the code to have the program make a decision as to whether you are a Seaman or Fireman, I will make the change.  In the meantime you will have to be happy with the fact you are no longer a Baby.

At this time I would like to invite you to visit the Forum but I can't as it is down.  I will be on the phone first thing in the morning raising a fuss.  Hopefully it will be back up sometime in the morning.

I would like for those that have signed in to edit their profile if you have not already done so.  It would be nice to have all your birthdays so I could post all the birthdays each month.  Someone may want to send you a Happy Birthday e-mail.  If you are not sure how to edit your profile, the step by step instructions are posted on the Forum in the Forum Navigation board.

The Muster list and the Reunion Attendance remain unchanged as there has been no new activity to post.

16 Apr 2008

I haven't added to this column lately as there has not been much to write about. 

Ed continues to locate our stray Shipmates.  We still have not contacted eighty-eight people though.  Some of these names, we are pretty sure were not actually a part of Subase.  If you would take a few minutes to look over the names on the Muster list shown still in white letters and let us know if you have any contact information regarding their whereabouts.  If you call them to let them know of the site and the upcoming Reunion please have them contact me by phone or e-mail so I can be sure the data gets recorded and updated. 

Presently we have seventy-four Shipmates and seventy guests who are signed up to attend the Reunion this August, for a total of one hundred and forty-four.

Dennis, the Z-Man has been doing a lot of foot work in obtaining prices for the food and picnic supplies for the gathering.  We have a fair idea as to what we are going to need and a pretty good idea as to what the cost will be.  As soon as we have a final tally of those attending, we are going to finalize a menu and start purchasing everything.  We are going to make our purchases around Memorial Day and Independence Day as the prices will be at there best at that time.  Most likely some time in late June or early July I will be asking everyone to send me a check for the total amount of the admission.  The total price per person will be known at that time.  I intend to open a special checking for the organization, and checks will be made payable to the organization, rather then to me personally.

Ask me at the gathering if I would attempt to do this again and I might have an answer for you at that time.  As it is now, I couldn't answer that question as this has been a lot more work then I originally thought it would be.  Dennis and I have made decisions that has put butterflies in our stomachs.

Check out the web page called Reunion and see if we have your name listed as attending the Reunion.  If your name is not there and you intend to attend and or add guests to the list, let us know so we can add your and your guest/s to the list.  This is important as it is the only tool we have at our disposal to assure that there will be a sufficient amount of food and drink for the event.

In closing, I would like to emphasize the importance of helping us locate the few Shipmates that have not been contacted as I do not want anyone to be left out.  And also if you are planning to attend or not, let us know so we can add your name or remove you from the list of those that have not responded.

07 Apr 2008   

Sorry for shrugging my duties the last few days but I have not felt all that great.  Must be something going around.

Ed has been a busy beaver on the phone as he contacted ten Shipmates on Saturday, five Sunday and five today.

I spoke with Johnny Johnson today who said he and his wife Debbie were going to attend.  When I called him he told me he was at the computer multitasking.  That's quite an achievement for a torpedoman.....and they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

The list of those planning to attend the Reunion continues to grow.  We are currently at 131.  HT1 Kenneth Till helped organize a reunion for his ship the USS Wichita and offered some advice which was much appreciated.

26 Apr 2008

A suggestion was made to reverse the order of the posting the Daily Blurbs, and put the latest addition on the top, thus elimination the need to scroll to the bottom each day.  It made sense to me and I was surprised that I hadn't thought of this myself.  So I have rearranged the entries for the last couple weeks.  I haven't decided if I am going to do anything with the archives or not.  I can't imagine why anyone would object to this change, however if you have issues with the new layout, let me know.

The Subase Forum has really taken off.  There are a few Shipmates using it to express themselves publicly.  There is some good reading there.  I have created several boards with a variety of discussion topics.  As time goes, I will add additional boards.  So log on frequently and watch the progress.  It was like watching paint dry for quite awhile, and I even considered abandoning it.  I am happy that it is staring to attract some attention.

Three more shipmates were contacted today.  These include Asmus, Listina and Slipy.  I welcome them aboard.

I added a new page to the site today called "Plank Owner Candidates".  The page lists the names of candidates for Plank Ownership.  The decision as to who will be known as Plank Owners will be made by CAPT Anderson and will be made known to us at the Reunion or shortly after.  If your name is not on the list and you feel you should be a candidate, let me know so I can add it.

24 Apr 2008

The Forum, thanks to Jan Kohlmann's help who is obviously an old BBS'r is starting to take off.  There has been a few topics posted that you can follow and put your two cents worth in.  The more participation we get the faster the interest will be generated, thus the faster the Forum will grow.  I know you all have your lives and don't have a lot of time to spare, but an occasional visit and a post here and there can't take too much time away from your busy schedules.  There are no restrictions on the Forum other that I ask you to keep it clean and out of respect for others and let's not put each other down.  Torpedomen are exempt from this restriction as they are open game <grin>.  So log on, register and have fun.

After posting this Blurb, I received a reply from Mr. Tim Gustafson who will be attending the Reunion.  This brings the count to 147.  I have updated the Reunion attendance list to include him.

23 Apr 2008

You may have noticed some strange entries in the Guest Book today.  We were having some problems with it again.  I contacted tech support at Freeservers and they were working on the problem today.  They sent me an e-mail stating the problem has been resolved.  I went in and made a test entry and it was worse then before they started working on it.  I then decided to go in and attempt to fix the problem myself.  I was able to get it back up and running correctly, and made another test entry with success.  The tech support for the site really sucks.

A couple more Shipmates have been contacted.  Ed was able to contact TM1 James Rule and SK2 Douglas Smith.  Doug is currently in Afghanistan with the Army.  Please remember Doug in your prayers.  I am sure he could use them.  I ask him if he would like to hear from his Shipmates, but have not heard back from him yet.  If it is his wish to receive e-mail, I will post the info in this column.

There are no updates regarding the Reunion.  The attendance remains at 146.

 02 May 2008

John Ellis brought to my attention the name of a Shipmate he thought was affiliated with Subase and not listed on our muster.  Does anyone recognize the name SK3 Perkins?  If you have any knowledge about this person, could you share it with me?

Ed contacted ET2 Terry Pederson, and ET2 Richard Salsbury.  We are down to 71 Shipmates not located now.

01 May 2008

CAPT Taylor provided me with the e-mail address for LT Dan Whalen.  I have sent him and e-mail inviting him to visit the website.  I haven't heard back from him yet, so until I confirm the fact that he has the link, I will leave his name on the Muster list uncolored.  Ed contacted EM3 Paul Meek and we sent him a welcome. 

There are a couple new names in the Guest book.  TM2 Jody Jenson and YN2 Mary Braun signed in.  Welcome to both these shipmates.  Mary Braun committed to attend the Reunion Picnic which brings us to 148.

I posted a thread on the forum which was somewhat distasteful and have since removed it.  If you didn't read it, it is just as well.  If you did, and it offended you, I sincerely apologize.  I broke my own rule about keeping the posts politically correct, and this post clearly was not.

29 Apr 2008

I added a new page to the site called "Still Serving" with several photos of SKC(SS) Doug Smith in Afghanistan.  I wish to thank him for his contribution to the site. I also added a link to the Subase Forum in the links area on the left hand side of the pages with all the other links to the various web-pages.

The site continues to grow along with the Subase Forum.  We have now used up 5% of the total amount of space available on the site.  We have a lot of room for farther additions, improvements and features.  I am currently working on putting chat capabilities on the Forum.  If you haven't been on the Forum recently, take a moment to log on.  There are several interesting posts there.  I was happy to see Jan Kohlmann posted an interesting thread talking about his nephew's experience as a Navy carrier pilot.  The story kept me on the edge of my seat while reading it.

If you haven't registered on the Forum with a user name and password, you are missing out on all the fun.  Everyone has something on their chest that they would like to rid of.  The Forum is an avenue to share your pet peeves.  I even have a board for this subject.  You could talk about the Vikings or packers draft choice,  What you and your family did on vacation, who's going to win the political elections this November, talk about an exciting experience you had while in the Navy or you could just babble like I am doing.  So log on, register and join in on the fun.

Three new Shipmates were contacted, again thanks to Ed Borgen's persistence.  They are GMMC Dan Engelen, TM2 Bruno Doefler and his brother Steve.  We only have 75 Shipmates left to contact.  That may seem like a lot, but you have to remember when I started this, we had 265 names of shipmates to contact.

The Reunion attendance list is up to 147 Shipmates and Guests.  If you haven't committed to attend the Reunion Picnic in Roseville on 09 August, you need to do so  soon.  We are going to start purchasing the food sometime in May, most likely around Memorial Day.

I have also added important dates to the calendar on the Forum.  I would like to see all the birthday's on the calendar for those who have taken the time to register.  So take a moment and update your user profile.  If you have any questions as to how to do this, contact me.  My contact information is on the website.

10 May 2008

I sent e-mails to those who have not responded to the reunion questionnaire letting them know that we need them to let us know their intentions before the 20^th of May, as Dennis and I are going to purchase the non perishables for the Subase Reunion Picnic on this date based on the total head count at that time plus a 10 to 15% overage cushion.

Please link to the "Reunion Info" page on the site and verify that your name is present and the total number attending is correct if you plan to attend.  If it is not there and you are planning on attending or the guest count is incorrect, please notify me so I can make the correction.  If you haven't answered the questionnaire which is also posted to be viewed on the same page of the above link, please do so now.  To minimize the problems and inconvenience and to have a successful event, your input is of the utmost importance.  Please don't delay, do it today.

Ed, after many failed attempts to contact Genie Foltz, finally tracked her down and contacted her and gave her the URL to the site and informed her of the upcoming Reunion Picnic.  In his efforts to contact her, he found another Eugenia Foltz in some town in Indiana who was also in the Navy, who has a brick in a park in the town in Indiana with her name on it.  Small world isn't it.  He also contacted IM1 Peter Smith.

I heard from ET1 Thorlief Sheie today, who said he was sorry but would not be able to attend the event in August due to work.

Interest in the Forum continues to grow.  Check out the audio when you exit the Chat Room on the Forum.

08 May 2008

I haven't written anything in the column lately as there has not been anything new to write about.  It has been real slow of recent.  We are pretty much at the end of locating Shipmates.  There are seventy names on the muster that have not been contacted.  If you have any information about these seventy Shipmates, please help us by providing us with the information you may have.

I contacted LT Dan Whalen who said he was going to be out of town on August the 9^th, the day of the Subase Reunion picnic, so would not be able to attend.

The Subase Website has grown tremendously in the last 100 or so days since its beginning.  It started out as just a bare bone website with a few web pages, including a guest book and a photo gallery.  Since then, there have been additions of a slide show, sound, a memorial to Shipmates who are no longer with us, and an awards page.   Now the site includes a forum and most recently chat capabilities.  I am continually looking for ways to improve the image of the site.  It is a never ending choir trying to improve the site to keep it as interesting a possible.

18 May 2008

The Website and the Subase Forum are experiencing serious problems.  Hopefully they are temporary and will be corrected soon.  In the meantime, if you are having problems loading a page, or seeing everything on the page displayed, try refreshing it by either clicking on the link to the page again or clicking on the go button on your browser (may be green arrows) to the right of the address bar.

Sorry for the inconvenience, I will be in contact with support Monday morning.

15 May 2008

I added a new page to the website called "Navy Veteran Benefits".  The page has links to three sources of information covering eligibility of certain benefits.  They are the sites of Tricare, Champ VA and Dept of Veteran Affairs.  All three sites cover the benefits we may be entitled to.  The sites for the Dept of Veterans Affairs and Champ VA both have printable hand books.  The addition of this new page was a result of Diane Flum's e-mail to me.  If you have questions about certain benefits, visit these sites by clicking on the links.  I am sure the answer to your questions can be found on one if not all three of the sites.

A couple more Shipmates have been located and welcomes have been e-mailed to them inviting them to visit the website and forum.  There have also been several more responses to the Reunion questionnaire bringing the total to 168 attending.

I am busy working on changing the appearance of the Forum to make it more interesting and attractive.  I expect a whole new facelift will occur within the next day or two.

Dennis and I are meeting on Tuesday the 20^th to purchase the supplies and non-perishable food for the Picnic on August the 9^th.  If you are planning on attending and haven't sent your completed questionnaire back to us, please do so by early Tuesday morning at the very latest, as we will be making the purchases based on the total head count at that time.  We don't want to over purchase as that would result in an unnecessary expense and we don't want to under purchase as that could jeopardize the success of the event.

To each and every Shipmate I offer...Fair winds and following seas.

12 May 2008

Today I received a call from ET1 Thor Scheie and spent half an hour or so chatting with him.  He told me he had thought over the possibilities of attending the Reunion and had changed his mind and is going to try to make it to the event after all.  It was noon there when he called and he said the temperature was up to 90 degrees already.

I also heard from Mr. Sellers who is going to attend the Subase Picnic.  Regretfully CAPT Taylor said he was unable to attend. 

I received an e-mail from Diane Flom, Marks wife who wanted to know if there is any retirement benefit information on the website.  Sadly, I had to tell her that there wasn't much other then some information regarding Space-A travel and some Navy contact information.  I e-mailed her back and told her I would look into getting some retirement benefit information on the site.  I am posting her email and asking you to let me know if you are aware of any info that may answer her questions.  Here is her e-mail:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Bill:

This message is from Diane (Mark's wife).  I haven't had a chance to look at the web site yet but was wondering if there is any information on there regarding benefits for retired Naval Reservists.  I was especially interested in the medical benefit aspect of retirement.  Do you know if anything is offered to dependents?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have any information you can share with Diane, let me know and I will make it possible for you to communicate with her directly.

I am working on incorporating several new features into the website and the Forum. So log on from time to time to see what's new.

18 May 2008

The Website and the Subase Forum are experiencing serious problems.  Hopefully they are temporary and will be corrected soon.  In the meantime, if you are having problems loading a page, or seeing everything on the page displayed, try refreshing it by either clicking on the link to the page again or clicking on the go button on your browser (may be green arrows) to the right of the address bar.

Sorry for the inconvenience, I will be in contact with support Monday morning.

15 May 2008

I added a new page to the website called "Navy Veteran Benefits".  The page has links to three sources of information covering eligibility of certain benefits.  They are the sites of Tricare, Champ VA and Dept of Veteran Affairs.  All three sites cover the benefits we may be entitled to.  The sites for the Dept of Veterans Affairs and Champ VA both have printable hand books.  The addition of this new page was a result of Diane Flum's e-mail to me.  If you have questions about certain benefits, visit these sites by clicking on the links.  I am sure the answer to your questions can be found on one if not all three of the sites.

A couple more Shipmates have been located and welcomes have been e-mailed to them inviting them to visit the website and forum.  There have also been several more responses to the Reunion questionnaire bringing the total to 168 attending.

I am busy working on changing the appearance of the Forum to make it more interesting and attractive.  I expect a whole new facelift will occur within the next day or two.

Dennis and I are meeting on Tuesday the 20^th to purchase the supplies and non-perishable food for the Picnic on August the 9^th.  If you are planning on attending and haven't sent your completed questionnaire back to us, please do so by early Tuesday morning at the very latest, as we will be making the purchases based on the total head count at that time.  We don't want to over purchase as that would result in an unnecessary expense and we don't want to under purchase as that could jeopardize the success of the event.

To each and every Shipmate I offer...Fair winds and following seas.

12 May 2008

Today I received a call from ET1 Thor Scheie and spent half an hour or so chatting with him.  He told me he had thought over the possibilities of attending the Reunion and had changed his mind and is going to try to make it to the event after all.  It was noon there when he called and he said the temperature was up to 90 degrees already.

I also heard from Mr. Sellers who is going to attend the Subase Picnic.  Regretfully CAPT Taylor said he was unable to attend. 

I received an e-mail from Diane Flom, Marks wife who wanted to know if there is any retirement benefit information on the website.  Sadly, I had to tell her that there wasn't much other then some information regarding Space-A travel and some Navy contact information.  I e-mailed her back and told her I would look into getting some retirement benefit information on the site.  I am posting her email and asking you to let me know if you are aware of any info that may answer her questions.  Here is her e-mail:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Bill:

This message is from Diane (Mark's wife).  I haven't had a chance to look at the web site yet but was wondering if there is any information on there regarding benefits for retired Naval Reservists.  I was especially interested in the medical benefit aspect of retirement.  Do you know if anything is offered to dependents?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have any information you can share with Diane, let me know and I will make it possible for you to communicate with her directly.

I am working on incorporating several new features into the website and the Forum. So log on from time to time to see what's new.

22 May 2008 

The problems navigating around the Website and the Forum still have not been resolved.  I called support again today and expressed how unhappy I am with the lack of reliability of the site.   I get e-mails back from their technical department saying the problem has been resolved, only to discover that they still exist.  I am so frustrated with their inability to correct the problems we have had.  If I knew I could move the site to a different host and not have to rebuild everything, I'd do it in a heartbeat.  I would say, if you have ever been considering creating you own site; I would steer clear of Freeservers.com.  They do host free sites as well as paid sites, but there are a lot of other hosts out there that also offer free sites.  I would shop around a little.  I would also build a small site, where a lot of effort was not expended and let it be up for a few months as a trial run.  That way you could determine if the site is reliable and not going to give you a lot of problems.  If you find that it is not what you expected, then you could move on with little time invested.

