The 8th annual USS Davidson reunion is less than three months away. If you are planning on attending this year, it is time to get your reservations in. I encourage you to do this as soon as possible and after making your reservation, PLEASE contact me. This will help us in ordering pizzas for the pizza party, ordering T-shirts, making the name tags and to arrange seating in the meeting room. We are expecting a larger than normal attendance this year.
Reunion information is as follows:
WHERE: Grand Country Inn, Branson, MO
DATE: October 9, 10 & 11, 2008
RM RATE: $64.50 per night
CONTACT: Group Sales
1-800-356-4336 - Mention USS Davidson to get our special rates
CONTACT: Robert Schippers at [641] 792-3930
Or colking@pcpartner.net when you have made reservations. Let me know who is coming [their names, home towns & states and date of arrival.]
Once again, the meeting room is alcohol free but you can drink in your own rooms.
If you are bringing slides or movies to show, they must be in VHS or DVD form for viewing. We have a VHS and DVD player but no movie or slide projector. Please let us know in advance if you are bringing anything to show so we can schedule a time period for it. Also be sure to bring your cruise books, photo albums and any items of interest that you would like to share.
We have several anniversaries to mark this year at the reunion. It is the 40th anniversary of the 2nd WestPac cruise [1968-1969] and the 20th anniversary of the decommissioning of the ship in 1988.
The ladies are always encouraged to meet in the meeting room to talk with others or plan their day of shopping and/or shows. Also feel free to bring along any craft projects that you’re working on as this is always of interest to the rest of the ladies.
The highlight of the reunion is our Saturday night raffle so be sure to bring a raffle item[s]. It can be just about anything…Davidson item, military item, gag gift, gift certificate or ladies item. We’ve had books, movies, playing cards, crocheted afghans and just about anything else you can think of.
We also have a “freebie” table of items that the Navy recruiters have donated for our reunion. Be sure to check with your recruiter and see what he will donate. There is a Navy recruiter near you that would be glad to help.
One thing that can help us here in the office is when you click onto our web site [www.ussdavidson.com], go to the crew locator and register. This will speed your information to us and help your fellow crewmembers find you.
Not all of the crew that we have located is listed there. We have almost 400 more here in the office that are not on the locator. Specific names can be requested from me and I will try to match you up with an address or contact information. Also, when you contact us, please put “USS Davidson” in the subject box so your letter will not be deleted as SPAM.
Since the beginning of the year, our local bank will no longer let us cash or deposit any checks or money orders that we receive that are made payable to the USS Davidson Reunion Association. Our Association DOES NOT have a business account and these checks and money orders are handled here through our personal account. All checks or money orders received for membership dues, souvenirs or any other future project, MUST be made payable to KAREN SCHIPPERS as she is our Treasurer. If made payable any other way, they will have to be returned to you. We regret any inconvenience this may cause but banking restrictions are getting more rigid every day.
Since the last newsletter in April, Mary Kay Barner and I have been busy trying to locate former crewmembers. Below is a list of those we have found since April. We are currently searching for those with the letter “H”. After we have gone through the alphabet, this will be the last of our active searching.
Ron Palcic
Jose Lopez
Wallace Hull
Larry Crawford
Anderson Lysicott
Robert Gaskill
Rick Mathiasen
Ken Spears
Jack Uecker
Gregory Linnemeyer
Norman Joseph Hall
Michael Keaton
Jules Henkel
Russell Brewer
Don Archer
James Witt
William Newcomer
Michael Harris
Francis J. McLaughlin
James Rhoades
Billy Stork
Glen Fendley
Robert B. Saunders
Peter Tibbets
Kenneth Furtado
Stephen Vanderploeg
Leonard Mossier
William Toler
Sy Strudler
Malcom Nelson
Gordon Weldon Standridge
Gary Stern
Charles Hejnal
Michael Dowd
Samuel R. Romesburg
Perry Sisson |
Dennis A. Piava
Gregory Fisher
David Stetson
Teodoro Simbulan
Samuel B. Watkins III
David Blair
Paul Mungovan
Braulio Camarena
Robert St. John
John Jenkins
Locke H. Glosner
Stephen Stone
Clyde L. Hogan
John Klausmeier
Robert Saunders
Steven Bobbitt
Roy Beardsley
Rodolfo Valdez
Edgar Snelling
Michael Osko
Chris Cunningham
Bill Nass
Sean Patrick Geaney
Todd Perry
Donald Pearson
Eustaquio G. Serdenia
Russ Stahlak
Michael Sisk
Christopher Lewis
Lenn Smith
Craig Hablewitz
Robert Depats
Ronnie Prince
Patrick Jacobs
Angelo Terremeo
|
If you wish to contact any of these people, please contact me for their addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
Mary Kay has run into some crew member names that have been next to impossible to find. Below is a small list of them. Any help would be appreciated as far as finding these people or what the initials in their names stand for.
