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MoBoat News 07News 07
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Bob Behm
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Jan 06, 2007 18:35 PST
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MOBOAT NEWS - VOL. 4 NO. 1
A newsletter for veterans of the “USS Monticello LSD 35"
Our website has had over 12,000 visitors since it was launched.
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Inside This Issue:
07 JAN 07
1: WHAT'S NEW?
2: REUNION
3: REQUEST
4: DRAWING
5: WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
6: A FELLOW SAILOR
7: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
8. USS OGDEN
9. BAVO ZULU
10.REUNION REGISTRATIONS
11. NAVY NEWS STAND
12. SMILE
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1: WHAT'S NEW?
At last count, 413 crew members signed into the online Deck Log.
31 Officers
4 Skippers
35 Plank owners
360 Enlisted
88 Life Members
5 Annual Members
25 Chiefs
13 Marines
1 Attached (Australian)
1 Midshipman
Keep spreading the word. If you know someone who served on the
MoBoat, and they're not listed on the Deck Log, please forward this
newsletter to them.
ERRORS... If you have logged-in and can't find your entry in the deck
Log or the "Member's List" please let me know and I will correct the
deficiency ASAP.
The monthly drawing for a MoBoat item began in November.
To be eligible for the drawing, you must have your member's dues
current and your reunion registration sent in by the date of the
drawing.
Monthly Winners will be drawn from a list of those that have submitted
their completed Branson reunion registration forms.
Our last drawing will take place July 1st, 2007.
Our third item to be given away this month is a MoBoat Windbreaker
So, get those reunion registration forms in right away and be eligible
for the next monthly drawing.
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2: REUNION
The preparations for the 2007 reunion is in process. We've contacted
19 Veteran's magazine's and numerous reunion related websites about
our proposed reunion.
The dates of the reunion are 1 - 5 August 2007 at the Grand Plaza Hotel
in Branson, MO.
The reunion registration forms are available online in PDF format at:
http://www.ussmonticello.com/reunion_update.htm
Or by clicking on this link:
http://www.ussmonticello.com/2007_registration_form.pdf
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3: REQUEST
Hello Robert,
Thanks for your updated USS Monticello reunion information, it was on
the updated Master Reunion Listing I sent to the web master on 6
November.
I have a request that possibly you can help me with; not many veterans
are aware of the reunion listings on our web site. I'm sure many of
your shipmates have been on other ships and may wonder if those ships
have a reunion.
Would It be possible to put a note in your web site or any published
newsletters telling your shipmates about the web site listings? We need
to get the word out to the veteran community.
The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA) is providing the Military
Reunion Listings as a FREE service to the veteran community. I search
the internet looking for reunions and then send requests for the
information to the listed POC. I sent 2,108 reunion organizations
e-mails requesting information on their 2006 reunions, and unfortunately
25 % failed to respond. We have 1,398 listings on the calendar year 2006
listing. With the next listing update, we will have almost 500 reunion
listings for calendar years 2007 & 2008.
Please take a look at our web site, www.trea.org, scroll down the left
side and click on Reunions/Buddies, and this will bring up the reunion
page. As reunions are completed, they are transferred to the Completed
Listing at the end of the month. There, they will remain as a reference
point for someone looking for a unit contact. My intention is that each
calendar year reunions will be individually listed.
I appreciate any help you can provide.
John H. Moore, SMSgt, USAF Retired (1961–87)
Reunion Manager (volunteer)
The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA)
Home: 657 E. Adams Street, Marengo, IA 52301
Home: (319) 741-5734
Cell: (319) 936-2154
E-mail: TREAreun-@mac.com
Website: www.trea.org
"FREEDOM ISN'T FREE"
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4. DRAWING
Each month until the reuinon will be having a drawing from those that
have sent in their reunion registration.
This month's winner will receive a emboidered MoBoat windbreaker.
And the lucky winner pulled from the official "MoBoat" ballcap by my
lovely wife, Maria, is:
EMFN William (Sonny) Gaines.
Congratulations Sonny! We'll get that jacket off to you ASAP.
If you are planning to attend the reunion in Branson in August '07,
be sure to get those reunion registrations in early to be eligible for
all the monthly drawings preceding the reunion.
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5. WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
Check out the images of Pearl Harbor, especially the ones titled
"Epilog". I had not seen some of these.
http://www.navsource.org/Naval/arph.htm
Sent in by John Huard, SR
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6. A FELLOW SAILOR
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Lieutenant Commander Gerald Ford, USNR
Related Sources: Transcript of Naval Service
When he entered the White House in 1974, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. became
the fourth consecutive President to have served in the U.S. Navy. He was
born Leslie King, Jr in Omaha, Nebraska on 14 July 1913. After his
parents divorced, his mother married a prominent business man, Gerald R.
Ford of Grand Rapids, Michigan, who adopted him and gave him his name.