That felt good!  Now moving on, Dennis and I went to Sam's Club Tuesday and spoke with the manager about a discount.  We were told the have funds for such occasions to donate to non-charitable organizations.  So I filled out a request for a donation to help defray the cost of the Reunion Picnic.  We also gave them the list of items we wish to purchase and they are going to pull the items (non-perishable) for us and place them on a pallet and shrink wrap them for us to pick up.  What a great service.  Dennis and I both were dreading having to walk through the isles and locate everything that we need and carting them up to the checkout counter to be rang up.  As it is, they will call us when the items are ready to be picked up.  All we have to do is go to the store and get the invoice, pay for it and they will help us load the items in our vehicle.  We were told they are the only retailer that provides this service.  They will repeat this process for the perishable food items just before the Picnic, keeping the items that need to be kept cold in coolers.  They will even put the frozen foods in coolers a couple days prior to the event so the burgers and brats can thaw out.  So when we get the food to the Jaycee Shelter, the burgers and brats will be ready to throw on  the grills.  Pretty slick!

I spoke with the Vice President of the local chapter of NERA, Don Bauman today and he is going to provide me with some information about their organization.  I understand they have a health insurance plan that would serve as supplemental insurance to those of you who are retired with Tricare or Champ VA as you primary health provider that is quite reasonable.  If you have Tricare or Champ VA now, this will become your supplemental provider once to sign up for Social Security and have reached the age of 65.  Watch to site for the addition of a webpage called "NERA", as I will create it as soon as the information becomes available to me.

The Reunion Attendance now stands at 174.  A pretty good turnout.  I am very happy with the enthusiasm and interest shown.  I expect the total head count to reach 225 by the day of the event.

20 May 2008

The numbers of the Shipmates located, Reunion questionnaires answered and returned, and Guest Book entries have been slow.  That is until yesterday when Ed e-mailed me with six more Shipmates located.  He found LT Brewster, now a Commander and retired, HT2 Ellingson, MR3 Langer, MR2 Steckman, MA2 Williams and HT3 Zimmerman.  Great Job Ed!  E-mails have been sent to these six Shipmates welcoming them back to Subase, along with a copy of the Reunion questionnaire.  Mr. Brewster has already signed the Guest Book.  We only have sixty Shipmates who have not been located, or have not responded to messages left in their voice mail or with friends or neighbors.  We have come a long way in re-uniting the Unit since this project was started the end of January.  Over two hundred Shipmates have been re-united.  I can't even start to express the feeling I get from these results.

I am meeting Dennis this morning to make some purchases for the Picnic and most likely will be adding to this later, so check back

19 May 2008

I didn't realize that 7 o'clock happened twice a day, but I found out today that there is one in the morning as well.  Had I looked at my clock by my bed when people that live in the apartment complex I live in wake me up going to work, I probably would have found this out sooner <grin>.  I had to get up early this morning as I was to meet Ed Borgen and Jim Delaney for breakfast at nine.  We had a good time talking over the past.  It was 11:40 before we parted company, so we had a long time to get reacquainted.  Jim is doing well and looks great for a guy of 72.

I heard from Steve Harmon today who said he and his wife would be attending the Picnic.  He didn't know about Josh Mattox as Josh just left for Missouri to see his ailing mother.  It doesn't look good for her though, so please remember them in your prayers.

I am meeting with Dennis Zarembinski tomorrow at nine in the morning.  We are going to purchase the non perishable items for the Picnic.  After we are done we should have a pretty good idea as to the admission cost per person.  We are at 166 attending.

The problems with the Website and Forum are being worked on by the support staff.  They said the problem would be resolved with 48 hours.  I wish I could have known the problems we have had before choosing Free Servers to host the site.  I would have gone with a different provider.

I will be adding a couple new photos to the site tomorrow, as John Ellis gave them to Dennis to give to me, which I will pick up tomorrow when I meet with Dennis.  So be sure to check them out.  You will find them on the last page of the Slide Show.

09 June 2008             

Not much going on at present.  Locating and contacting the few Shipmates remaining on the list that remain hidden has become a real challenge for Ed.  But bless his heart, he keeps plugging away.

The Reunion Picnic attendance is now up to 179.  That figure breaks down as 90 Subase Shipmates and 89 guests.

The money for the admission has been coming in steady for the past week or so.  If you haven't sent your payment in yet, please do so as soon as you can.  A few have sent their checks made out to me personally.  I would prefer my name not be on the checks, so if you would make them out to Subase Pearl Det 716 Reunion Association, I would appreciate it.  Also watch the page called "Reunion Info" to see if I have recorded your payment.  If you sent your check to me and don't see your payment recorded within a couple or three days please contact me to let me know.  My contact information is on the site on the page called "Contact Me." Also if you send your payment in for yourself and/or guests and find later you or any of your guests will not be able to attend, let me know and I will refund you any money you have coming back.  I wish to make this as easy and painless as I can for all concerned.

If you haven't committed to attend the function and are planning to do so, I highly suggest you let us know soon.  The shelter we have rented has a capacity of 200 people maximum.  We can probably get by with a few more then that, but I think to be safe it will be necessary to cut it off at some point.  We haven't agreed to a maximum number we will except at this time.  We are figuring on loosing approximately 10% as no shows.  Also there are those that will arrive early and leave early, and those that won't arrive until mid afternoon.  So as you can see a few over should not be a problem.

I am really looking forward to the opportunity to get reacquainted with people I haven't seen for over ten years.  And the replies I am receiving from you tells me most of you share the same feeling.

04 June 2008

I did some calculations today and have some figures that may astound you.  They did me. 

Since the beginning of the Website on 29 Jan 2008, we have managed to locate and contact 207 members of Detachment 716 out of a total of 264.  This is 78% of the crew.  Wow! And of the 204 Shipmates located, 88 members have committed to attend the Reunion Picnic in Roseville on August the 9^th.  This is 43% of those contacted and 33% of the entire crew.  Again....Wow!

I added some information to the Home Page of the site about a website called The Submarine Shop along with a direct link to their site.  They have some good Submarine information there along with all sorts of Submarine related items for sale.  Charles Fitzsimmons e-mailed me the link to the site.  They also have a community calendar where you can list events.  I listed the Reunion Picnic on their site.

I received a call from Jim Rhode this morning.  We had a nice conversation for a half hour or so.  It was good to talk to him again.  Jim had a good idea to spruce up the Picnic that I really liked.  He said he thinks he can secure about 400 ears of sweet corn.  If so, we could rent a turkey fryer and have corn on the cob to compliment the burgers, brats, baked beans, potato salad and chips.  If anyone has a large fryer that they could bring to the event at 1000 hours on the day of the event for us to use, please let me know.  It would save us the expense of renting one.

We are 65 days away from uniting at the Reunion Picnic. I don't know about you but I'm getting antsy.  No pun intended <grin>.  It will be nice to spend the day with all my old shipmates and hearing all their stories again.

03 June 2008

A lot of little things have occurred since I last wrote in this column.  We have contacted a few new members.  Among them being PC3 Ann Polachek now LN1 and LT Foster now CDR.

Ann Polachek owns and operates a cozy little coffee shop in St Paul called Polly's Coffee Cove located at 1382 Payne Ave.  I visited her shop last Friday and found it quite pleasant.  If you are in the area, stop in and visit with Ann and enjoy a cup of coffee made to your taste.  I ask her to send me some snapshots of the establishment so I could put them on the website.  I haven't received anything yet.

I was made aware that we were missing a few names on the Muster by Bill Lambert which has now been added to the list.  I also updated the list of Shipmates not contacted on the Forum.

I got a phone call from Art Rentmeester who now lives in Alaska saying he most likely would not be able to attend the Reunion Picnic.

Dennis and I purchased the non-perishable supplies for the Picnic from Sams Club which ran about $330.00 and received an estimate for the perishable food items which will be approximately $470.00.

We have set a price for the admission at $10.00 per adult.  Adult is defined as 13 and older.  For those 12 and younger there will be no charge.  I mailed out e-mails to those signed up to attend requesting they send me their check for $10.00 times the number of adults attending.  Here is a copy of the e-mail sent out:

Reunion Picnic Update

Hello Shipmate,

We have arrived at figure for the admission to the Subase Reunion Picnic.  The figure we have arrived at is $10.00 per adult.  Adult is defined as 13 or older.  For those 12 and younger, there will be no charge for the event.

I have opened a checking account in the name of the organization in order to isolate all payables and receivables from my personnel accounts.  The payment for the site and the non-perishables has already been paid by Dennis and me.  As soon as we receive enough funds from those attending, I will reimburse Dennis and me from the Subase account for the funds we have already spent out of pocket.

At this time I would like those attending to mail their check made out to Subase Pearl Det. 716 Reunion Association for $10.00 per adult attending.  As soon as I receive your payment I will mark you paid.  I would like to receive your check as soon as possible.

In addition, a financial statement will be available at the Reunion Picnic.

Make check out to:  Subase Pearl Det. 716 Reunion Association

Mail payment to:      William Lord

                                   Subase Pearl Det. 716 Reunion Association

                                   838 3rd Ave South

                                   Apt 213

                                   Excelsior, MN 55331

Here are the full details of the event:

Here is the info regarding the Reunion Picnic:

Cost:                                                   $10.00 per adult

                                                           Adult is 13 and older

                                                           12 and younger is free.

When:                                                09 August 2008 1100-2200 hrs.

Where:                                               Jaycee Shelter Central Park Roseville. ½ mile   

                                                            North of hwy 36 on Lexington Ave. 

Menu:                                                 The menu will consist of Hamburgers and Brats

                                                             With sides.

Drinks:                                                Beer, soft drinks and bottled water.

Note                                                     absolutely do not bring any alcohol!  

                                                              Smoking permitted in vehicle only!

Note: You may want to bring lawn chairs as there are only enough picnic tables to seat approximately 100 people.  We have 174 attending to date.

Make checks payable to Subase Pearl Det 716 Reunion Association.

Mail check out for $10.00 times the number of people over 13 attending.

Mail check to:                                  William Lord

                                                           Subase Pearl Det 716 Reunion Association

                                                           838 3^rd Ave South

                                                           Apt 213

                                                           Excelsior, 55331 MN

28 June 2008

So far we have only received payment from 35 members sign up to attend the Reunion.  Please don't put off sending in your payment any longer then you have to as it moves everything that remains to be done in order to make this event a success to the very end where it will be necessary to make a mad rush to secure the remaining items needed for the picnic.

Ed Borgen discovered a great website that you should take the time and log onto.  It is called ‘Together We Served'.  Here is the link to the site:

                                http://navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/index.jsp

It does make you register an account before you can visit the site, but it will be worth your time.  Ed was able to locate and contact two Shipmates on their site.  Ed and I have both set up accounts on their site.  The site is free, but if you wish to take advantage of all the features on their site you must become a full member which costs you $20.00 for the first year.  Well worth it to help keep a site of this caliber up and running.  It has a library of almost all ships, boats, commands and units on it.  I sent an e-mail to the administrator and he was gracious enough to add Subase Pearl Det 716 to their library along with our unit patch.  When you log on you can search for my name and see how I have my info laid out along with my ET1 crow and patches from the various ship, commands and NR unit and an uploaded photo of me in Service Dress Blues.  Then you can go and create your own page to your liking.  The site also allows you to hide any information you don't want public.  You can also leave e-mail messages to you old shipmates on this site.  Also, there are sister sites for the other branches of the service.  I have added the link to this site to the "home Page" of our website.

The Forum is history.  I am truly sorry to see it go but it was just dead weight.  You most likely will not hear me mention Forum again.

We only have six weeks remaining before the Unit Picnic and not to sound like a broken record but if you haven't signed on, do so now before it's too late.

24 June 2008

It's been slow lately.  Everyone is out enjoying the nice weather we are finally getting.

I received a very nice e-mail from formally EM2 Sheldon Krueger, now retired from active duty as an AV1.  It made me feel really good to read his comment about the quality of the Website.  Here is an edited (he asked me to omit some information for privacy reasons) copy of the e-mail:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ET1,
Checked my "togetherweserved" account and discovered an email concerning Subase Pearl Det 716.  That took me back -- way back.

Checked out the website -- Excellent job!!!!.  Better than most unit type web pages I've visited - and I've seen a bunch.

Checked the "Muster" Section and I do remember many of the names listed.  I often ask myself - "I wonder how so and so is doing?"  or "What are they up to these days?"

Most reservists will spend many years with the same unit and they build a lot of good camaraderie and friendships. 
I know of some P-3 reservists who have been with the same squadron 10 - 15 years.  They went from E-3's to Senior Chief & Master Chief in the same unit.

The full time support folks usually move every 3 - 4 years to different stations and units - you don't get to know the people as well as you want.  So remembering names and faces really tests the "ol' dustbin".

In 1981, I left the SELRES community and took a recall to active duty as a TAR.  Went to Memphis, TN (AW, "A" school), then to Willow Grove, PA for ASW training on P-3's.

I have been stationed with:  VP-90 (NAS Glenview, IL), VP-65 (NAS Pt. Mugu, CA),  VP-69 (NAS Whidbey Is, WA), Commander Reserve Patrol Wing Pacific (NAS Moffet Field, CA) and finally back to Whidbey with Commander Reserve Patrol Wing, Det Whidbey.  I retired from active duty in Mar 99.  I work at NAS Whidbey (Civil Service).

My wife and I will be in Minnesota the first 2 weeks of July (2 reunions to attend).
 

VR
Sheldon A. Krueger

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I added Sheldon's name to the list of Plank Owner candidates as he affiliate with the unit in June of '77.

The Subase Forum is in jeopardy of becoming history.  I decided that if there are no new posts by Friday the 27^th it is gone.  You can read the post on the Subase News board on the Forum to get all the details.  I am not going to repeat it here.

The Reunion count is at 180 attending.  It would be considerably higher but several have changed the number attending to lesser number then the number when they originally signed up.  34 members of 92 have sent the payments in.  We need to have the rest by the middle of July.  This is important because we need to know how much we will have to spend on door prizes.

There are a lot of Shipmates we have not heard from as to whether they plan to attend or not.  If you are one of these Shipmates, please take a moment and contact me by phone or e-mail and let me know if you can make it or not.  We have less the seven weeks remaining before the big event.

19 June 2008

I made a correction to yesterdays Daily Blurb.  In error, I had stated that Bonnie Silvernale was currently serving in the Army Reserve.  After re-reading her e-mail I noted that she is in fact in the MN National Guard.

There was no change to the muster list or the Reunion attendance list today.

In frustration I came close to shutting down the Subase Forum today.  Despite my pleas to use it and requests for information on how to improve it and make it more interesting it remains inactive.  It's your only avenue of communicating your thoughts and ideas to others on this website.  It could be used to put a message out to all the Shipmates or to a specific Shipmate.  It has private message capabilities where you can leave a message for a specific person and not worry about anyone else seeing it.  It has on line chat where you can set and relax and kill some time with idle or meaningful real time chat.  I'll give it another week, and if the activity doesn't improve by then, I will make the decision to leave it up or remove it. 

18 June 2008

I made a slight change to the "Reunion Info" page.  I removed the Reunion Questionnaire as I felt everyone has seen it by now.  I am still including a copy of it to new members we have located along with the Welcome Aboard e-mail I send out.

Due to some confusion and some questions, I have posted detailed information about the Reunion Picnic.  It should answer all the who, when, where, what and how questions you may have.  Please pay particular attention to the details of what to put on your check.  If all the details are there, it eliminates the need for me to have to contact you for farther information.

I spoke with TMC Dick Dufrene today.  He works for Nestle and he is going to get us some Ovaltine and bottled water donated from Nestle for the event.  He mentioned a Shipmate missing from our roster by the name of Carlson who was a 2^nd class Gunners Mate.  He didn't remember the first name however.  If anyone knows who he might be talking about, please let Ed or myself know so we can try to track him down.

I received a nice e-mail from Bonnie Silvernale thanking us for inviting her to the affair but said she was sorry she would not be able to attend as she is currently in the MN National Guard on active duty in Iraq.  I sent her an e-mail back thanking her for her service to Our Country.  I have added her to the Forum on the board called Still Serving and ask all readers to Prey for her well being and safe return home to Minnesota.  I also asked her for photos that we can post on the website on the "Still Serving" page.  I will post them if I receive any from her.

A couple new name have been change to red on the Muster page.  We are currently at 50 Shipmates that have not been located.

I was able to finish the Name Tags for the event.  They really turned out nice.  I printed them out on 66# parchment stock.  The color of the paper is an off white.  The fonts are Ancestry SF and the font colors are red and blue.  The Logo also turned out sharp and clear. 

