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MOBOAT NEWS 03 Jul 07 Correction
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Bob Behm
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Jul 14, 2007 12:31 PDT
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MOBOAT NEWS - VOL. 4 NO. 7
A newsletter for veterans of the “USS Monticello LSD 35"
Our website has had over 15,700 visitors since it was launched in
August 2004.
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Inside This Issue:
03 Jul 07
1: WHAT'S NEW?
2: 2007 REUNION
3: BRANSON BELLE
4: DRAWING
5: WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
6: NATIONAL ARCHIVES
7. REUNION REGISTRATIONS
8. DUES
9. WEBSITE SEARCH ENGINE
10. EXCEL DATABASE
11. POLL
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1: WHAT'S NEW?
At last count, 457 crewmembers signed into the online Deck Log.
31 Officers
4 Skippers
39 Plank Owners
375 Enlisted
114 Life Members
5 Annual Members
25 Chiefs
13 Marines
1 Attached (Australian)
1 Midshipman
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2: 2007 REUNION!
If you are still planning to attend the 2007 reunion please get those
registrations in ASAP! Please call us first for room availability. Meals
and rooms have to be reserved and we need an accurate number of
attendees for the hotel.
Those still wishing to register will be subject to a $50 late
registration fee.
The dates of the reunion are 1 - 5 August 2007 at the Grand Plaza Hotel
in Branson, MO. The Branson Grand Plaza is a beautiful hotel and is all
enclosed so that you won't be exposed to the humidity of the Midwest.
It boasts an indoor swimming pool, hot tub, workout room and they have
just replaced the beds with sleep number beds. The hotel offers a full
breakfast for its guests. Register today to insure you have a room in
the same hotel as our functions.
Here's the hotel website:
http://www.bransongrandplaza.com/
The reunion registration forms are available online in PDF format at:
http://www.ussmonticello.com/reunion_update.htm
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3: BRANSON BELLE
We have reserved tickets for the 1600 hours (4:00 PM) Friday night
dinner cruise aboard this fun ship!
No need to make reservations. All you need to do is show up on the
pier! All the work has been done for you!
Bring your sea legs!
http://www.showboatbransonbelle.com/
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4. DRAWING
This is the final drawing prior to the reunion.
This month's winner will receive a MoBoat Ball Cap with rank insignia.
And the lucky winner pulled from the official "MoBoat" ball cap by my
lovely wife, Maria, is:
R. Brent York MR2 1977-1979
Congratulations Brent! We'll get that MoBoat Ball Cap and rank insignia
off to you as soon as we return from Illinois.
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5. WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/patriotic/patriotic-home.html
The Fourth of July is almost here. For most of us, that means two
things: barbeques and fireworks!
Since we’re celebrating America’s independence, we’ll also hear
the national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner.
Want to wow your friends and family at the barbeque tomorrow? Then
visit today’s Cool Site. It tells the stories behind many patriotic
songs.
And maybe you need to brush up on the lyrics to the Star Spangled
Banner. Well, you’ll find them, too.
Have a great holiday! Remember to stay safe, especially around
fireworks.
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6. NATIONAL ARCHIVES
A new contractor was hired and he has done an outstanding job
converting the microfilm into digital format for use on our home
computers.
The best thing about this crew list from the National Archives is that
they have the complete crew listings and most importantly, the correct
spelling of each sailor’s name.
With that information, we can begin to search online for former
crewmembers. As we have mentioned in this newsletter in the past, online
databases such as; whitepages.com and zabasearch.com are great resources
for this type of search.
Both John Huard and Robert Campbell have been using these lists
successfully in the past few weeks to locate
former crewmembers.
The project from inception to fruition cost us a little over $1000.00,
not to mention the many hours of sending post cards, emails and making
phone calls. If you would like to join in the search for former
crewmembers, just drop me a line and we can discuss the process.
The partial years lists are in an Excel database and is available on
our website. More names will be added as time allows. See item #10 of
this newsletter for details.
If you would like to have a copy of all the converted pages of crew
lists, they will be available at the reunion. This DVD also has lists of
other LSDs and LSTs.
We will continue to purchase more lists as funding permits. Our goal is
to have every year’s crew list in our possession. Once we have
accomplished that task, we would like to begin gathering all the
Monticello’s deck logs. If we are unable to find a former crewmember
that lives in the D.C. area to search the records for us, then a
contractor will have to be hired.
This is another lofty goal, but not an impossible one.
Here is a tutorial on how to use the crewlists:
http://www.ussrankin.org/HTMLobj-2680/HowToGetCopiesOfNavyCrewlists.PDF
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7. REUNION REGISTRATIONS
Here is the list of those that are now registered for the upcoming
reunion in Branson, MO.
http://www.ussmonticello.com/reunion_attendees06.htm
I will post this list monthly until the reunion.
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8. DUES
Except for the initial contact email that you received when you first
logged in, I don’t mention the need for paying dues to help us keep
the website up and running, but I need to do so at this time. The
research into the microfilm and videos with both needing to be converted
digitally for use on our website and placed on CD or DVD, has depleted
our research funds.
If you have enjoyed visiting our website and look forward in viewing
the newest videos, please consider becoming a paid member of the
website.
The toughest decision for me to make was to block content to non-paying
crewmembers and we’re now considering an entire multimedia page that
would be password protected.
Dues are only $10 per year or $30 for Lifetime.
We boast the largest collection of photos, videos and history
information about the MONTICELLO on the Internet and there is much more
to come with your help. As a mater off fact, the Navy Historical Center
asked for some of our documents that they didn’t have in their
possession.
With almost 16,000 hits to our home page, someone is enjoying browsing
our ship’s history. There were over 1.2 million requests for
documents. Once digitized, these documents will never fade, corrode or
disappear and will be available for all future generations to research.
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9. WEBSITE SEARCH ENGINE
I’ve added a new feature to our website’s homepage. Its called
FreeFind search.
The FreeFind search-engine was designed from the ground-up to deliver
high-quality, high-performance search capabilities to our web site.
The advanced design enables FreeFind to deliver professional quality
search capabilities to all of our webpages simultaneously.
So no more hunting around the website looking for the desired content.
All you have to do is type the desired search word into the box and
press “find”. It also will display a sitemap.
Try it today!
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10. EXCELL DATABASE
I've placed the Excel database of crew lists on the Deck Log page.
These are the names of all the crewmembers for each year that is
posted.
I currently have lists from 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1968 and 1970.
There will be more years added as time allows.
If you are a paid member of USSMONTICELLO.COM – send me an email or
call me for a password to open the files after download.
Since this was such an expensive project only crewmembers that have
paid membership dues will be allowed access.
If you do not have the Microsoft Excel software, you can download a
free reader here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d
etails.aspx?FamilyID=c8378bf4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&displaylang=EN
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11. POLL
On our home page is now a poll where you can select from a list of
locations where you might want to hold our next reunion. This poll is
intended to only assist us in determining our next reunion location; it
will not be used solely to determine the final decision.
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Well... that's all for this Issue of the MoBoat News.
I truly hope this newsletter found you well.
Please continue spreading the word about ussmonticello.com. Feel free
to forward this Newsletter to anybody you think might 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)
Webmaster: USSMonticello.com
Former BM3
USS Monticello LSD 35 '69-'7
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