Gerald Ford, Jr. grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he attended
public schools and won both all-city and all-state honors for football
before graduating from South High School. Ford studied at the University
of Michigan where he also
played center on the football team. He was on the University of
Michigan's 1932 National Championship football team and was named most
valuable Michigan player in 1933. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts
in economics in 1935, Ford went to Yale University as an assistant
football and boxing coach instead of accepting pro football offers.
Accepted into Yale Law School in 1938, Ford received his law degree in
1941. Returning to Grand Rapids, Ford started a law practice with fellow
classmate from the University of Michigan. However, the attack on Pearl
Harbor changed his plans.
Instead of waiting for the draft, Ford wanted to join the Navy. His
background as a coach and trainer made him a good candidate for
instructor in the Navy's V-5 (aviation cadet) program. Ford received a
commision as ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve on 13 April 1942. On 20
April, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at
Annapolis, Maryland. After one month of training, he went to Navy
Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was one of 83
instructors and taught elementary seamanship, ordnance, gunnery, first
aid, and military drill. In addition, he coached in all nine sports that
were offered, but mostly in swimming, boxing and football. During the
one year he was at the Preflight School, he
was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade on 2 June 1942, and to
Lieutenant on March 1943.
Applying for sea duty, Ford was sent in May 1943 to the
pre-commissioning detachment for a new light aircraft carrier, USS
Monterey (CVL-26) at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New
Jersey. From the ship's commissioning on 17 June 1943 until the end of
December 1944, Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer,
and antiaircraft battery officer on board Monterey. While he was on
board, Monterey participated in many actions in the Pacific with the
Third and Fifth Fleets during the fall of
1943 and in 1944. In 1943, the carrier helped secure Makin Island in the
Gilberts, and participated in carrier strikes against Kavieng, New
Ireland in 1943. During the spring of 1944, Monterey supported landings
at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and participlated in carrier strikes in the
Marianas, Western Carolines, and northern New Guinea, as well as in the
Battle of Philippine Sea. After overhaul, from September to November
1944, aircraft from Monterey launched strikes against Wake Island,
participated in strikes in the Philippines and Ryukus, and supported the
landings at Leyte and Mindoro.
Although the ship was not damaged by the Japanese forces, Monterey was
one of several ships damaged by the typhoon, which hit Admiral Halsey's
Third Fleet on 18-19 December 1944. The Third Fleet lost three
destroyers and over 800 men during the typhoon. Monterey was damaged by
a fire which was started by several of the ship's aircarft tearing loose
from their cables and colliding during the storm. During the storm, Ford
narrowly missed being a casualty himself. After Ford left his battle
station on the bridge of the
ship in the early morning of 18 December, the ship rolled twenty-five
degrees which caused Ford to lose his footing and slide toward the edge
of the deck. The two inch steel ridge around the edge of the carrier
slowed him enough so he could roll and twisted into the catwalk below
the deck. As he later stated, "I was lucky; I could have easily gone
overboard."
After the fire, Monterey was declared unfit for service and the crippled
carrier reached Ulithi on 21 December before preceding across the
Pacific to Bremerton, Washington where it underwent repairs. On
Christmas Eve 1944 at Ulithi, Ford was detached from the ship and sent
to the Athletic Department of the Navy Pre-Flight School, St. Mary's
College, California where he was assigned to the Athletic Department
until April 1945. One of his duties was
to coach football. From end of April 1945 to January 1946, he was on the
staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command, Naval Air Station,
Glenview, Illinois as the Staff Physical and Military Training Officer.
On 3 October 1945, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. In January
1946, he was sent to the Separation Center, Great Lakes, Illinois to be
processed out. He was released from active duty under honorable
conditions on 23 February 1946. On 28 June 1963, the Secretary of the
Navy accepted Ford's resignation from the Naval Reserve.
For his naval service, Gerald Ford earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign
Medal with nine engagement stars for operations in the Gilbert Islands,
Bismark Archipelego, Marshal Islands, Asiatic and Pacific carrier raids,
Hollandia, Marianas, Western Carolines, Western New Guinea, and the
Leyte Operation. He also received the Philippine Liberation Medal with
two bronze stars for Leyte and Mindoro, as well as the American Campaign
and World War II Victory
Medals.
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7. NATIONAL ARCHIVES
I recently contacted the National Archives asking about the muster rolls
ofthe USS MONTICELLO LSD 35 from 1957 to 1985.
Muster rolls from 1957 through 1970 can be reproduced only as 16mm
microfilmfor $65 per reel. Paper copies are not available, nor can they
reproduce less than a full roll of microfilm. Some of the images may be
illegible due to poor quality of the original microfilm.The original
paper copies were destroyed after filming.
Muster rolls for the period of 1971 to 1975 are restricted because of
the Navy's decision to use social security numbers as identification
numbers.
To obtain crew lists from the period of 1976 through 1985, I would need
to contactthe Bureau of Naval Personnel.