We are trying to secure some door prizes for the affair.  If anyone has any tickets we could use for the drawings or has an outlet to purchase them, please let Dennis or myself know.  We are thinking of custom ball caps and perhaps tee shirts.  Again, if anyone has an outlet to purchase them reasonably let us know.  There is still so much to do and the time is slipping away.  Help if you can.

16 June 2008

A few more Shipmates have been located and contacted with an email sent to them welcoming then back to Subase.  We have also had a few new commitments to the Reunion Picnic. 

Here are a few stats you might be interested in seeing:

Total Subase Shipmates                                268

Total Contacted                                             217

Total Remaining to be Contacted                 51

Percentage Shipmates Contacted                 80.97%

Total Attending Picnic (incl. guests)             180

Total Shipmates Attending Picnic                 93       

Total Guests Attending Picnic                       87

Percentage Shipmates Attending Picnic       40.09%

            (Of those contacted)

Total Shipmates paid                                     28

Percentage Paid                                             30.1%

Total money received                                    $490.00

We have Thorlief Scheie making a trip back to Minnesota from Yuma AZ and Genie Fulmer (formally Genie Foltz) coming back from Quakertown PA to attend the Reunion.  I offer my sincere thanks to both these Shipmates for thinking of us enough to make the trip back here.  I hope the event exceeds their expectations.

I am currently working on designing Name Tags for the function.  I am having problems putting something together that looks good.  If anyone has Microsoft Publisher and a little time, I could use some help.  Please contact me if you can help me with the layout.  My contact info is on the website.

I am also looking into purchasing some door prizes.  It was suggested that we go with Navy and Submarine related items.  We are thinking on the line of tee-shirts and ball caps.

There is only 53 days remaining before the Big Event.  We are still looking for a few more volunteers to help pull this off.  If you can help, please contact Dennis or myself.  The more volunteers we have, the less time any one person will have to spend helping.

I have opened up the Forum to Guests.  They can now read and post messages without having to register an account.  This is a trial experiment.  If it creates problems, I will take whatever action necessary to remedy the problems.  The reason for the decision to do this is the fact the board is dieing a slow painful death.  The activity of late has been virtually non-existent.  It has to improve or I am going to remove it from the site.  The maintenance for the board is time consuming, and if it is not being used, we might just as well bid it farewell.

06 July 08      

The Reunion is less the five weeks away.  The attendance list is jumping all over the place.  We pick up a few more attending and we loose a few that we thought would be joining us at the event.  We are now at 175.  The only Shipmate we have lost so far is Grant Carmichael.  He will be on ACDUTRA for 28 days in August.  I am sorry he will not be able to join us as I know he was looking forward to it. 

I sent most of you an e-mail asking you to confirm whether you were or were not going to attend the Picnic, how many guests you will be bringing and your food and beverage preference.  I have to date received replies from approximately 25% of you.  I need everyone to get these back to me as soon as possible, the sooner the better.  Also I need to get all the payments in ASAP, again the sooner the better.  41.76% of you have sent me a check.  That leaves 58.24% of you that need to stop what you are doing and dig out the check book and write a check payable to Subase Pearl Detachment 716 Reunion Association and put it in tomorrows outgoing mail.  If you are unsure of how much to make the check out for or where to mail it, check the page called "Reunion Info", as all the details are spelled out there.  I have posted a copy of the Signup Form there as well.

Important Note: All sign up info and checks need to be in by the 19^th of July.  After that date all bets are off as to whether you will be able to attend or not.  At that time we will only have a few days to put together the food order and get it in to Sam's Club to assure pickup just prior to the event on the 9^th of August.

I added a story to the page called "sea Stories" you might find interesting.  It is about an adventure I had experienced while on active duty in the fall of 1962 while serving aboard the USS Princeton LPH-5.

12 July 2008

This evening the Website underwent a facelift.  I decided to give it a new look.  I hope it wasn't too much of a shock when you logged on.  The new appearance cleans up some areas that needed it.  I also gave a few of the pages new names.

I consider myself as a hard core conservative and surprised myself by being willing to make the changes.

I decided I wanted to dedicate the site to the active duty personnel, especially those serving in hostel areas of the world, and to those who have given their lives for their country.  I added a column on the Home Page doing so.

Again I hope you all approve of the new look to the site.

11 July 2008

I sent my last plea to sign up for the Reunion Picnic out in one last e-mail the other day.  I am very nervous as there is a lot of info needed that has not been received and a lot of checks still needed to be deposited.  Please get the info and checks to me.

We have had a lot of changes to the attendance count and I am constantly updating this information.  It is looking like we will just be under 200 attending, which is probably a good thin as the capacity of the shelter is a 200.

I added a page to the site called "Medal of Honor Recipient".  Joey Fisher contacted me with info about a Navy Seal who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2006.  He included links to three separate sites that tell of this brave young man's sacrifice.  I felt the information was worthy to be posted on our site.  It makes you feel proud to have been associated with an organization, the United States Navy that has people in that organization willing to give their lives for their Shipmates and their Country.

Visit the page and read of this fine young man's accomplishments and his final sacrifice.  Also visit the three sites shown on the page.  There are video's on two of the sites that will give you goose bumps.  You will need a high speed connection to take full advantage of the videos.

The Reunion is four weeks away.  I have set a deadline for July the 18^th for all Reunion attendance signups and checks to be in.  After that date all final preparations will be made and the food ordered.  If there is a reason you can't 100% commit or make payment by this date....talk to me.  I am sure we can make a few exceptions in order to have as many of our Shipmates in attendance as possible.

If you are unsure of anything regarding the Picnic visit the page called "Reunion Info" as all the details are spelled out there, or e-mail me.  My contact info is on the site on the page called "Contact Me".

See you all on August the 9^th in Roseville.

26 July 2008  

You will notice several changes to the website. 

First off, I have added a page dedicated to those that have supported our upcoming Reunion by making a donation.  I hope to add a couple more names to this page before all is said and done.

Next I have incorporated several pages on the site that shared a common subject thus cleaning up the index on the pages and making them look less busy and easier to find the page you are looking for.  Check the page called Reunion Information to see an example of what I have done.

Last I arranged the index in alphabetical order which helps tremendously in locating the page you are seeking.

I submitted the list of names to CAPT Anderson of those who feel they should be considered when the decision is made by him as to the definition of Plank Owner.  If you feel your name should be on this list but is not, let me know so I can add it and contact CAPT Anderson.  Also if your name is on the list please take the time to find any documentation that will support your argument in the event there are questions.  Remember we will be abiding by his decision.  The upcoming webpage will only show the names of those he feels are truly Plank Owners.

I will be seeking photos and information from the individuals before putting together the webpage.  The webpage will be a nice addition to the site so help me make it as complete and accurate as possible.

We have received payment for the Picnic from most everyone.  There are only a few remaining that have not paid.  It looks like the final count for the Picnic will be at about 185.  It should be a good turn out.  The Picnic is two weeks from today.  If you need any information about the event, it can be found on the website on the Reunion Information page.  There are a couple maps shown to aid you in locating the site for the Picnic.  Note:  the parking is limited in the park.  If you cannot find a parking place in the lot you can legally park along the street on Brooks Ave N. then take to walking trail to the site.  It is a short walk.  Note:  Do not park on Lexington Ave N. as you will most likely be ticketed and towed.  This fact was emphasized by the park personnel in the city office.  Important note:  Do not bring any alcohol as I am the only person authorized to do so.  I have a permit for the day allowing me to provide beer only.  Also regarding alcohol, please help me insure no one under the drinking age is consuming alcohol and pay attention to those who are drinking and help me insure they do not have too much to drink.  We want this to be a fun time and don't want anyone getting hurt of worse yet killed because they had too much to drink.

We are still looking for someone who has access to another turkey fryer.  We have one but need two.  We are also still looking for folding tables to set up as a serving area and reception area.  I don't know about you but I am excited and am looking forward to seeing all of you again.  This type of affair is long overdue.

22 July 2008

I spoke with Dennis today and he reminded me that we are also going to need a few 40 to 50 quart coolers for the ice and beverages.  I have two we can use but will need three or four more.  If you can bring one early on Saturday the 9^th or have one we can pick up, let me know.  We also could use a couple folding tables.  We need one to set up a reception area and one or two depending on the size as a serving table.  Again let me know if you can supply any of these items.

We will have coffee as Dufrene is supplying a 50 cup coffee urn.  Thanks Duff, you restored my faith.  I new Torpediomen had to be good for something <grin>.  If there are any decaf drinkers that would like to have this also available let me know as Phil Johnson has a 20 cup coffee pot we can use for this purpose.

There are a couple people I am meeting with today so check this entry again as I may be adding to it later today.

I met again with BM1(SW) Amy Smith this afternoon and picked up a very generous donation for our reunion.  It consisted of several lanyards to display your work ID card, several plastic drinking glasses, golf balls with Navy printed on them, some ball caps, tee shirts, sports water bottles,  ball point pens, some great bumper stickers (you will love these) and insulated beverage covers.  These items will be given away at the reunion picnic.

 I wish to offer my sincere thanks to Petty Officer Smith and the Recruiting Command in Chanhassen for the contributions.  I know these gracious gifts will be well received by all.

I also stopped at Rainbow Foods (Roundy's) in Eden Prairie and picked up a gift card donation for $20.00. 

I also wish to express our thanks to Roundy's for their support.  Please remember them on grocery shopping day.  

While meeting with Petty Officer Smith I ask her if I could take a couple pictures of her in uniform.  She consented and I have posted them on the site.  Check out the pictures of her and I believe you will agree that she should be very successful in recruiting new people in the Navy, especially the young guys.  Just kidding....Amy is happily married.

Note to Amy:  Just having a little fun with this...after talking with you I know you understand.

For the 29 Shipmates that still have not sent the payment in, expect a phone call in the next couple of days from our credit department <grin>.  Get those checks in....don't make me beg.

21 July 2008 (cont)

First things first.  If you checked the Guest Book you will have noticed a new Shipmate has joined the site.  PO1 Amy Smith, to be more accurate BM1 Amy Smith.  For those of you Snipes, Admin people and other below deck sailors BM is for Boatswain Mate, the real rate in the Navy.  She is regular Navy and still on active duty.  She was recently assigned to the Recruiting Command in the Twin Cities.  I met with Amy today and enjoyed the conversation with her.  She doesn't know if she is going to make the navy a career or not.  I told her if she decides against this choice to at least consider the Reserve as an option.  Amy in my opinion is a 4.0 Sailor who wears the NAM with three gold stars on it.  She also wears the SW badge.  I think it is just a matter of time before she will pin the anchors on.  I have posted two photos of her on the site with her permission.  You will find them on the last page of the "Slide Show".

I finally made contact with Kurt Castle and he, his wife and their Son are going to attend the Reunion.  He said he runs a business that deals in promotional items such as hats, shirts pins and other such items.  He is going to get me a price for doing the embroidery work on the hats.

21 July 2008

We have a little over two and a half weeks before the unit Picnic.  Most of the preparations have been completed however there are a few loose ends that need to be taken care of.  We still have a few that have not sent their payment in.  This needs to be taken care of as we need the money desperately. We are a little over budget and it may be necessary to ask for a small donation at the event.  When all the purchases are made and all the figures are in I will let everyone know.  I have purchased ball caps for the event and am in the process of having the Unit logo put on them.  It will be necessary to sell some of these caps at a couple dollars over the cost to help cover the rest of the expense.  Please make a purchase to help out.  The hats will be a real bargain at the price we will be selling them for and keep in mind that you will be helping the unit as a whole by purchasing one.

EMC(SS) Richard Dennis contacted me and said he has one turkey fryer we can use so now we only need to find one more.  If you have access to one, let me know.  STS1(SS) Phil Johnson as a 20 cup coffee pot that we can use.  If you have something similar or larger let me know.

I went to and spoke with the managers at Cub Foods and Rainbow Foods (Roundy's) about a donation.  Cub is donating a $25.00 gift card and Rainbow a $20.00 card.  The manager at Cub Foods also worked up and estimate for the food items we need and beat Sam's Club by several dollars.  For those of you with Sam's Club memberships, you may want to think about this.  Perhaps the membership you pay for is not the great deal they make it out to be.

I have a meeting with BM1 Amy Smith with the Recruiting Command today to pick up a box of items they are donating.  I wish to thank her for thinking of us and taking the time to put something together.

It looks like the Reunion attendance is going to be considerably smaller then originally anticipated.  We have had a fair number of Shipmates bow out at the last minute  for various reasons and several number changes for guests.  I am anticipating that the total will not be over 150 now.  I am a little disappointed, but knew this was bound to happen, but I didn't think the number of no shows would be quite as large as it looks like it is going to be.

For you beer drinkers, I just got off the phone with Mike Lewis with Schell Brewery and he assured me we will have beer.  I wish to thank Mike and Schell for their donation and for taking the time to call and reassure me that they haven't forgotten us.

17 July 2008

I spoke with Charlie Schmidt today who said he and his wife will be attending the Reunion Picnic.  He then said he would stop at my place and pay for the admission tonight.  He stopped over and we spent an hour or so talking over old times.  He really looks good, especially for a 68 year old senior citizen.  He is sporting a nice looking white beard that kept reminding me of someone the entire time I was talking with him.  It just now dawns on me who I was trying to think of.  His beard reminds me of Sean Connery as James Bond 007.

He reads a lot of books so I gave him my copy of a book I had just finished reading that I highly recommend as a great book to read called Kurst Down by Clyde Burleson.  It is all about the sinking of the Russian Nuclear Submarine Kurst and the attempted cover up and denial by the Russian Navy.

We have three weeks and a day before the Picnic.  There are still several who have not sent their money in.  If you are one of these people, please get it in the mail.  We have 175 signed up to attend, 172 of those being paying attendance and have received payment for 105 people so far.  We still need payment fro 34 Shipmates.

I have been in communication with an active duty shipmate BM1 Amy Smith who is with the Recruiting Command.  She said she will be able to get us some items donated from the command that we can use as door prizes.  I am not sure what she can get us yet but some of the items she mentioned were shirts, hats, golf balls and stickers.  I will be talking with her tomorrow to find out just what and how many she can get us.

I ordered 100 ball caps and am in the process of trying to get our unit and logo embroidered on them. 

I spoke with Mike Lewis with Schell Brewery today and he assured me Schell will have the Beer donation ready for pickup prior to the event.  Ken Wendlund sent me an e-mail me and said he defiantly will get the soft drinks and bottled water.  He doesn't know for sure yet if this will be a donation from Coca Cola or not.  Hopefully it will be so as it keeps our total cost down.  The Sam's Club donation fell the cracks as they are out of money for donations.  I think I will stop a Rainbow and Cub tomorrow and talk with their manager and see if they are willing to do anything for us.  It can't hurt.

I spent all afternoon the other day on the phone with a last minute plea to several shipmate to join in on the fun and as result we have added Charlie Schmidt and his wife Carol, Paul McConnaughay and his wife, Mike Wittmann, Roger Anderson and his wife and Jim Nordstrom and his wife to the list attending.

I typed up another questionnaire that I am going to hand out at the Reunion and ask you to fill out and leave with me before leaving the Picnic.  Here is a copy of the questionnaire for you to have an advanced look at.  Please think about how you will answer the questions before the event.

Future Reunion Questionnaire

Note:  All answers can be expanded on in the comments area below.  Other suggestions may also be added in the comments area.  Circle you choice.

Would you be interested in a reunion in the future?    Yes          No

What time of the year would be best for you?              Spring  Summer  Fall  Winter

What type gathering do you prefer?                              Indoor    Outdoor

Where should a reunion be held?                                   Local      Other

Should the reunion be for more then one day?              Yes         No

Should the reunion be an annual event?                        Yes         No

Would you be willing to chair a reunion committee?     Yes         No

Would you serve on a reunion committee?                    Yes         No

COMMENTS:

14 July 2008

We need a couple of turkey fryers for the Picnic to make corn on the cob and a large coffee urn.  If anyone has any of these items they can let us use, please contact me ASAP at (952) 854-3120 or e-mail me at ab0ot@juno.com .  I will in the meantime call around to get prices for renting them for the day but will hold off on actually renting them.

So far we have received payment from fifty people.  We still need checks from thirty-nine more shipmates.  The deadline for signup and payment is this Friday.  Let's go sailors!  Man those mooring lines and let's get this boat underway (a little nautical talk).  Get your #&%@*!%  &@@^% in gear (a little naughtical talk) <grin>  Sorry about that, I just couldn't help myself.

27 August 2008

I accomplished something today the support team at Freeservers said could not be done.  I managed to add sound to the slide show.  I was able to edit the code for the program and get it to work.  It took several tries before I got it to work the way I wanted it to.  As it is now the same music plays on all the pages.  The only drawback is that is starts the over again when you go to a different page.  I am trying to figure out a way around this.  The nice thing though is that it plays seven Hawaiian audio files continually while the actual slide show is run and you have music throughout the intire slideshow.  Eight months ago I didn't even know what HTML was.  Now I can do things with it to accomplish satisfying results.