Eric E. Belt William D. Bryant
Edward F. Buchman Robert M. Carr
Jack Cecil Stan Echhert
Robert Ewing David G. Flores
L. N. Gilbreath F. F. Grice
Gary N. Hewitt David M. McMillan
Bob Perry Kenneth Smith
Brian Watters |
On May 3, 2008, the USS Davidson Reunion Association lost a friend, crew member and member of the staff. Darryl [Deke] Keller was one of the more active members of the Association and we could always count on him to volunteer to do some of our more involved and complex projects. Deke conducted our taped interviews of crew members, put together the Frank Speer CD, simplified three years of our deck logs, headed our dog tag project and provided us with our first ships blueprints and records. He was later to go on and work on the larger blueprint lamination project. As a friend, I could always count on him for good, sound advice and many hours of good old Davidson conversion. My thanks go out to Jim Kelly in Canada who was able to represent the ship at Deke’s funeral. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dallene Keller, Deke’s daughters and family.
In searching for former crewmembers, we have found a number of them who have long been deceased or have died as recently as this year.
John B. Garrison – 8-1-07
Robert Jarvis
Mike Leiferman
Rochard A. Stewart – 12-15-90
Kenneth R. Cook
Adrain Leigh Hamilton III
Steve Smith
Michael Ferradino
John L. Alexander – 12-2-93
Dan Henderson – 1-07
Fenn B. Newell, Jr. – 7-1-07
Darryl Keller – 5-3-08
Dick Anglin
If you have photographs of these people, we would like copies to go along with the listing on the web site.
John Jones and Diann [Sam] Bartlett are having some medical problems. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as well as Dan Kroeger who lost his father on June 21.
To the following people, a well-deserved thank you for your support:
Peter Tibbetts – 1984 cruise book and 8X10 photos
Brian Schmehl – original artwork drawings
Tom Sparkman – photos
Mike Peck – Deck Log Donation
A special thank you to the Deke Keller family.
We are actively trying to acquire USS Davidson deck logs. These are the only Davidson records we are able to purchase as in 1972, the official US Government Muster Logs switched over to Social Security numbers and because of the privacy act, they cannot be distributed.
Bob Ferguson is carrying on Deke Keller’s deck log project and attempting to take ship locations and map them out as our ship traveled the world. In the process, he is listing important facts pertaining to events, location and ships we operated with.
Once again we will have an extensive ship’s store at the reunion. Brean Fowler is working on our T-shirt design. We have several new Davidson hats this year as well as our regular items.
The dedication of the USS Davidson plaque at the Navy Memorial in Washington, DC is scheduled for April 17, 2009. For more information, contact Russell Crosby at
[918] 224-2215 or CogswellRS@aol.com.
On the eve of the 8th USS Davidson reunion, we encourage you to join us in Branson. This is a time for many of us to get together for the first time in over 40 years. If you have any issues or conflicts from your Navy days, please leave them at home.
This will be the last newsletter for 2008. The next newsletter will be January 2009.
For any questions regarding the reunion, please contact one of the numbers below.
Now Turn To
Bob [Tweetie Bird] Schippers