1. 1957 - 1958 $65
2. 1959 $65
3. 1960 $65
4. 1961 $65
5. 1962 $65
6. 1963 $65
7. 1964 $65
8. 1965 $65
9. 1966 $65
10. 1967 $65
11. 1968 $65
12. 1969 $65
13. 1970 $65
As you can see this will be a costly project. A total of $845.00. If any
of you would like to sponsor a certain year, or a few of you could go in
togther to sponsor a year, we could gather all the crew's lists they
currently offer beforeour reunion in August. I believe these lists are
crucial if we wish to find therest of our shipmates.
I'll be monitoring Ebay for a "low cost" microfilm reader.
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8. USS OGDEN
The following is an excerpt from a declassified narrative of the USS
Ogden from 1969. I was on board from 1968-1972 and I don't remember the
four destroyers.
http://www.history.navy.mil/shiphist/o/lpd-5/1969.pdf
Look at the bottom of page 4, top of page 5. Does anyone remember them.
Maybe that’s one of the destroyers that we refueled in the picture on
site. The Uss Waller.
Sent in By BM3 John Huard
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9. BRAVO ZULU
This is a naval signal, conveyed by flaghoist or voice radio, meaning
"well done"; it has also passed into the spoken and written vocabulary.
It can be combined with the "negative" signal, spoken or written NEGAT,
to say "NEGAT Bravo Zulu," or "not well done."
There are some "myths and legends" attached to this signal. The one most
frequently heard has Admiral Halsey sending it to ships of Task Force 38
during World War II. He could not have done this, since the signal did
not exist at that time.
"Bravo Zulu" actually comes from the Allied Naval Signal Book (ACP 175
series), an international naval signal code adopted after the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created in 1949. Until then,
each navy had used its own signal code and operational manuals. World
War II experience had shown that it was difficult, or even impossible,
for ships of different navies to operate together unless they could
readily communicate, and ACP 175 was designed to remedy this.
In the U.S. Navy signal code, used before ACP 175, "well done" was
signaled as TVG, or "Tare Victor George" in the U.S. phonetic alphabet
of that time. ACP 175 was organized in the general manner of other
signal books, that is, starting with 1-flag signals, then
2-flag and so on. The 2-flag signals were organized by general subject,
starting with AA, AB, AC, ... AZ, BA, BB, BC, ... BZ, and so on. The B-
signals were called "Administrative" signals, and dealt with
miscellaneous matters of administration and housekeeping. The last
signal on the "Administrative" page was BZ, standing for "well done."
At that time BZ was not rendered as "Bravo Zulu," but in each navy's
particular phonetic alphabet. In the U.S. Navy, BZ was spoken as "Baker
Zebra." In the meanwhile, the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) had adopted English as the international
air traffic control language. They developed a phonetic alphabet for
international aviation use, designed to be as "pronounceable" as
possible by flyers and traffic controllers
speaking many different languages. This was the "Alfa, Bravo, Charlie,
Delta..." alphabet used today. The Navy adopted this ICAO alphabet in
March 1956. It was then that "Baker Zebra"
finally became "Bravo Zulu."
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10. REUNION REGISTRATIONS
Here is the list of those that are now registered for the upcoming
reunion in Branson, MO. Thanks for registering so promptly!
Cathy and Michael Battisti
Betty and David Clifford
Kathy and Sonny Gaines
Paul Lindauer and Bonie Armes
Lawrence M. Braun
Maria and Robert Behm
I will post this list monthly until the reunion.
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11. NAVY NEWSSTAND
The mission of the Navy NewsStand is to serve as U.S. Navy's official
internal news Web site. This site contains news stories on all Navy
Commands with articlesand videos.
http://www.navy.mil/index.asp
Here's a link to a video I enjoyed watching.
http://www.navy.mil/management/videodb/player/video.aspx?id=8521
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12. SMILE
A Petty Officer Second Class, a First Class, and a Chief are off the
ship together for lunch. While crossing a park they come upon an
antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out in a puff of smoke.
The Genie says, "I can only grant three wishes, so I can give each of
you just one."
"Me first!" says the Petty Officer Second Class. "I want to be in the
Bahamas, driving a speedboat, a beautiful woman at my side and not a
care in the world." Poof! He's gone.
"Me next!" says the First Class. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on
the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of pina coladas,
and a beautiful woman." Poof! He's gone too.
"You're next," the Genie says to the Chief. The Chief cracks a nasty
smile and says, "I want those two idiots back on the ship and
turning-to, right after lunch."
This joke was comshawed from: http://www.thedeckplate.com/jokes.htm
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Well... that's all for this Issue of the MoBoat News.
Continue spreading the word about ussmonticello.com. Feel free to
forward this Newsletter to anybody you think will find it interesting.
If this Newsletter was forwarded to you and you'd like to subscribe,
just visit http://ussmonticello.com/newsletter.htm. All back issues of
the MoBoat News are also available there as well.
So long for now,
Bob Behm (Beamer)
USSMonticello.com Webmaster
Former BM3
USS Monticello LSD 35 '69-'71
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