I received an e-mail from Kathy Nordstrom today who has been working on putting together a committee along with Richard Dennis and Mark Flom's help.  She named six Shipmates with me being one of the six who have committed to serving on the committee.  It was suggested that we have an odd numbered committee so you have a tie breaker.  I decided we would have five or seven members.  Seeing as how we now have six I guess we will be having seven.  As soon as we complete this task we will then have a meeting and decide on a few things.  I don't want any more then seven as you then have too many different opinions

I added CAPT Francis and Mark Flom's comments to the "Plank Owner Comments" page and am still waiting to hear from the rest of the Plank Owners with their comments.  Get them in to me as soon as you can so we can at last complete a task that I started several months ago.

23 August 2008

I received a check from YN2 Mary Braun for $30.00 in payment for the Reunion she unfortunately missed.  I called her and thanked her and we talked for quite awhile.  One of her daughters is leaving for Boot Camp in Great Lakes tomorrow.  After she graduates from boot camp she is going to Pensacola FL for 9 weeks of "A" School for Boatswains Mate.

This increases the ending balance of funds for next year's get-together to $543.82.  I have edited the Financial statement to reflect this change.

Be sure to check out the "Det 716 Plank Owners" page as I have done some editing there as well and have started adding the comments from the Plank Owners.  I will continue to add the comments to the site as I receive them back from the Plank Owners so be sure to check out this page often.

22 August 2008

Thanks to CDR Foster more pieces of the puzzle have been put in place.  Here is what I now have:

Year       C.O.'s                       X.O's                           T.O.'s

77-78      CDR Anderson         LT Kimball                   LT Francis/LT Herring 

79-80      CDR Peterson           LCDR Kimball             LT Taylor

81-82      CDR Hernandez        LCDR Taylor               LT Gustafson

83           CDR Erickson           LCDR Taylor               LT Rehwaldt

84-86      CDR Taylor              LCDR Rehwaldt           LT Cannon

87-88      CDR Francis             LCDR Rehwaldt           CWO3 Sellers

89-91      CDR Petit                                                     LT Whalen

92-94      CDR Musselman       LCDR Brewster           LT Foster

95-98      CDR Berg                 LT Chivers                   CWO4 Abraham

Also thanks to Mr. Foster for e-mailing me a copy of a Recall Bill dated 14 May 1984 I was able to add the following names to the Muster list that were missing.  I just can't properly express my appreciation to him for supplying this missing data.  Here are the names added to the Muster list:

Bailey, ET2 Brian L.

Defor, TM2 Hans D.

Garcia, SK3 James F.

Hatton, GM1 John B.

Mednick, ET2 Stewart

Wandler, EM1 Jeffrey E.

I also wish to express my thanks to CDR Berg for supplying me with the name of his XO.

Hopefully I will me from CAPT Petit or someone else who knows the name of his XO.

21 August 2008

First off I added a page to the site Called "Tipton Concert" at CAPT Francis's request.  The concert is a fund raiser for CAPT Francis's organization Jon Francis Foundation.  Information about this organization can be viewed on the site on the page called "Worthy Comments".  All the proceeds from the sale of admission tickets will go to the Foundation.  I plan on attending to help CAPT Francis carry on his work with the organization.  If you can also attend I am sure your presence there will be appreciated.  If you can't attend you can help by making a donation to the Foundation.  This can be done by logging onto their site at http://www.jonfrancis.org/ and clicking on the tab "Contribute/Volunteer".  I know your help will be appreciated by the C.O. and the organization he represents.  Please help if you can.

I sent out e-mails to all our members requesting help in arranging all Subase C.O.'s in their proper order along with their X.O.'s and T.O.'s.  Here is what I have to date:

Year       C.O.'s                       X.O's                           T.O.'s

77-78      CDR Anderson         LT Kimball                   LT Francis/LT Herring 

79-80      CDR Peterson           LCDR Kimball             LT Taylor

81-82      CDR Hernandez        LCDR Taylor               LT Gustafson

83           CDR Erickson           LCDR Taylor               LT Rehwaldt

84-86      CDR Taylor              LCDR Rehwaldt           LT Cannon

87-88      CDR Francis             LCDR Rehwaldt           CWO3 Sellers

89-90      CDR Petit                                                     LT Whalen

91-92      CDR Musselman       LCDR Brewster           CWO4 Abraham

93-94      CDR Berg                                                     LT Foster

My thanks to CAPT Taylor for responding to the e-mail and providing me with some pieces of the puzzle.

If you can help me organize this even farther please contact me.  We can continue to build this Website with facts about Subase that is complete and accurate if we all pitch in.  Everyone has a piece or two of the puzzle.  Once we acquire all the pieces we will be able to see the whole picture.

I am still waiting to hear from all the Plank Owners with input for the "Det. 716 Plank Owner" page.  As soon as I receive all the info I will add it under each members photo  If you know the shop you worked in at Pearl, include it in your comments also include any collateral duties you performed at the center.  So far the only input I have received is from IC1 Flom and CAPT Francis.

BM1 Amy Smith got a chuckle when I e-mailed her to thank her again for the donations and told her I was field promoted the Senior Master Chief.

16 August 2008

I finally got around to putting together the Plank Owner page on this site.  There are currently 28 names of Shipmates who hold the title of Plank Owner.  A few more names of possible Plank Owners are still being considered.  If accepted, their names and photos will be added to the existing members.

Speaking of photos, I have mixed feelings of the pictures I used for this page.  What I did, in order to portray the person at the beginning of Subase, was use the first Subase Cruise group picture and crop each individual and save the image to upload to the site.  The end result was a somewhat less the perfect picture which I feel adds to the character of the page seeing as how the page represents an era some thirty plus years ago.  What I don't like is the fact that some of the Shipmates in the back rows were somewhat hidden and when trying to get a photo large enough for the page you end up with a lot of the people on each side of the individual in the picture as well.  If your picture is on this page and you would like to have me change it for a better one, just send it to me.  I do insist that the photo be of the Shipmate in uniform and taken sometime around 1977 or '78 and be in black and white, again to reflect the era.

I sent out e-mails to the Plank Owner Members today and asked them to provide me with some information about themselves during those early years with Subase.  I will add these comments to the page as I receive it.

I would like to thank CAPT Anderson for his part in helping me finally get this group recognized on the website.

11 August 2008

I was brought to my attention that I singled out certain individuals and groups of people to formally show my appreciation for their contributions to the success of the Reunion Picnic.  To those who were left out, my sincere apologies.  So I would like to take the time to show my appreciation to all who unselfishly contributed to the Reunions success.

To those who worked at the reunion in the kitchen, at the grills, at the reception area and on the P A system I offer my sincere thanks.

To those who helped locate Shipmates, I thank you

To those that helped plan the event, I give you my thanks.

To those that provided us with food and drink items which resulted in a considerable savings to the total expense for the Picnic I offer a hearty thank you.

To those who helped transport the picnic items to the site, I offer my thanks.

To those who donated door prizes, I thank you.

To those who brought items such as the sound system, extra plates and cups etc, coffee post and cookers, my sincere thanks.

To all that spent money out of pocket to purchase or rent items needed, I give you my thanks.

I give my thanks to all that showed up and contributed to the success.

And last my thanks to those that made purchases and donations which not only saved the day by bringing us out of the red, but left us with a balance in the account to do this again.

We are in the process of putting together a committee from those who showed interest and plans are already underway to repeat this venture again next year and research into an available location has been started.  If you are interested in serving on the committee or have any suggestions for a repeated get-together please contact me.  We are talking about giving the next event a Hawaiian theme and having a sort of a Luau with everyone's favorite Poi <grin>.  We might even be able to convince Tommy to honor our presence dressed in his Hawaiian ensemble <more grinning>.

Today I put together a financial statement and posted it on the site.  We ended up with a balance of $495.82 after paying all expenses.  We also own 100 blank ball caps that we will have the unit logo embroidered on to sell or give away as door prizes.  This gives us a good head start to put on a great affair.  

We also plan to seek out merchants who are willing to make donations for the event and collect as many as possible over the next few months. 

Everyone had a good time at the Reunion on Saturday and it doesn't have to end here.  Next years will be even bigger and better.

10 August 2008

About three and a half months ago I made the statement in the old Daily Blurbs column that read as follows "Ask me at the gathering if I would attempt to do this again and I might have an answer for you at that time.  As it is now, I couldn't answer that question as this has been a lot more work then I originally thought it would be.  Dennis and I have made decisions that has put butterflies in our stomachs."

I now have that answer.  After having spent the day with many of my old friends and Shipmates and reaping the fruits of the labor sewn I wouldn't hesitate for an instant in doing this all over again.  Seeing all of you at the gathering yesterday made it all worth while.  Subase was and remains the greatest. I wish to thank each and every one of you for taking the time from your busy schedules to attend the Picnic.  It was so good to see all of you again.  I love you all dearly.  I spent seventeen years of my life with the Shipmates of Subase and I can't think of one that I don't consider my friend for life.

I wish to offer my sincere thanks to those that helped make yesterday the success it was, those that helped get the items needed for the event to the site, those who worked in the kitchen,  those who worked the grills, those that supplied us with items to help keep the cost of the event down and those that brought items from there home.  I am purposely not mentioning any names for two reasons.  The first reason is there are too many names to mention and more important for fear of missing someone.

The field promotion to Senior Master Chief caught my off guard. I just didn't see that one coming.  I graciously accept the promotion but would like to know how soon before I start seeing the change in my monthly retirement checks <grin>.  Seriously though, I will keep the garrison cap and treasure it.  When I look at it I will be reminded of those that thought enough of me to honor me with it.  Thank you for doing this.  You don't know how close you came to seeing a grown man cry.

A special note to our two C.O.s who attended the event.  I felt bad about all the short jokes being passed around.  They should have realized that in today's PC world the term is altitude challenged <grin>.

I posted all the photos I shot on the site last night after getting home.  Please check the spelling of you name to make sure I got it right.  There are a total of 65 new photos added to the slide show.  They are all on the last three pages.  I still have the pictures to post that June took.  I will try to get them on the site later today.  Some of the photos I took are a little dark so over the next few days I will be editing them to improve the quality.

I will also be removing some information from the site that has become obsolete due to the reunion having taken place.  You will see these changes occur over the next few days.

Again I would like to thank each and every one of you for attending.   Subase Rocks!

08 Aug 2008

Tomorrow is the day of the big event!  I hope you are prepared for it.  More so, I hope I am.  I think I have covered everything, dotted all the Is and crossed all the T's.

We ended up with 160 attending for sure and possibly another 16 that may show up and pay at the Picnic.

My friend June called me this morning and told me of an article she read in the Star Tribune about construction that will be taking place that may affect your travel to the Picnic site.  I have copied the article and posted it on the website on a new page called Traffic Delays.  This page can be accessed by clicking on the Reunion Information page then clicking on Traffic Delays.

I made phone calls to those that do not have Internet access or e-mail to remind them of the Reunion event.

We will be selling the Subase Iron on Patches in the reception area to help cover the cost of the event.  We are overspent so need to sell as many of them as we can to balance the books.  Please help out by buying one or two of them.  The food cost has gone up tremendously since we first planned this due to the increased fuel cost.

We will be handing out a Future Reunion Questionnaire at the Picnic.  Please take the time to answer the questions at the event and leave them with us before departing.

I look forward to seeing each and everyone at the Picnic.

07 Sept 2008

I've done a little editing to the Website the last couple days.  One area in particular is to the Chain of Command.  It was called to my attention by CAPT Pettit that CDR Rehwaldt was not only CAPT Taylor and CAPT Francis's XO, but also his for some time.  I contacted CDR Rehwaldt in St. Louis who verified this fact.  Tony made Commander while serving as our XO for the third time and had to leave Subase. He had quite a tenure with Subase.  He was our Training Officer and our XO three separate times but never got to be our CO.  Too bad....can you imagine what a gravy train ACDUTRA would have been with him as CO.  Instead of mustering under the Banyan tree every morning we would have had to make a trip to the Hickam Golf Course every day and play 18 holes before going to the shops <grin>.  Just kidding Tony....nine holes maybe but you would have never let us get by with 18 <more grinning>.

CDR Rehwaldt said he looks the same as he did in the photos of him on the Chain of Command pages except for being a little fatter and hair a little thinner and greyer now.  I think this description would apply to about 99% of us, some a little more then others <gloom>.  And then there are those like Thor Scheie who hasn't gained a pound since we saw him last and Jerry Gregonis with hair I would kill for today.  There is just no justice.

On a serious note, we now have a Reunion Committee for the 2^nd Annual Subase Reunion.  It consists of Richard Dennis, Mark Flom, Dorn Hendrickson, Phil Johnson and yours truly.  Dorn is on a three week vacation in the Boundary Waters area (must be tough Dorn), so as soon as he returns we will have the first meeting to set up the Committee with a task that they will head up.  Each member of the committee will decide what it is they wish to do in the planning process and focus on that particular task while assisting in the other tasks.  Getting a head start on putting together the next Reunion and having funds left over from the Reunion in August should result in a bigger and better time for all next year.

I wish to offer my sincere thanks to those of the volunteer '09 Reunion Committee for their willingness to give up some of there time to help with the planning of the next Reunion event.  Every time someone steps forward as they did at the August reunion to help bring our finances out of the red and move us into the black I thank of the Subase I was fortunate enough to be a part of for seventeen years and how we stuck together and if there was a job that needed to be done, it got done!

You have to check out the sound I added to the "Top Gun Award" page.  I would have never thought of doing this had it not been for Jim Doll and his sound system he shared with us at the Picnic.  By the way Jim, June said to say thank you.  She was thinking to herself at the Picnic that we should have had some music and about that time the music started playing.

Take care, My Friends....I love each and every one of you.

19 Sept 2008

I haven't written anything in the column for some time now.  There really hasn't been much going on.  Few if any additions or changes to the Website have taken place since my last post.

The Tom Tipton Concert is this Sunday in Stillwater.  As you know the proceeds from the event will go to the Jon Francis Foundation which is a worthy cause.  Tom Tipton is a world renowned gospel singer who has performed before three or four of our National leaders.  The show promises to be a good time for those that attend.  It is not too late to get your tickets.  You can log onto the Jon Francis Foundation Website and purchase them for $25.00 per person or buy them at the door for $30.00.  The Website link can be found by clicking on the "Tipton Concert" page.

We will be having the first Subase Reunion Committee meeting in a week or so.  The actual time and date have not been set at this time.  The agenda of the meeting will be to lay the groundwork for the next Subase get-together and to assign responsibilities.  If you have anything you would like the Committee to discuss and consider at this meeting please contact me by this time next week and I will share your thoughts with the Committee when we actually meet.

05 Nov ‘08

I received an e-mail from John Ellis telling me he would like to do breakfast at 0645 0n Saturday the 6^th of December at Perkins Restaurant located at France Ave and I-494.  He asked me to invite all the Subase crew which I am doing now.  He is giving us plenty of time to add this to our busy schedules.  If you plan on attending please e-mail me and let me know so I can get the word to John.  He would like everyone attending to bring a can good or two which we will donate to a local food shelf in Subase's name, or donate a couple dollars that we will give to a homeless organization.  I saw how generous Subase Sailors are at the Reunion so I have all the faith in the world that this will not be a problem.  I plan to send out an e-mail to all the Subase Shipmates informing them of this venture in the next day or so.

I failed to mention that I almost killed myself last Saturday while working on the garage.  I was on a ladder working on the trusses and the ladder came out from under me.  I hit the concrete with my head which almost knocked me out cold.  I ended up with cuts on my left leg, a knot on my forehead over my left eye, cuts on my head and two back eyes.  I thought I broke my leg as it was really sore.  I've been telling everyone who asks me what I did that I wrestled a purse snatcher (like Randy Jeskey did in Hawaii) to the ground and saved the old woman's purse from being stolen.  After seeing the look on their face and enjoying the joke for awhile I tell them I was only kidding and that I had fell off a damn ladder.

Well the election is all over and it looks as though the DFL has stolen the show.  I won't reveal how I voted but the winners were not my choice.  I only hope they do well for the country and make wise decisions.  It looks like there is still hope for the GOP Senatorial race in Minnesota.

04 Nov ‘08

The polls are closed in the eastern and central time zones and only a half hour left in the Rocky Mountain time zone and an hour and a half before they close on the west coast.  Soon it will be all over but the counting, celebrating and mourning.   I am so glad it is nearly over as I don't think I could have taken another negative campaign ad or read another e-mail telling how bad for the country a candidate is.  I think I remember in my lifetime campaign ads that told what the qualifications of a candidate were and not what they were not, but I could be wrong.  I hope to wake up tomorrow and hear on the TV or radio my candidate won.  If that is not to be I hope the other candidate does right for the country and doesn't upset the apple cart too much.

The garage is coming along nicely.  We have the walls all sheathed and most of the roof as well.  After that is finished it will be time to put the roofing on then all that will be left to do before the framing inspection is to strengthen the front shear walls.  I had help both Saturday and Sunday which allowed us to get quite a bit done.  I was by myself yesterday as everyone had to work or other things going on.  Jared, June's grandson come this morning and we worked until dark.  We managed to accomplish quite a bit today.

