It is April and the 8th annual
USS Davidson DE/FF 1045 reunion is six months away. Branson,
Missouri and the Grand Country Inn will once again be
our reunion location. Mark your calendars for
October 9-11, 2008.
Once again, I urge you to notify me as
early as possible once you make your reservations at the
hotel. I need to know the names of those that will be
coming with you and your date of arrival. This helps us
in making out the name tags, ordering pizzas for the pizza
party, ordering the hats and T-shirts and making sure
that we have enough seating in the meeting room. Over
half of the crew arrives several days in advance to the
reunion to visit the restaurants, see shows, take tours
and visit with their buddies. The number of the hotel’s
group sales department is 1-800-356-4336.
Mention the USS Davidson when you register to get our
special rate.
In January, Mike Peck and Pat Swaggert
decided to make a special effort to search for, contact
and encourage the 1970-73 crew to attend the reunion.
Their goal is 40 to 50 guys. At the same time, Mary Kay
Barner, wife of Ken, kicked into gear our search for the
remainder of the crew. Mary Kay worked her special magic
and came up with possible contacts. I then took those
possible crewmembers’s information and called them
to verify that they were indeed crewmembers. Since January,
I have made over 150 calls and came up, collectively with
Peck and Swaggert, approximately 120 crewmembers. Below
are the ones that we found:
Charles
A. Goodpasture
Lance D. Korb
Robert Daniel
Arthur Polsey
Robert Wendell
James E. Humphreys
William Stape
James Douglas Brotherton
Eric D. Christensen
Thomas W. Tilque
Emmanuel Z. Guillermo
Ireneo M. Austria
Jim Wade
Robert A. Fisher
John William Meek
Phil Burkart
Johnny Niles
William W. Beveridge
Jeffrey A. Broeders
David M. Bovin
Bonito Gonzalez
Jerry Cook
Kent C. Wieman
Jim Beaver
Clifton Cobb
Andrew Vlosich
Dwight Cooley
Charles J. Douglas II
Ralph Amato
Victor A. Edelman, Jr.
Jess Delk
John H. Decock
Craig Ebel
John Archambault
Elwood E. Eberlin
Joseph Guthrie
Eddie Levelle
Michael Spencer
George Schall
Michael Rody
Steve Surdam
Martin Fenelon
David N. Alexander
William Thomas
Edward Garza
Dave Balderson
Dennis Lawrence
Jerry Farrer
Jimmy Clifton
James DeWeese
James Norton
Randy Pierce
Greg Hicks
George Will Hately
Kevin Krieger
Michael Wharton
Johnny Niles
James Tabak
William R. Lamore, Jr.
Benny Hrbacek |
John R. Whiteing
Roger Jacobsen
David Nickle
William Stetler
Peter Young
Ken G. Verwolf
l Jack H. Burke
Michael Niver
Dale E. Merrick
James M. Lilla
Conrado R. Maranon
John Jenkins
Glen Schneider
Ralph Rotz
Daniel D. Gordon
Terrence L. Lauritzen
Stanley R. Morgan
Donald J. Lafleche
Richard L. Craig
Jerrold Choens
William Eldred
Glenn Coggshell
George M. Chambers
Eric Coelho
Brian Cullin
Danny Clayson
John Costick
Jim Hoder
Peter Danielewicz
Tommie Vargas, Sr.
Walter William Deines, Jr.
Clayton Deardorf
Duane Bledsoe
Jeff Honeycutt
Randy Clymire
Jay Fallon
Dean Keeton
Edgar Wilson
Anthony D. Pecoraro
Thomas W. Gunnarson
John Shirey
Kenneth Devore
Brad Ekman
Kirby Hutton
Mike Gammage
Merlyn Eider
Ricke Whiteside
Larry Pierce
Jackie Jenkins
John C. Clark
Daniel Martin
Dave Balderson
Alan Hauri
Larry Hernandez
Jim Smith
John Fraser
Robert J. Baxley
Richard J. Mydlack
William Labby |
Should you wish to contact any of these guys, please get
in touch with me and I will give you their contact information.