I am thinking about adding another Webpage to the site called "USN The Beginning" which would be photos of boot camp.  I still have my company boot camp book called The Anchor.  Please let me know if you can still lay your fingers on any photos when you were an E-1.  We may just give the Webpage the name "Boot Camp".

26 Oct ‘08

I have added two new pages to the site.  The first page is "Garage Raising" where I have added some progress photos of the garage I am building for my good friend June along with a few comments.  The second page is called "God and Country" a controversial subject which is near and dear to my heart.

There will be additions to both these pages, so be sure to check these pages often.

They must be cutting the pine somewhere differently then where they used to because I don't remember a 93" 2' x 4'  being quite as heavy the last time I did any building thirty years ago.  I thought I was going to have a heart attach when I moved the 18 foot 2' x 12' headers.  I can hardly walk after a week of digging, lifting and bending over to build the walls on the slab before setting them up.  But after less then a week the walls are framed and three of the 19 trusses are tied in and the remaining trusses are hung in the rafters upside down and ready to be installed.  I did the rough in for the overhang door, the service door and two windows as well.

Check out the progress on the site being sure to check back from time to time to follow the progress to it's end which I hope to be within the next two weeks.

The other page I have added called "God and Country" is a result of my seeing an Ohio license plate while on vacation in Branson Missouri.  It got me thinking of how we are gradually eliminating God from everything just to satisfy a small group of people who are offended.  It seems to me the word God publicly displayed is a threat to them and makes them uncomfortable to see it while living their sinful lives.  This may seem harsh but other then being of another religion that does not believe in God, what can it be?

I still haven't gotten over the removal of The Pledge of Allegiance from the schools.  Now they are talking of removing "In God We Trust" from our currency.  I hope they realize that God is up there taking notes.

Please understand I am not writing this to offend anyone.  I am just stating my opinion.   If you feel differently please e-mail me with your view point and I will add them to the page provided the you don't use unacceptable language and keep it clean as I will do no editing before posting.

I hope to live long enough to see the return of the moral values we had forty or fifty years ago.

Fair Winds and Following Seas....

21 Oct ‘08

It's been some time since I have had time to set down and write in this column.  There has been so much going on and so little to write about since the Reunion.

I am currently building a 20' X 36' garage for a friend.  The concrete work is now finished so it is time for me to go to work.  This should keep me busy for the next few weeks.

I just got back from Kimberling City, MO a small resort town located in the Ozarks about 17 miles from Branson where my friend June and I spent a week of leisure time seeing shows and doing what all tourists do.  I was born in Springfield, Mo which is located 45 miles from Kimberling City so I had the opportunity to visit my two brothers there and a niece.  I can't believe how much the area has grown since I last lived there in the early seventies.  I became a resident of Minnesota in the summer of '72.  The resort we stayed in is called Kimberling Inn and Resort.  We booked this vacation through the Armed Forces Vacation Club. 

If you have not used this service, check it out at: http://www.afvclub.com/  .  All their vacations are $329.00 per week and they not only have locations all over is CONUS but in about 50 other countries for the same price.  They used to have spots in Hawaii, but they have been removed.

We have used this service several times for vacations in Detroit Lakes, MN and Breezy Point and have yet to be disappointed.  These are nice condos and well kept.  The condo in Kimberling City had a large bedroom with a Jacuzzi and a deck overlooking Table Rock Lake.  It also had a small bedroom where I slept.  There was a second deck also overlooking the lake with patio doors off the living room and another set of doors off the dining room.  It had a large kitchen with microwave oven.  There was a fireplace in the living room along with cable TV.  There was also Cable TV in the master bedroom.  As I said, these are nice units and you can't beat the price.  They had three boat docks where you keep you boat if you brought yours with you or rented one from the many marinas on the lake.

I have posted the information on the Homepage of the website for the AFVC with a direct link to their home page. 

13 Oct 2008

The Reunion Committee met this evening at Broadway Pizza to plan the next Subase Reunion Picnic.

The results of the meeting were as follows:

• The site used for the last Reunion was selected for the next Reunion.
• The Date for the Reunion will be 01 Aug '09, 15 Aug '09 or 22 Aug '09 depending on availability.
• The theme for the function will be a Hawaiian Luau.
• The main menu will be roast pig and barbequed chicken.
• The meal will be catered in order to eliminate most of the work.
• The admission cost will be in the area of $20 to $25 per person.
• There will be more and better door prizes as there are five members who will be seeking donations from businesses over the next ten months.
• We will have Subase ball caps, shirts and sweaters and patches that can be purchased at the event.  I intend to publish photos of these items on the site when they are available with advanced sales at a reduced price.
• We will be asking for setup and tear down help but little or no help in running the event.

I wish to thank the Reunion Committee members for volunteering to help plan the Reunion and for giving their time to meet with me this evening.  I was very impressed with their willingness to pitch in and help and their ideas and enthusiasm.  I am very pleased with the selection of the members to serve on the committee.

With the knowledge I have from being part of the planning of the last reunion and the additional help in planning the next event, we hope to make this Reunion a memorable occasion. 

We were a little apprehensive in doubling the price of the admission but it can't be avoided as the cost of the catered meal alone will be about $12 per person.  But we feel it will be worth every penny for a fine meal, entertainment, a chance to see old friends again and the chance to win door prizes.  We hope to secure enough door prize donations so everyone wins something.

We are open to all suggestions as it is early and we can incorporate good ideas into the planning.  If you have a preference as to the date for the event or know any of these dates wont work for you please contact me before the 5^th of January as that will be the cut off for considering a date for the event.

Fair winds and following seas.

12 Dec ‘08

I see I let 07 December slip by without putting something on the Website to commemorate this special day....maybe I will remember next year. 

I spent the morning at the doctor's office having a checkup.  We got to the part where the doctor told me to drop my pants and I said "my least favorite part of the examination" the doctor assured me it was his least favorite part too <grin>.  I had to stop and count my blessings.  If I had my choice of being the examinee or the examiner in this particular instance I definitely would opt to be on the receiving end (no pun intended).

I had an experience that put a smile on my face and made me feel good when I went to have blood drawn.  The female lab technician come out into the lobby to get me and smiled and said "when people talk to you do they say good lord?"  I laughed and said "I've got a story to tell you".  She said "go ahead, I love stories".  I proceeded to tell her about the Good Lord flight (full story in Sea Stories).  When we finished she wished me a Merry Christmas.  I won't go on with this as I would simply be repeating myself.  You can read the, as Paul Harvey would say, rest of the story that I posted earlier today on the page called "God and Country". 

Not much going on with the garage project as it has been unseasonably cold.  I do have an electrician coming Wednesday morning to do the necessary wiring and a garage door installer coming a day or so after that to hang the overhead door.  It will be good to get this done so the garage can be used.  I will also be able to keep the tools being used for the construction in the garage and be able to lock it up at night verses having to cart everything to the shed.

A new addition the site is a new Webpage called "The Lighter Side".  It is exactly what the name implies, a page for fun and humorous stories.

I got the idea for the page after receiving a joke about a Marine Gunny and a Navy Chief.  I wanted to share it with you as I found it quite humorous but had no appropriate place on the Website to post it.  Well now there is a place for this joke and many, many more with time.  So if you have any funny military related stories to share with your Shipmates, contact me.

Only a few days left before Christmas.  I hope you are all ready for it.  I got in the Christmas Spirit (not the true spirit but the 20^th/21^st century spirit) today and put up a small Christmas tree and some lights on my deck (lanai for those of you who are still in Hawaii in heart).

Aloha

06 Dec ‘08

Ten Shipmates and Don Ostenson's friend Sharon joined John Ellis and me for breakfast this morning at Perkins in Bloomington.  It was a good time for all who attended and we finally left at 0930 after visiting for some 2 ½ hours.  We plan on doing this again in late January or early February.  The restaurant put several tables together to accommodate us and keep us all together.  I took seven photos at the gathering which I have added to the end of the slide show, so if you are curious as to who showed up check out the slide show.

The weather has brought the garage construction to a temporary halt as it is too cold to be working outside.  It is suppose to get up to about thirty on Monday so I have made arrangements for some help then and I plan to buy a torpedo heater so we can get the overhang door installed.  I still haven't made any arrangements to have the electrical done yet but am looking for someone who is willing to take on the small job of wiring the garage for the garage opener.  Unfortunately the city won't let me just do it.  They tell me I have to live there to be allowed to wire it myself.

I had the framing inspection on Wednesday and the inspector signed off the permit.  It is a good feeling to know you did something right or at least acceptable.

I added a couple new pages to the site.  They are: "Christmas Greetings" and "Sounds of Christmas".  I uploaded some good and interesting Christmas music which I think you will enjoy.  Feel free to download any of the music from the United States Navy Band as it is my understanding they are open domain as they don't play for monetary gain. 

I also have added a couple new items to the page called "God and Country".  Check out this page and see what is new.  Thanks to those who have e-mailed me these worthy articles.

30 Nov 2008

I offer my apologies for neglecting the Website of late but the garage building project I have taken on has left me with very little free time. 

The garage is coming along nicely, perhaps taking a little longer to finish then I had originally hoped but all in all it is coming together nicely.  I hope to have the framing inspection signed off this Wednesday.  I finished the soffits over the last couple of days.  What a tedious job that was.  I was working by myself and it was up and down the ladder hundreds of times.  I have lost about 10 pounds since the beginning of this project.

I have help coming today and we are going to start the siding.  I don't know how much we will get done as it has turned a little colder.

Just a reminder, the breakfast get-together is set for next Saturday morning the 6^th of December for 0645 at Perkins Restaurant located at I-494 and France Ave in Bloomington.  So far it looks like twelve people will be attending.  All are welcome and it promises to be a fun time.  Please don't forget to bring with you a couple or three non-perishable food items to be donated to a local food shelf in Subase Pearl Harbors name.  I look forward to seeing each and every on of you there.  My thanks to John Ellis for putting this together and for the idea of the food donation. 

There have been a few minor changes to the Website including a message from me on the Guestbook page.  Log onto the site and navigate around the various web pages to view and hear these changes.

31 December 2008

I wanted to wish all our Shipmates a Happy New Year! 

In reflecting back over the last year and remembering my accomplishments it comes to mind I have started a Website (began Jan 25^th), have reunited Subase Pearl Det. 716, put together a reunion with much appreciated help and have built a garage.  Not too bad for being 66 years old if I do say so.

2008 was good to me and I can only hope to have half as good a year in 2009.

I have enjoyed seeing all my old friends and talking of things long past, and I look forward to seeing you all at the 2^nd Subase reunion and the planed breakfast get-togethers next year.

I have had the pleasure of working with some fine people in putting together this Website and planning and putting on the last reunion.  My thanks to all of you.

My wish to all of you and your families is a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

Fair winds and following seas....

Bill

25 Dec ‘08

I wish to start of by wishing all our Shipmates a Merry Christmas and a glorious holiday season.  This time of the year I get lost in reflecting back on times past and start thinking of friends and acquaintances I have know over the years.  A good portion of my life was spent in the Navy and most of these years with Subase Pearl so it is understandable that most of my thoughts are of the Shipmates of Subase.  As I write this, my thoughts are of the good times and the sometime not so good times with Subase.  I remember the shops we worked in and all of the accomplishments while there.  I remember the parties we had at Ft DeRussy and Hickam Harbor, the weekend trips to the other islands and the days spent at the flee market at the Aloha Stadium.  I also remember the times spent at Hanuama Bay snorkeling, the drive through the Kole Kole Pass and the drive up to the Pali Lookout.  And who could forget the climb to the top of Diamond Head?  And there was the Sunday service at the Subase Chapel, the great chow at the Subase Mess Hall and a movie at the Subase Theater. Yes, all good times.  It would take a considerable amount of money to buy these memories from me.  The memories I have mentioned here would be meaningless were it not for the fine friends I shared them with.  So to each and every one of you I wish a Merry Christmas.

The garage progress has slowed as the weather has really been a problem, but it is coming along.  We got the overhang door in Tuesday which is a blessing.  I also got the soffits done on the front of the garage along with the jam and brick mold and almost done with the siding on that side.  The electric is also done.  I used a small company called Mikes Electrical Contractors to do the wiring.  They were in and out and did a good job for us at an affordable price.  It is suppose to warm up on Friday, so I hope to get quite a bit done then.

We are going to have another get-together for breakfast sometime late in January or the early part of February.  I will let everyone know by posting something hear and by e-mail as soon as a time and date is set.  Try to make some time for this if you can as everyone that attended last time had a good time.

The year is coming to an end and it will be soon that I will be posting a commemorative to the Website as it will be one year on January 25^th since I started this site.  I can't believe how much the site has grown since I first started it.  A lot of data has been gathered and put on the site.  I owe my thanks and appreciation to everyone who supplied me with pieces of information to make the site what it is.  My special thanks to Ed Borgan for his part in helping me locate our Shipmates.

Fair winds and following seas.

11 Jan ‘09

A new Webpage has been added to the site called "Silent Service".  On this new page I have created links to various WebPages containing interesting stories, facts and videos of our submarine force.  I moved the USS Parche webpage to this page along with the Navy Submarine video that was on the "Home Page" and added a Power Point type file which is actually a PDF file (requires reader on you computer) which is an interesting presentation about the USS Nebraska SSBN-739.  If you have not seen this file, it is worth your time to visit the page and view it.  My thanks go out to Charley Fitzsimmons for submitting it.  The presentation is about a civilian organization called Business Executives for National Security (BENS) who are invited to board the USS Nebraska by the Commander Submarine Group Nine.  For more information about BENS you can view their Website at http://www.bens.org/home.html .

I hope to have the garage completed by then end of the day.  I have three sides completed less the fascia and am working on the last side today to finish the soffits and siding.  I hope to start putting the fascia up tomorrow.  Once that is done the garage project is completed and ready for the final inspection which can't happen until this spring as I have to dig the hole the electrical wiring is to be buried in a little deeper to satisfy the code.  We also have to do some asphalt or concrete work do to level the driveway where it meets to apron.  Don't bother asking me why as I haven't got a clue what that has to do with anything. 

08 Jan ‘09

The 2009 Subase Reunion date is set.  The same site at the JC Shelter in Central Park located on North Lexington in Roseville has been reserved for the 29^th of August.  The full details will be posted on a new Website page called "2009 Reunion" when they are decided on and made available.

I created a new page on the site called "Humor".  The page at this time only has a video worth watching as it is funny.  This page will grow rapidly so visit is often.

I finished instating the soffits on the north wall of the garage yesterday.  It was colder then all get out and windy as well, but I wanted to get it done so I suffered.  I still have three pieces of siding to install on that side and then I will have three sides completed less the Fascia. I am now waiting for it to warm up to at least to 15 degrees today to go back and finish that side and start on the west wall.

07 Jan 09

Several additions to the Website have been added since I last wrote in this column.  I just don't seem to be able to find the time to write more often lately as I have been quite busy with the Holidays and the garage raising project.  And now have taken on the task of securing a location for the upcoming 2009 Subase Reunion.

One addition to the Website I would like to call your attention to is the page called "The Jon Francis Foundation".  I received an annual report for the foundation from Capt David Francis which I have posted a link to on this page along with a link to a file called "Jon's Legacy".  Both these files require you to have a PDF reader installed on your computer to view.  If you can not view the file close it and click on the "Adobe.com" link and download a free reader.  Then you will be able to open the file.

The garage project is coming along quite nicely.  I have finished the front and the south side of the garage (less the fascia) and most likely will have finished the north side as well be the time you read this.  Then it is to the west side which I have about a day's work left there.  The garage door (overhang door) is installed and I got this opener installed and working as well.  Once I have finished the west side, the only thing left to do is install the fascia and then it's Miller time.   I have mixed feelings about getting it done.  The task has given me several headaches over the past two and a half months but has been a lot of enjoyment for me and has given me a purpose and something to do with my spare time.

I most likely will be reserving a site for the 2009 Subase Reunion today or tomorrow so check back here in a day or so as I will post the information showing the date and location here.

The "Lighter Side" page has taken of with several new additions.  If you have humorous military stories you would like to share, e-mail me with them and I will see that they are posted here.  Much of the Website content is due to the willingness of our Shipmates to share with the rest of us and for this I truly appreciate it, for without this information the Website would not have grown to its present size.

19 February 2009

I haven't taken the time to write in this column for some time now as there hasn't been a lot going on, but all of the sudden there is a ton of stuff to put out.

First off the '09 Reunion which will be based on the theme of a Hawaiian Luau is officially under way.

The Reunion Committee members had a meeting on Monday the 16^th a made the necessary decisions to kick this off.  The main topic that was discussed and decided upon was the admission price.  I would like to explain how we arrived at this price for the admission.  First off the cost of the dinner for the event will cost us approximately $15.00 per person.  The caterers do not discount because of the persons age.  If we had made it available to children under 12 at no charge as we did last year, we would end up in the red again if too many Shipmates brought their children.  So as you can see it was necessary for us to charge everyone something except for the toddlers.

When filling out your check if you hesitate for a moment because of the price just remember that this is a catered dinner.  In addition to the meal is a chance to win great door prizes.  We will be having several nice door prizes to go along with the smaller prizes like we had last year.

I would like to see each and everyone there this year so if there is a reason you won't be attending let me know, we may be able to work something out.

To view the announcement and details of the Luau click on the "Luau" link at the top of each page.

I will be sending out an e-mail to all our Shipmates announcing the Luau soon.  As soon as you receive it please take a moment and mail your check in for the number of people who will be attending.  For those of you who procrastinated last year you will remember how I kept harping on you to get your money in.  To avoid hearing from me and sounding like a broken record do it right away.

There have been a few additions to the Website lately.  There is the announcement for the Luau on the "Home Page" and an article that Charley Fitzsimmons sent me about obtaining a copy of your DD-214.  Thanks Charlie...this is the sort of stuff that needs to be put out to all of us.

Additionally there has been an addition to page 2 of the "God and Country" webpage which will be worth your time to check out.

Finally the humor on the "Just for Laughs" page which can be assessed by clicking on the "Humor" link at the top of any page continues to grow.  I have been trying to put the newest additions at the top of the page but don't forget to scroll to the bottom as well because the additions with graphics have to go there.  Also once a page starts to get too full additional pages will be added with a link at the bottom of the page.

30 Jan 2009

Yesterday I added LCDR Grant Carmichael to the "Still Serving" page on the site.  He provided me with some good information and a couple photos.  His comments about Subase sure brought back old memories.  I would sure love to be drawing the retirement pay he will get when he finally hangs it up and turns sixty.  He is an O-4 and is into his 32^nd year in the Reserve.  Way to go Grant.

I am awaiting input from Ann Polachek who also is Still Serving.  I also called Jim Doll to talk to him about providing me with some input as he is Still Serving in the Air Force.

If you know any other Subase Shipmates who are still in the military let me know so I can contact them as well.

It is still too cold to work on the exterior of the garage but I bought a torpedo propane heater which heats the interior pretty well and allows me to work inside.  I have been unboxing all the woodworking shop tools I purchased and assembling them.  I can't wait until this spring when the final on the garage has been signed off so I can erect the walls for the shop area and run enough electrical to this area to satisfy all the tools and start working with them.  I am like a kid who got a bike for Christmas but knows he wont be able to ride it until the snow finally goes away.  I am hoping to start on the last phase of the construction, the Fascia tomorrow as it is suppose to be half way decent.

The check for the deposit for the Luau dinner has been mailed.  After mailing this check and the one for the site we are now broke.  But we are way ahead of last years venture thanks to all the generous donations from the Subase Shipmates.

We have set the serving time for the Luau for 1400 hrs so I would suggest that everyone has a light breakfast on that Saturday morning so you can make it until 1400 hrs.  It is important that everyone be there between 1400 and 1500 hrs as that is the only time they will be serving.  At 1500 hrs the servers tear down the serving area and put the leftovers in the kitchen to keep the hot foods warm and the rest cool.  We will be able to accommodate a few late comers but it would be best if everyone tries to be there during the normal serving time period. 

We are working on obtaining some better door prizes for this years get-together.  Having formed the committee makes it a lot easier since there are more people to share in the duties making it not so much work for one or two people.  I am really antsy about this venture as I have a good feeling that everything will go smoothly.

I will be contacting everyone around the first of March to sign up and get their money in.  It will be necessary to have enough money in the Subase checking account to cover the check we will be giving the caterers at the end of the dinner.  So I ask you all to act promptly when you receive the sign up e-mail from me and as Larry the Cable Guy would say "get-er-done".

I have incorrect e-mail address for the following Shipmates:

Russell Bohak

Dirk Foster

Gary Graff

Tim Guftafson

Dale Houg

Norman Juron

Paul King

Robert Listina

John Reiter

Roger Walpole

If anyone has any contact information for these Shipmates I would appreciate it if they would contact me as it will be difficult to contact these Shipmates for the Luau.

29 Jan 2009

The arrangements for the Luau have all but been finalized.  Mark has been dealing with Divine Swine (I had previously called the firm Devine Pig, my mistake and poor spelling) and has come up with a nice menu at a fairly reasonable price to us. Click here to see the menu.  To view the contract with Divine Swine click here.  As you can see the price comes to $12.19 per person up to 249 people but with built in gratuity and tax the actual cost per person comes to $14.96 per person.  By the time we add in the cost for the shelter and miscellaneous purchases the cost for admission is going to be in the neighborhood of $20.00 per person.

This good thing about catering the meal is that we won't have to have people manning the grills and working in the kitchen all day and everyone will have time to mingle and have fun.

I hope those who were against or apprehensive about doing the Luau will attend and make the best of it.  I for one don't like trying anything new for fear it won't be what I hoped it would be.  But it was pointed out to me by one of our Shipmates that trying new things are never boring.

I have made a few changes to the Website.  You will notice "The Lighter Side" has disappeared from the links at the top of each page.  It is not gone but has a new name and a new way to access it.  If you click on "Humor" you will be directed to a page allowing you to choose one of two pages.  "The Lighter Side" is now called "Military Humor" which I feel is more appropriate and the generic humor which used to be simply called "Humor" is now called "Just for a Laugh".  The other changes are minor and need not be explained.

At this time I don't want the Website to get too much into politics however as time passes and things develop or change I may opt to do something with this subject.  I would however like to call your attention to an article that appeared in the Cleveland Leader Newspaper.  This article was sent to me by Chief Hovind.  The reason for calling you attention to this article is because it involves the Military.  To view this article click here.  I took the time to search the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune for this article and could not find any reference to it.  Why does this surprise me?

26 Jan 2009

 If when you logged onto the Website just now to read this and noticed the "Home Page" with the new headline you now know that today started the second year of the Subase Det. 716 Website as the site became one year old yesterday.  A lot has changed over the past year.  One year ago I was calling all my Shipmates and friends to ask them to visit the site I had started which consisted of a home page with a couple articles on it, a muster page that had less then a hundred names on it, a comments page which was then called "Daily Blurbs" with an entry or two, a guest book with four or five entries and a photo gallery with fifty to one hundred photos.  And that was the Subase Pearl Harbor Detachment 716 Website.  There was no color, no audio or no video.  Today the Websites "Home Page" has several articles of interest and changes frequently to meet the current times.  The "Muster" page has over 250 names on it and most of the names are in red to indicate that Shipmate has been contacted and made aware of the Website.  The "Daily Blurbs" page became "Comments" due to the fact that it was becoming more and more difficult for me to add a comment daily as the name implied.  There are more the one hundred entries there with the archived comments.  The "Guest Book" now has 92 entries.  This figure should be a lot higher but despite my pleading some of our Shipmates were either shy or cautious or felt it was a waste of their time as they chose not to sign it.  We now also have color, sound, video and a "Slide Show" with over three hundred photos.  We have links to various other Websites which provides the Website numerous assets with a world of information.  Among these is a link to the "Jon Francis Foundation" Website founded by one of our many Commanding Officers, Capt. David Francis.  There is also links to Websites where you can research certain Veteran benefits and a link where you can locate old Shipmates called Together We Served.   A couple of pages which contain humor has been added on pages titled "The Lighter Side" and simply "Humor".  There has been a page added to honor Shipmates of Subase Det. 716 who are no longer with us, a page showing "Honors and Awards" our Shipmates have received and a page honoring those "Still Serving" in the military, which has a couple additions coming soon.  And last we have a page on the site containing information which is near and dear to my heart called "God and Country".

Because of the Website the first Reunion of Det 716 was successfully put together which was well received and many of our Shipmates attended it.  Everyone had a great time and it was decided to do this again this year.  The '09 Reunion is well into the planning and the site where we held it last year has already been reserved and paid for.  The theme for this Reunion was decided on and voted on today.  This years Reunion will be a catered Luau and will be held on the 29^th of August at the Jaycee Shelter in Central park in Roseville, MN.  You will be contacted some time in February or the first part of March with all the details.  I hope to see all of you there.

Also because of the Website a breakfast get-together was held at Perkins Restaurant in Bloomington, MN and a second get-together is planed in the near future.  Again you will be contacted with a date and time as soon as it becomes available.

So Happy Birthday Subase Pearl.  I hope the next year brings bigger and better things and is even more successful then the first year.

Fair Winds and Following Seas.....

24 Jan 2009

I sent a feeler e-mail out yesterday asking for help in our plans for the upcoming Reunion on August 29^th of this year.  The response was overwhelming and all positive with only one exception.

The exception, a phone call from one of our Shipmates whose name shall go unmentioned got me to thinking.  It was brought up that what we are planning for the Reunion this year is removed from our traditional get-togethers we had at Ft. De Russy and at Hickam Harbor.  Our outings had always been Beer, Burgers and Brats.  It was also brought up that half the fun on the get-together was hanging out at the barbeque pits and shooting the $%^# and playing volley ball of softball.  I have to admit, this brings back fond memories to me as well.

Now you might say we've done that, let's try something different.  But this is where I have a real problem.  Being a hard core conservative this goes against my belief.  My motto has always been "if it ain't broke, don't screw with it".  Last years reunion was far from broke.  Everyone I spoke with told me it could not have gone any better.

Another point was brought up during the phone conversation.  It was mentioned that with the economy as it is and most likely getting worse the emphasis should be to lower the cost of admission or at least keep it the same as last time.  From reading the response from our shipmates I am not seeing the cost as being a problem.  In fact all have said that $20.00 to $25.00 is more then reasonable.

I would like to share with one of our Shipmates response.  This is Randy Jeske's unedited response:  Bill I think it is a great Idea. also maybe you can ask for donations up front to see where we are, its great to see as many old shipmates that can make it - I would hate to think an additional $10-$15.00 would possible make them think twice about coming - just a thought

Randy

I thank Randy's response is right on.  The price of the admission is not intended to just buy you enough food to fill your stomach but rather is to defray the cost of a gathering place where friendships can be rekindled.

My wish is to put this on the way you want it to be.  This is not My or Your function, this is OUR function.

My conservative side tells me to forget the Luau and do what we did last year and my adventurous side tells me to try something new and go for the Luau.  I think I am going to take the easy way out and put this to a vote with the Committee.

Please take the time to e-mail me at ab0ot@juno.com and let me know you feelings.  Please don't just tell me what you think I want to hear but let me know your true thoughts.  As I said I want to do what is right for us.

21 Jan ‘09

The Subase Reunion Committee is working diligently to put together the upcoming '09 Reunion to be held where we had the last one in Central Park in Roseville.  You are going to owe Mark Flom your first born when you see what he is putting together in the way of a menu, we decided on a Hawaiian theme for the event.  As this all unfolds I will keep you updated in this column.  It will cost everyone more this year then it did last year but we are doing this one at or near first class.  I know there will be no disappointment with they way it all turns out.

The cold snap finally broke and I was able to get back to work on the garage and completed the siding yesterday.  I am glad to have it done as the vinyl is so hard to cut when it is cold.  There is always the fear of it cracking on you as you are cutting it.  I intend to get started on the fascia today.  It looks like I have two decent days to work on it.  As soon as the fascia is installed the garage is completed and then it is just a matter of waiting until spring to get the inspectors back out to sign off on the final.

I went to Sears several days ago and spent $1400.00 on purchasing equipment for a wood working work shop.  The purchase included a work bench; roll about tool box, three saws, bench vise, grinder and a drill press.  As they were bringing out the equipment from the warehouse there was a couple guys out where I was waiting for what they had purchased.  One of the guys started drooling at the mouth and I almost expected him to start making the sounds Tim Allen made on Home Improvement. 

I would like to hear from anyone who is still in the military as I would like to add them to the Webpage "Still Serving".  I am awaiting input from Grant Carmichael who I will add to this Webpage.  If you are sill serving your country or know of anyone who is still in the service please contact me so we can officially honor your service.

This Sunday marks the 1^st anniversary for the Subase Website.  A lot of good has occurred since its conception a year ago.  Most importantly the reuniting of the unit.   I won't go any farther with this at this time however this Sunday the 25^th of January I will put together a recap of the last (or if you prefer the first) year of the Subase Website and post it in this column.

14 March 2009

The Breakfast at Perkins went over well and was enjoyed by all 16 who attended.  Denny Siemers whom I have not seen for many years now graced our presence along with Jerome (Jerry) Jeno who I was privileged to meet for the first time.  Denny who resides in a small town in western Iowa has plans of retiring in about four years and then returning to Minnesota.  Jerry reported aboard Subase shortly after the unit was formed.  Jerry paid for two tickets to the Luau and Denny said he would try to make it also.  Denny donated $100.00 to the Subase Reunion Fund so if he can make it he is prepaid.  Thanks Denny, you just could never stop taking care of your Shipmates.

We plan on doing this again about the middle of June so if you missed this get-together try to make it in June.  I promise you, you won't be sorry you did.

A new addition to the Website is a page called Subase Store where I have listed the fund raising items we have for sale.  The ball caps will be a hot item but there is a limited quantity for sale and are a real bargain at $13.00 per cap.  They are black with the Unit Logo embroidered on the crown with the original Logo colors.  If you want one of these caps I suggest you contact me right away to ensure you get one.  I have Kurt Castle, the owner of Bullish Ware looking into obtaining Golf Shirts for us as well.  If he comes up with anything for us that we can afford I will add them to the Store.

Several of those who attended the Breakfast paid for their admission to the Luau today.  Also several purchased Ball Caps as well so we now have funds on hand to do a few of the necessary things that must be done prior to the Reunion.  But don't let this be an excuse for not getting your funds in for the Luau as I would like to get the collection process done as early as possible allowing me to focus my concentration on other areas.

I posted and update to the '09 Reunion Attendance showing those who have at this time committed to attend the event.  It also shows the total amount of cash collected this year.  To come up with a grand total you have to add all three totals shown and add this new total to the remaining balance of $42.12 in the account from last year.  Please note the remaining balance is the ending balance last year less the payment to the city of Roseville for the site rental and the deposit of $150.00 for the catered meal. 

There are nine new photos of today's Breakfast Get-Together on the last page of the Slide Show.

13 March 2009

Tomorrow is the 2^nd Subase Breakfast Get-Together at 0645 at Perkins Restaurant in Bloomington located at I494 and France Ave.  We have 17 Shipmates and friends attending.  Try to make it if you can.  Good food and good friends....you can't beat that combination. 

The payments for the Luau are coming in but a little slower than I would like to see.  If you would please take the time to send your admittance in, we would appreciate it as there are purchases that have to be made prior to the event.  There will be a point and time that you will be required to get your payment in to ensure a place at our table if plan on attending.  Unlike last year this event is  catered and at some point we will have to have exact numbers.  So a last minute decision to attend will not be an option.  So get you money in early and I promise you I won't bother you again.

The response to the information questionnaire was pretty good and I was able to update my data base with some needed information.  However I am still getting a lot of returned e-mail because I either have entered the incorrect e-mail address for that person or they have changed their e-mail address and have not informed me.  If you are not receiving announcements by e-mail it is most likely because I do not have your correct address.  So if this is the case for you, please contact me at ab0ot@q.com or mailto:subasepearldet715@q.com so I can record your address and insure you are kept in the loop of what is going on.

Does anyone out there join me in thinking this has been a longer winter the usual?  The weather media is saying this is an average winter.  I am having a hard time with this as I have been waiting impatiently for spring type weather for so long now.  I believe it is the left wing media  making these claims, not wanting to put anything out that will discredit their Global Warming Theory<grin>.

I am an Extra Class Amateur Radio Operator (ham) and a Volunteer Examiner (VE) but have not been active for awhile.  A couple weeks ago I decided to contact a group of VE's and was invited to help administer exams with them which I did last evening for the first time in awhile.   I had the privilege of signing the paperwork of two new Technician Class Hams.  This gave me real pleasure in helping make this happen.

If you have ever thought of becoming a Ham and have not done so because of the Morse Code requirement now is your chance to do so as they have totally eliminated the code.  When I took the General Class test I had to pass the 13 words a minute code test and was working on building my speed up to the 20wpm requirement to pass the Extra Class test but hit a block at 17wpm and just couldn't get by it.  Then they did away with the 20wpm requirement and I took and passed the test.  Since then they have totally eliminated the code requirement altogether.  Gary Esler, one of our Shipmates passed the 20wpm when he made Extra Class.  If you have an interest in Amateur Radio contact me.  If I can be of any help to you in this venture let me know.  Gary would also be a good contact in seeking help.

07 March 2009

The Breakfast get-together is set for next Saturday morning at 0645 hrs at Perkins Restaurant in Bloomington.  So far the response has not been good as only seven Shipmates have said they will be attending.  We would like to see more there.  All who Attended the get-together in December had a good time.  I intend to send out another reminder e-mail about the event.  When you receive it reply back and let us know if you plan to attend or not.