In trying to locate crewmembers, we also
came across our buddies who have passed away. Below is
a list of deceased crewmembers recently found:
Robert Jarvis
John Ferraci
Harold Kraft
Don Henderson
Arthur Fleischman |
Steve Whipple
Robert Weber
Bernard Penn Dixon
Fred Daniel
Fenn Newell |
We need pictures of these people for the
deceased section of the web site.
It has come to our attention that several
of our crewmates have some health issues that they are
facing at this time and I feel that cards to them would
cheer them both up. John Jones is undergoing chemo treatments
and his address is:
John Jones
1612 Farr Drive
Ogden, Ut 84404
john1948_1@yahoo.com
801-621-1073
Darryl Keller has had 2 minor strokes and would enjoy
hearing from you by card or phone. No e-mails please.
Darryl Keller
5170 Windybrook Dr SW
Wyoming, MI 49418
616-534- 0827
DUE TO CHANGES AT OUR BANK, WE
CAN NO LONGER CASH/DEPOSIT ANY CHECKS THAT ARE MADE OUT
TO THE USS DAVIDSON REUNION ASSOCIATION. THE ASSOCIATION
DOES NOT HAVE A BUSINESS ACCOUNT. ANY CHECKS SENT TO US
NEED TO BE MADE OUT TO KAREN SCHIPPERS AS SHE IS THE TREASURER.
WE’RE SORRY FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE.
We encourage you to take out time and
let us know if there are any changes to your information
such as e-mail address, snail mail address or phone number.
If we don’t have this information, we can’t
contact you and neither can your buddies who come through
this office for your information.
We also encourage you to update your
information on the crew locator on the web site. It is
your responsibility to do this.
Some web site addresses that may interest
you are listed below. We encourage you to check this out
and register.
http://www.lonesailor.org/nl_log.php?search=yes&page=1&dutystation=uss%20davidson&num=20
To relive your times in Subic Bay, Philippines,
check out:
http://www.subicbaypi.com/subic_photo_1999.htm
For those of you who want to upload their
USS Davidson pictures for viewing by all, try:
http://www.hullnumber.com/uploadphoto_guide.html
The third season of “Hawaii Five-O” is now
out on DVD.I’d like to thank the following people
for their donations to the USS Davidson archives:
Mark Sullivan – 2 semaphore flags
and US flag that came from the ship.
Nancee Luciani – photos from the 2007 reunion
John Jones – shell case ashtray and USS Davidson
lighter
Bill Partridge – book donation
Clarence Scholl – photos
Our goal has been reached for the USS
Davidson Memorial Plaque to be placed at the US Navy Memorial
in Washington, DC. Details will follow later for those
wishing to be present for the dedication. A
sample of the plaque can be seen on the web site.
I need to mention a few more things about
the reunion before I close this newsletter.For those of
you who are driving to the reunion, you may want to stop
by your local Navy Recruiter and ask him for some Navy
items for our freebie table. You will be surprised at
what he has to offer you.
The most popular part of the reunion,
next to seeing all of your old buddies, has been the raffle
held on Saturday night. It is the best attended event
of the reunion and brings in money to fund our many projects.
Raffle items can be just about anything. There have been
USS Davidson items, Navy items, books, movies, gag gifts,
craft items and items for the ladies just to name a few.
For those of you who want to get the
jump on Branson and what it has to offer, I suggest you
order the free 176-page magazine at www.ExploreBranson.com
or call 1-800-BRANSON.
Our next and last newsletter before the
reunion will be in July. Check our web site at ussdavidson.com
for more details.
Remember, book your room early, let me
know when you do, start digging out your pictures and
memorabilia for the reunion and let your buddies know
you are coming.
If you have any questions or need any
further information, please contact one of the following
and we’ll help all we can.
Now turn to – Continue Ship's Work
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