Rich Dennis contacted me yesterday and informed me he had found an outfit who will embroidery the logo on the ball caps we purchased last year at an affordable price.  I gave him the go ahead.  So we will have 100 ball caps at the Luau for many of our Shipmates.  The plan is to give away approximately 25 of the caps as door prizes and the remainder will be available for purchase at a very reasonable price for those of you not fortunate enough to have won one of them.  The price of the hats will be set to just break even or leave us with a small profit which will go into the reserves for next years event.  Also Kurt Castle who owns Bullish Ware in Wisconsin is looking into obtaining golf shirts (polo's) with the logo embroidered on them for us.

We plan to purchase several door prizes and the five us serving on the Reunion Committee are seeking donations from merchants in the area.  So, unlike last year we should have some decent door prizes.

A lot of work has gone into the planning of the Reunion but the final results of the get-together should be well worth the efforts.

We need to get the payments in for the Luau as soon as possible so we will have the funds on hand to pay for the purchases we need to make prior to the event so I intend to start bugging you by e-mails to send in your checks.  Sorry to have to do this but you all know me....just a worry-wart.  I like to get things done early and move on to something else that needs to be done.  The price of the Luau and the information for getting your payment in are on the Website on the pages after you chick on the link (Luau) at the top of each page.  As soon as we have all the details worked out and know exactly what will be taking place I will add another page to the Luau link defining the event.

My thanks go out to those who have responded to the contact questionnaire I put out.  I really appreciate your having taken the time to reply.  It is extremely helpful when trying to contact everyone with Subase goings-on.  If you haven't sent your reply back, please do so.

01 March ‘09

I thought I should take a few minutes and write in this column as it has been awhile since the last time I put anything out.

The only thing new with the Website is a few more additions to the Humor pages.  The weather has put a damper on doing anything with the garage and I have been spending a lot of time cooped up in my apartment going stir-crazy.  I hate winter so much.  I have yet to figure out what keeps us in this state.  I think Charley Fitzsimmons and Jim Delaney have the right idea.

Well by now you are all aware of the fact that I am phasing out my old email address that I have had a long time now.  The mail box with Juno just was not doing it for me anymore.  Their group mailing was limited to about thirty addresses at a time so every time I needed to put information out to the Subase members I had to send the same message several times to get it to all the members.  Also you can only have one mailing list of no more then thirty addresses which meant I had to manually add everyone to the outgoing mail.  Lots of extra work and time consuming.  Were I able to use Outlook with their mail server there would have been no problem but you can't.  They won't provide you with the POP3 or SMTP settings which are necessary when setting up e-mail clients to access your e-mail.  Therefore I have created a couple e-mail addresses with my Qwest DSL provider who use MSN Microsoft Live for their email.  I have already noticed in increased speed in the mail delivery.  The e-mail addresses you need to use now to contact me are ab0ot@q.com or subasepearldet716@q.com since the ab0ot@juno.com will soon be phased out.  If you have not already done so add one or both of the e-mail addresses with Qwest to your address book.  In addition I have changed my e-mail address on the Contact Me page of the Website.

I apologize for failing to realize I could have sent the message that I sent to everyone today with a Blind Carbon Copy so all the e-mail addresses would have been left out of the message.  I now have my e-mail setup so this won't happen again.  Again I apologize for failing to realize this before sending out the message.  Please rest assured this will not be repeated.

I have already received a few responses back with the information filled out that I requested.  You wouldn't believe how much this information will help me in putting out word about the goings-on with the Website and the upcoming Reunion.  I thank those who have taken the time to reply.  As I said, I will understand if you are hesitant to fill it out.  But not to sound like a broken record (for you younger citizens that's a media for listening to sound way back when) I assure the information will only be used to aid me in communicating with group.  The reason for the question about the name of the spouse is strictly because I feel uncomfortable when Shipmates talk of their partner and I don't know who they are.

We have had a few Shipmates who have sent their money in as payment for the admission for the Luau and I suspect this will pick up as time goes.  It really helps having the funds come in early as It affords us some latitude for making our purchases when the price is right.  I am considering creating a PayPal account to make it easier for funds to be received.  I haven't decided if this is a worthwhile endeavor.  If you have any thoughts about this let me hear from you.

25 July 2009

It has been some time since I last wrote in this column.  I just don't know where the time goes.  All I can say it is a good thing that I am retired as I would be unable to handle it otherwise.

The Luau is coming up fast...it is four weeks away and things are starting to take shape.  There was a period of time there that I thought it was going to be a complete flop but it now looks like it will be a success....not quite like last year but all the same, a success.  We are up to 99 Shipmates and guests either paid or committed to attend.  I can live with this number and the price per meal the caterer offers for 100 to 149 meals served will not kill us.

We have sold several more Unit Ball Caps also which is a life saver as they are already paid for so the funds received there are freed up to help cover the price per meal difference due to the shortage of attendance.

An important thing to mark down on your calendar is the time the meal will be served and the start time for the entertainment.  It is important that you manage your time so as to be there by 1400 hrs as the meal will only be served from 1400 to 1500 hrs.  And the entertainment starts at approximately 1500 hrs.  It is best we all be seated for the shows and especially the Fire Dance as the Fire Dancer has expressed his concern about this to me.  Because of the risk of injuring someone while performing his dance he has requested that we all remain seated and isolated from the dance.  So for the show to go uninterrupted and incident free this must be adhered to.

I will be asking for volunteers to help set up and tear down.  If you are interested, willing and free to help out contact me in the next two or three weeks.  We will require about 5 or 6 volunteers to accomplish this.

The Website continues to grow and I spend a lot of time seeing to it and making sure everything is running smoothly.  This keeps me fairly busy because of the custom layout of many of the WebPages.   The way some of the pages are laid out violates the rules.   There have been several new pages added, new articles added to existing pages and some changed names of pages.  I am constantly receiving information much of which I find interesting enough and worthy of a spot on the site.  I also receive a lot of information that I would love to put on the site but due to it's political nature never makes it as I feel in spite of what I think of the writings they could be offensive to many and I wish to keep this site fun and not a forum for the distribution of political material.

The next subject I feel I have beaten in the ground but just so you can't come back to me and say "you never told us that" hear we go....

The cut off date for attending the Luau, at least to eat is the 7^th of August.  At this time we will contact Divine Swine and provide them with a final head count for the dinners.  It is my understanding that once we make this commitment there will be no backing out or changes allowed.

Due to being so close with the funds for what we have planed there is no cushion for ordering a few extra dinners or ordering dinners on a promise to pay...We must have your payment before the 7^th.

I am saddened that many who I knew would be attending have not contacted us.  I am also saddened that many have contacted me who sincerely wish to attend but can't due to a conflict with the date. 

See you at the Luau on the 29^th of August.

15 June 2009

The Breakfast Get-together was another success.  We had a total of eleven Shipmates and one guest in attendance.  It was good to see CDR Kimball again after all these years and Jewell Rogers honored us with his presence for the first time at one of our Breakfast Get-togethers.  This is the last time we will be getting together before the Reunion this fall.

Two more Shipmates paid for their admission to the Luau leaving us with a total of 60 paid attendance.  We are not quite half way there to the total number of attendance needed as we need a minimum of 150 attending to make this happen.  So make my job a little less stressful by sending in your payment.

We still have 60 ball caps for sale as we have only sold 15 so far.  I seriously thought they would go faster.  If you are holding out on buying one now because you are hoping to win one of the 25 we will be giving away as door prizes keep in mind that there are only 100 of the caps and we have 275 members so there is a good chance you will end out being left out.  So I will make this guarantee.  If you buy one now and win one later we will buy back one of the caps from you.  So reserve yours today or run the risk of being left out.  CDR Kimball, Jewell Rogers and Mark Flom now proudly display the logo of our fine unit.

I made changes to the names of three of the WebPages.   They are "Comments", "God and Country" and "The Beginning".  These pages are now called "Subase Newsletter", "For God and Country" and "Subase...the Beginning" The reason for these occasional changes is too complicated to explain but it has to do with the way the pages are laid out which I have little or no control of.  So I will just say it helps to keep you on your toes.   So when reading older Newsletter items the comments may make reference to WebPages which have now changed or no longer exist.

Several new items have been added to the Humor and the Anything Goes WebPages.  Check these pages out frequently as they tend to grow more then the other pages.

11 June 2009

Reluctantly I let the cat out of the bag when I put out an e-mail to all our Shipmates telling them that Subase's first X.O. CDR Ed Kimball would be attending the get-together this Saturday morning at Perkins.  I really wanted to keep it a surprise for everyone but the response to the original invitation was almost non-existent.   Unless I did something it appeared that we were only going to have four of us there.  So I traded the surprise for insensitive.  I am happy I did so now as it looks as though we are going to have 15 or more attend.  Its fun just listening to the various conversations at the tables that take place.  This will be the last opportunity you will have to get together before the Luau in August as I will be too busy making all the final preparations for the Reunion so it is not too late to join us.  The only thing I request is you give me advance notice of your intentions so I can let the server at Perkins know what she/he can expect.

The Website continues to grow with several new items added to Anything Goes and Just for Laughs.  I have been forced to add new pages to both the columns because the pages get too long.  Also I don't know if you have noticed this or not but the Home Page headlines change from time to time to announce important changes to the site so be sure to scroll down past the Unit logo from time to time and look for new additions or changes.

We only have ten weeks before the Luau takes place and so fare only 55 Shipmates and guests have signed on.  We need to get this count doubled if not tripled real soon or I most likely will have a nervous breakdown.  We need to have a minimum of 150 attending in order to pull this off at $20.00 per head as our final price to pay the caterers is based on the number attending.  The more attending the cheaper the price per head.  This whole affair was based on 200 in attendance.  If the final count is less the cost per meal will increase leaving us with less money to spend on door prizes.  I hope you can appreciate how nerve wreaking this can be to those of us putting this together.  I feel like I am MC'ing a telethon for channel 2 in trying to raise funds to keep the station on the air.  I hate to keep harping about this because I feel like I am beating a dead horse but I feel I have to or it just might not get done.  So please I sincerely apologize for continuing to bug you about this.  I wish it were not necessary.

I heard from BM1 Amy Smith the Navy Recruiter in Chanhassen the other day and ask her if her office was wearing the new uniform.  She said that one in four have made the change.  She also told me she wasn't going to wear the new uniform unless they made it mandatory. 

I am so glad that CDR Kimball will be attending the Breakfast and the Luau.  He was a swell X. O.  Well that shouldn't really be a surprise as he was once a white hat.  In thinking back to my active duty years CDR Kimball was like most of the active duty X.O.'s I served under in the respect they tended to look out for the enlisted personnel.

05 June 2009

Payments for the Luau are starting to come in.  I received payment from Subase Pearl's first X.O. Cdr Kimball who will be attending with a guest (his wife I suspect).  I am happy he signed on as he was missed at the last Reunion.  I also received checks from Dan Engelen, Randy Jeske Stuart Anderson and Don Ulbricht.  All are bringing a guest except Stu will be coming alone.  We are now up to 54 attending.

I heard from Cdr. Tony Rehwalt who lives in St. Louis and he told me he is now retired and finally reaping the fruits of having to get up early one weekend a month to attend drill all those years.  He also told me he read Grant Carmichael's bio and said it is a good thing he hadn't decided to check up on the ET/ST's off site training or we would have been in serious trouble.  He then went on to say that none of the O's were fooled.  I emailed him back and told him that I was disappointed to hear this as we thought for all these years we had pulled the wool over the ward room's eyes.   Tony said he is going to send a check for two to attend the Luau and also said that it was only a 50/50 chance he could get up here from St. Louis.  I hope he makes it as it would be good to see him again.

In order to be comfortable wearing the Service Dress Whites at the half marathon in Stillwater the 24^th of May I decided to try to lose a few pounds over a 10 day period of time prior the the event.  I ended out losing 4 pounds which took me down to 189 lbs. from 193 lbs.  I decided to stick with this diet and since have lost a total of eight pounds.  I am now down to 185 which is three pounds lighter then when I retired for the Navy.   Think I will stick with it awhile and see where it goes.  I've ate more rabbit food and broiled skinless chicken in the last three weeks then all the rest of my life all put together.  Oh well if this is what it takes I can do it.  Look out Duff here I come <grin>.

I added an electrical outlet over the work bench in the ceiling and hung a florescent light fixture to illuminate the work area and added blinds to the two windows to be able to hide the contents in the shop at night.  I am going to start building as soon as I receive the plans for the wishing well and Dutch windmill.  I also painted the jam for the service door today.

I've added a few more humor items, one being an original.  It was a true experience that happened to me today.  I am sure you will find it humorous but trust me....I didn't when it happened.  I've also added a few new items to the "Anything Goes" pages.  This column is going like a weed as it covers just about any subject.  I am now able to post those odd ball items that I purposely avoided before.

Last week I received two separate requests from shipmates that I didn't know to be removed from my mailing distribution list.  This is the first time anyone has asked to be removed and to receive two separate requests in the same week I thought was odd.  Most likely they never were really a part of Subase.  There were a few names added to the old Muster List that Ed and I both questioned whether they should be there or not.

I am thinking of putting together another Breakfast get-together sometime this month.  If it happens I will let you all know so you can have the opportunity to attend.

24 May 2009

Today started very early for me.  My alarm went off at 0400 so I could get a shower and get dressed in my Service Dress Whites and be out the door headed for Stillwater by 0500.  There was no traffic at this hour and the route I chose was construction free so I made the 48 mile trip in one hour and arrive at 0600 which gave me time to find a parking place and get to the staging area before the 0630 deadline.

All those who had committed to help were there along with Capt.  Francis.  We set up and decorated the six tables and prepared for the runners which started arriving about 0740.

We were well received by the runners who expressed their appreciation for helping support them in their run and countless numbers expressed their appreciation for our service to Our Country.

There was a few runners that had on shirts that said "Navy" or "Go Navy" on them which added to our pleasure in being there.  I lost count at how many of them stated "thanks for serving" and it was obvious they weren't talking about the power aid or water.  My chest was sticking out more then my belly <grin>.  I wouldn't trade the experience for anything and would do it again in a heartbeat if called upon to do so.

The last runners which I venture to say was over a thousand, came through shortly after 1000 and after tearing down the staging area we were through by 1030.

The Subase Sailors who participated in this were MM1 Mike Wittman, EM2 Dennis Zarembinski, MSC Paul Bernardy and myself.  Other Military Veterans were Rear Admiral Paul Quinn who last commanded Fleet Hospital in Mpls/St. Paul, Col. Jon Stillman (U. S. Army) who was a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam and LCDR Nancy Gertner a retired active duty officer who spent most of her career Eastlant including the Groton Submarine Base at New London Ct.

Others in uniform who helped of were members of Boy Scout troop 249 along with several Girl Scouts.

All who participated in this did so with enthusiasm and in an efficient manor and it was obvious that all enjoyed the opportunity to help out.

Two or three women said "cool, water from a sailor" and numerous women as they approached the area stated they wanted "water from the sailor".  This was a little embarrassing but I had fun with it.

My hat was off to a couple men and a couple women who were obviously my seniors who had made it to water stop 5 which was located at the 12 mile mark.  I couldn't have walked this distance much less run it.

After returning home I received an e-mail from Capt. Francis who thanked us for helping pull this off and he said he had talked to many of the runners after the run who said they took pleasure in passing our station and appreciated those in uniform being there to support them.

I shot 19 photos of our water station and the runners which I have posted on the Website on page two of "In Remembrance". 

I wish to thank those who were able to help out a great cause and confirming that Subase Sailors were and remain the very best.  I am proud to be associated with these people and be their friend and Shipmate.

I have other comments to post but wanted to dedicate these comments strictly to today's events.

Being Memorial Day Weekend I wish to offer you all this....Thanks for Serving.

Fair Winds and following Seas....

20 May 2009

After starting the garage rising project 6 months ago and being actually done with the garage other then the work shop for nearly 3 months the final inspection has taken place and the permit signed off.  What held up the final inspection was the fact that the city wanted us to repair a low area in the asphalt driveway so water would drain away from the house and garage apron.  This could not be done until it warmed up enough to either pour concrete or asphalt.  We poured 35 80 lb bags of concrete on Saturday and Monday I put down 5 50 lb bags of pothole patch in another area that was low.  Next week I am going to repair the stoop which is in pretty bad shape.  I am going to pour 2" of concrete on the three sides and raise the height 1 ½" to 2".

I built a couple shelves over the work benches in the shop today while waiting for the inspector.  I haven't painted them yet.

I managed to loose enough weight to get back into my Service Dress Whites for Sunday's Marathon in Stillwater.  There were three other takers to help support the Jon Francis Foundations fund raiser being Dennis Zarembinski, Mike Wittman and Paul Bernardy.  Paul will also be in uniform.   I went out to the Air Force and bought a new set of ribbons and a new white belt.  Unfortunately they only carry the belt with the gold tip as it is actually a Marine belt.  I may have an old belt that I can rub the tip off of otherwise I will have to hide it with the buckle.  We have to be over in Stillwater at 0630 which means I will have to set my alarm for 0400 Saturday night.  Just like old times only worse <grin>.

I plan to take a few photos of the race and of the volunteers while there which I will post sometime on Sunday.

Several new jokes have been added to the Just for Laughs pages and one or two items added to the Anything Goes Webpage.  Also page 10 has been added to the Garage Raising pages. 

Lately the contributions for the various WebPages have been few and far between.  I plan to put a new page on the site which will be called "In Remembrance" as I am getting some good stuff sent to me on this subject.  The page will be constructed by Saturday in time for the Memorial Day Weekend.  I will try to remember to notify you as soon as it is completed.

You could make me feel real good by taking the time to make out a check to Subase for the Luau if you plan on attending.  To date we only have 22 Shipmates and 20 guests who have signed on.  We are going to have a great time this year as a lot of planning have gone into this.  I heard nothing but positive feedback from last years event so if you had a good time then you are in for a great time this year so the only thing you are accomplishing by procrastinating is keeping me on pins and needles.  So please sign on for the fun and send your check in.

I was just pouring a glass of tomato juice to enjoy while writing this and it brought back memories of the Bloody Mary parties I used to hold at Pearl.  I am sure a few of you remember these parties which became an annual event.  One particular party stands out in my mind.  Doug Olson, Jim Doll and Don Ostenson, regulars at my parties, were there and I was making us all a refill.  Don went into the head and Jim decided to super spice up Don's drink by loading in up with Tabasco Sauce.  Now my being the lover of a good prank decided to take this a step farther.  Jim turned his attention away from me and while he did I switched his refill with Don's spiced up drink.  I would love to have captured the look on Jim's face on film when he and Don took a sip of their drinks.  I have a lot of fond memories of the escapades in Hawaii.  Knowing I will never be able to repeat them I am thankful the Good Lord has allowed me to recall them.

05 May 2009

First off I would like to Welcome Aboard FTGC Dennis Lloyd who just signed the Guest Book.  It has been awhile since any new entries have been added.  Visit the Guest Book to see his entry. 

A new and much needed webpage has been added to the site called "Anything Goes".  It is sort of a dumb name for a Webpage and may at some point in time get renamed but the name describes the purpose of the page to a T. 

Many times I have received e-mails from Shipmates sending me some good stuff but the subject matter of the articles just didn't fit in on any of the existing WebPages so they never got on the site.  Now with the addition of the new generic page I am able to post these articles without them being out of place.

There are a few articles on this new page now and I expect the page to have frequent additions.

A few new photos have been added to the "Garage Raising" page as I am nearing the completion of the work shop.  I chose a gray for the walls and June said it looked like battleship grey to her.  I should do a good job of painting since I had a lot of experience working with that color in my early years in the Navy <grin>.

I received a couple more checks in the mail for the upcoming Luau in August and updated the "'09 Reunion Attendance" Webpage to reflect the payments.  For those of you that have not sent your check in, we need to get that taken care of fairly soon as we will have to turn in a head count to the caterers sometime in July.  The months are going by like crazy.

30 April 2009

The inspector was out today and signed off on the electrical.  I am so happy to have that behind me.  I am hoping to have the final inspection within in the next two weeks or so.  The only thing left to do before the final is to have some blacktop poured in the driveway where it meets the apron.  The height of the blacktop is lower the apron.  I don't have a clue what this has to do with the garage but I was told it needed to be corrected before they would sign off on the final.

I added a few more photos to page the of Garage Raising and will be adding some more as soon and I finish the interior of the Shop.

While waiting for the inspector today I did the tapping of the sheetrock.  Tomorrow I will sand it and get it ready for painting.  I also have to sheetrock the ceiling and tape it and hang a florescent light over the work bench I built.  I am also going to build some shelves.

More additions to the Humor page and an addition the God and Country page have been added.

I receive e-mails from about a dozen or so Shipmates sharing information that I would like to see go on the site but unfortunately in many cases the authors of the articles either tend to execrate to help dramatize their agenda or have not researched the facts well enough before putting out the e-mails and much of it is simply untrue or partial truth.   I rely on Snopes and Truth of Fiction to sort out the information before putting it on the site.  Also I don't want to support a political arena as that is a great way to lose half of your visitors.  This site was created to be a fun place with seriousness only when it involves our military, God, our Country and the American Flag.  If these subjects offend anyone, you have only the Website Administrator to blame, namely me because these are subjects that are near and dear to my heart.

26 April 2009

What I consider a major change has taken place on the site.  The reason I say major is because of my extreme conservative side.  After being part of the Subase Website for nearly 1 ½ years the "Muster" page is no longer.  In its place a new webpage has been created and is called "Roster".  The format of the Shipmates of Subase has been changed.  Those members who have been contacted and told of the site remains in red and those who we have been unable to contact are still white however the rate of the Shipmate has been moved to a column to the right of the person's name.  A third column has been added to facilitate his/her last rate or rank.  Also a forth column has been added for notes about this person such a "Units first CO" etc.

This was put together in Microsoft Excel.  The reason I chose this program is because I need to sort by rate occasionally and Excel allows me to do this.  The notes column is a handy tool to be able to show additional information about the Shipmate.  I hope you like the new layout.

Please take a moment to check your listing to insure the information is correct especially your highest rate or rank as well as your last rate or rank.  If you left the Navy and crossed over to the Army, Air Force etc. indicate this as well (ea: SGT USAF).   If any of the information needs correction click on the link "Click here" to be directed to you own e-mail and send me the information to be corrected.

The VE session in Bloomington went well.  We upgraded two Technician Class license holders to General Class and on General Class license holder to Amateur Extra Class.

For those of you who know little or nothing about Amateur (Ham) Radio there used to be 5 class's of licenses.  They were Novice, Technician, General, Advanced and Extra.  Now there are only three being Technician, General and Amateur Extra.  At one time there was a sixth class called Tech Plus.  This class shared the privileges of Novice and Technician.  If this information is incorrect I am sure STS1(SS) Gary Esler will correct me as he is also and Amateur Extra Class Ham and have been doing this for many years.

24 April 2009

Today I received an email from Jim Rhode who provided me with a link to a site that had quite a few high quality pictures of a Soviet Typhoon Class Boomer.  I went to the site and downloaded all 94 of them and added them to a gallery and put them on the site on the "Silent Service webpage".  Took quite awhile but the end result was worth it.  Check them out by clicking on the Silent Service link in the menu area then clicking on the button "Russian Boomer".  There are three pages of pictures.

I added a great video to page 3 of the "God and Country" page that you absolultely have to watch.  It brought tears to my eyes watching it.  It is tittled "A Pittance of Time" by Terry Kelly.

Also new on the site is a Financial Statement for 2009.  I archived the 2008 Financial Statement which also can also still be reviewed.

In addition the "Subase Store" name has been changed to "Ships Store".  Also there are a few new additions to the "Just for Laughs" page.  ETC Gary Hovind sent me the one called Unusual and outstanding family vacation:  So if you have a problem with the fact it is not exactly politically correct you have him to blame <grin>.

The electrical is complete in the garage and I have an electrical inspector coming on Monday.  Hopefully he finds everything to code and signs off on the permit.  If it goes okay then I will finish sheet rocking the shop and get it set up to do some woodworking.

I am setting in on Amateur Radio testing in Bloomington again tomorrow as a Volunteer Examiner (VE).  This will be my fourth session since getting re-involved.  I also received my credentials from W5YI which is another group that administers Ham Radio testing and hopefully will be able to help them out as well soon.

With the garage project coming to an end I figured I needed something more to do to occupy some of my time.  So far I have found enough to do to keep busy and not miss working.  I don't have the funds to travel and with June still working it wouldn't be any fun anyway doing it by myself so I am doing the next best thing.

23 April 2009

After hearing of MMC James Harren's medical problems I was prompted to add an additional page to the site called "Sick Call".  I felt we needed to have a place to go to read about our Shipmates with medical issues.

At the present time Jim's name is the only name on this page and thank God for that.  I received an e-mail from Jim who told me he is doing better.  He learned of lung and kidney cancer In February and started chemo immediately then became violently ill after the second treatment with pneumonia as he was allergic to the chemo.  They put him on a different chemo and now he is doing better.

Another addition to the site is a page called "Wounded In Action".  This page added to the site was a result from receiving an article from Master Chief Fosse.  This article is worth your time to read.  It cannot be accessed directly from the menu but can be accessed by first clicking on the "Still Serving" page then clicking on the button "Wounded In Action".

Rick Dennis called me the other day and informed me he had picked up the finished ball caps from the embroiderer.  I met with him and picked them up.  They really look great! 

So far there have been 14 of the 100 ball caps sold.  An additional 25 of the caps are reserved as door prizes which leaves a remainder of 61 caps for sale.  They are a real bargain at $13.00 per cap.  I have not seen ship or unit caps for sale for less then $18.00-$20.00 anywhere.  Contact me to reserve yours now to ensure you will be able to get one.

I had the electrician back out yesterday to wire the shop area of the garage I have been building over the past 6 months.  They brought in 80 amp service for the garage and shop which will allow me to be able to run all my tools without any problems.  I am glad to have this finally done.  He is going to call for an electrical inspection which I hope takes place in the next few days.

20 April 2009

For those of you who have seen the new Reunion Slide Show I put on the site know it loads slowly.  It takes about 3 ½ minutes to load on my system and I have a pretty fast system with the highest speed DSL available to me.  I am sure many of you gave up before it loaded.

I have added a second version of the same slide show to the site for those of you with less patients.  The original version is a 127 MB file which will take time to load.  The new version I installed is 20.1 MB which loads 6 times faster.  This one takes approximately 45 sec to load on my system.  The downside to the faster version is smaller pictures and less resolution.  The original version would fill the entire screen with 35mm quality.

If you have dial up don't waste your time trying to see the show as you would be on your system many hours to watch a 20 minute show.

I added cool background music to both the Reunion Slide Shows.  Keep in mind your Website Administrator is 67 years old so for you younger Shipmates the term "cool" might be over emphasized.

Also for those of you who saw the show I apologize for the incorrect name of the Units first C. O.  I had his name as Bob Anderson on the photo.  I don't know where my mind was as I know very well it is Joe Anderson <grin>.  Sorry C. O.  just having fun with this.

The "Just for Laughs" column keeps growing which is a good thing in today's serious and troubled world.  The second page is now full so any new humor will start a new page.

The money for admission to the upcoming Luau trickles in slowly.  Soon I am going to have to have commitments from everyone and will be sending out e-mails to those who have not committed by sending in their funds.  If you don't want to be bombarded by my pleas, you know what you need to do.  So click on "Luau" and get the information needed to take care of this and get it done today.

I would like to do something to help out Capt. Francis and his cause by supporting the Jon Francis Foundation.  Financially I am not able to provide much support however I am thinking of organizing the unit to help out with their upcoming half marathon race in Stillwater on May 24^th 2009.  This could be accomplished having Subase Shipmates sign on as runners, helpers for the race and donations.  Obviously there is not much time to put this together and I may be biting off more then I can chew.

Please let me know if you would be interested in coming together and doing something to help the cause.  Information about the race can be obtained on this site:   http://www.stillwatermarathon.com/ .

I created a desktop icon with the Subase Logo on it.  If you are interested in adding this shortcut to the Subase Website to your desktop and your "Favorites" let me know and I will send it to you along with the instruction for installing it.

22 August 2009

With all the preparations for the Luau and the garage building I have either had no time to devote to this column or the energy to do so.  But with both tasks coming to an end I decided it was time to put out the word by writing in this column.

The most important topic is the Luau which is now less then a week away.  All the work in putting this together is now complete.  The funds from those attending have been paid and the meals have been ordered from the caterer.  There were a total of 116 who paid to attend and 2 children at no charge.  Five paid members have contacted me to let me know they will not be able to attend due to a conflict but have insisted that we keep the funds to be used for the Unit.  So we will be having 113 total attending.  I was a little disappointed in the reduced number attending but was satisfied with the fact that we at least went over 100 which gave us a final price for the meals that we could afford and brought us out of the red.

I picked up 10 cases of beer from Mike Lewis with Schell Brewery.  I would like to thank Mike for helping us out again this year.  Also I spoke with another Mike at the MWR Center at the Air Force base and he has graciously agreed to donate 2 8 foot tables and three chairs for the event.  Again I would like to extend my appreciation to Mike and the Air Force.

In addition to these contributors Cub Foods in Minnetonka have donated two $20.00 Cub gift cards.  Again my thanks goes out to Brian Kuhuly the manager of this store.  I also spoke with Rainbow Foods in Eden Prairie who helped us out last year with a $25.00 gift card but they declined to help us this year.  I spoke with BM1 Amy Smith with the Navy Recruiting office in Chanhassen who apologized but would not be able to donate anything this year due to a recruitment fair going on soon.  She said they weren't going to have enough items for the fair as it was.  I know she would have helped us if she could have and I let her know that I totally understood.

I also spoke with both the entertainers yesterday who both sounded excited to be able to perform for us.  I have no doubt that they will put on a great show and everyone will have a great time.

Now on a lighter side, the Website is coming along fine and bits and pieces have been added.  Actually too many for me to point you to so you will just have to check out the many pages and look for articles you haven't seen before.  But I would like to call your attention to Just for Laughs as new additions are being added to this column daily.  I just put probably the funniest article I ever saw there today.  It is fairly long so I decided to give it an entire page all by itself.  It is a story about a guy getting his first colonoscopy.  With the age group of the visitors of this site, it may bring back some old painful memories <grin>.  You can read this adventure on page 11 of Just for Laughs.  I believe you will have to agree with me that it is one of the funniest stories ever wrote.

And now on the garage raising project.  We decided to go ahead and sheet rock the garage to make it look more pleasant and also to protect the insulation so it wouldn't get torn.  A couple problems surfaced out of this decision.  The first being the fact that the garage was framed with 2x4's and we insulated with R19 insulation.  R19 insulation is too thick for 4" walls and 6" walls are necessary to avoid compressing the insulation and popping the screws out of the sheet rock that support the walls.  So I decided to add 2x2 faring strips to the existing studs to make the walls 6 inches.  This added a lot of extra work.  So this is the approach I took and it turned out fine.  I now have all the sheet rock up on the walls, they've been taped and mudded and two thirds of the wall have been painted as well.  I will be sanding the remaining 24 feet and painting tomorrow to finish them.  The ceiling will probably be awhile before it gets done but I hope to get it done before it gets cold as it will be impossible to heat come winter and I plan to spend a lot of time working in the shop this winter.

The other problem that surfaced was the service door.  The door jam was also intended for 4 inch walls which left a 2 inch gap.  I solved this by adding two inch fillers on the jams and installing the casing over it and painting the fillers to match the jam.  It turned out nice and you would have to be looking for the screw up to notice it.  I have added photo's to the Garage Raising Webpage showing these latest tasks.  They can be viewed on the last page of Garage Raising.

Another area of the site to visit especially if you haven't been on for awhile is Anything Goes as several new addition have been added there as well.

Also I added a new page for the banners and logos of the merchants who have offered their support this year along with some comments for each banner.  I archived the old banners and logos for last year.

And now back to the Luau.  The Reunion is at the same location as last year in Central Park in Roseville located at 2541 Lexington Ave North and the picnic area we have rented is the Jaycee Shelter.   The Luau is this Saturday from 1200 hrs. to 2100 hrs.  There is plenty of parking in the lot just as you enter Central Park but if for some reason the lot is full you can park along Brooks Ave West which is just south of the park entrance.  Do not park on Lexington Ave as I am told you will be tickited and towed if you choose to do so.  It is important that you understand the meal or actual Luau is served only from 1400 hrs. to 1500 hrs.  At 1500 the caterers will start the tear down and no more food will be served.  So it is imperative that you and your guest be on time.  The entertainers will start the performance at 1500 hrs.  with Make Mae performing traditional Hawaiian and Polynesian dances until 1530 hrs followed by Kimo the Fire Dancer doing his Tahitian Fire Dance which is about a 10 minute routine.  This should be well received by all.  Both dancers come highly recommended and have done these dances for many years now.  It was requested by the performers that we all remain seated during the routines with special emphasis to the Fire Dance due to the possible hazards involved in working with fire.

Also due to the City of Roseville park regulations the only alcohol allowed on the premise is to be not more then 3.2% and only the person the license is assigned to is allowed to have it at the location so I must inform you that you are not to bring any to the Luau.  We have the same amount of beer as we had last year with fewer people attending so there should be plenty.  No one has volunteered any information about any changes to regulations about smoking on the site and me being a cigar smoker I am not going to ask.  But if you do smoke be respectful of those around you who are offended by the smell of smoke and properly discard you butt when you are finished.  The music is to be kept down to a tolerable level but I am told generally this is not a problem unless someone in the park complains.

If you have any questions or need directions contact me at subasepearldet716@q.com or call me anytime at (651) 274-8254 day or night.  Being retired I don't have to get up to go to work so if you wake me no problem, I will just go back to sleep after talking to you.  So don't hesitate to call.

Let the Luau begin!