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Reunion Report - 2003
Report prepared by Vic Alasio, President, USS Hassayampa Veteran's Association
Date: Sat Nov 8, 2003
7:20 pm
Subject: Reunion Update!
Now Hear This!
Well Shipmates, the sun has set on yet another Hassayampa
Reunion and what a time it was! We even made the front page
of the Wickenburg Sun!
All was in readiness for the crew of the USS
Hassayampa as we began to roll into Wickenburg on Monday the 20th
of October. The advance team...me...arrived mid-afternoon to a blazing sun
and a crystal clear sky. The temperature hovered around the 104 mark (but it
was a dry heat), and the reception by the Rancho Grande
staff was just as warm. After checking in to my room and shifting into the
Uniform of the Day, (hint: never wear black jeans while driving a
convertible in Arizona when the sun is blazing), I made my way to the
office to check on the Reunion preparations, only to find that everything
had already been done. Aside from a last minute meeting on Wednesday with
Royce Kardinal and the caterer, the only thing left to be done was to fill
the "goody bags" and the girls were taking care
of that!
The rest of the "advance
team" arrived Tuesday, led off by Dickie Eilers
and his wife Eila, and what an arrival it was. Dickie drove
to Wickenburg from his home in Minnesota in his restored, fire-engine red, 1961
Lincoln Continental convertible. The only thing he was
missing were line handlers to moor that ship!
Chief Lange
and his lady Dorene arrived shortly after Dickie and Eila
and we commenced reuniting. Randy immediately assumed the duties of "Chief
Mess Cook" and assembled the required pot, coffee, 1 each,
silver in color. Using imported coffee (from California...last
year's....), Wednesday morning's pot brought back the memories of the Black
Oil we used to pump. Luckily, a few other hands got involved
and by Friday, the coffee was almost drinkable. It wasn't till
Saturday morning that Randy found out that I got my morning coffee from the Circle
K convenience store down the street!
As expected, most of the guys scheduled to
show up on Friday....showed up on Thursday! The lobby of the Rancho
Grande became the area for "sea stories", coffee and good times.
Friday found me back on the road to Phoenix to pick my wife up at the
airport, returning to Wickenburg around 1130...only to be met by one of
our shipmates from the Memorial Page on the website!
Tom "Magoo" Rogers
and I were shootin' the sh*t at the registration table Wednesday evening
when he noticed a name tag for Bob Burch. "This guy's dead"
he said. "Why do you have a name tag for a dead guy?" he
asked. I told him that I had received an e-mail telling me he
was coming to the reunion. Magoo then showed me a printout of the
Memorial Page and, sure enough, there was Burch's name.
Seems that last year I had received word that
Bob Burch had passed away so I included him on the page. When I
got the e-mail telling me he was coming to the reunion, I never bothered to
cross reference the list of the guys who said they were coming to the
reunion with the guys on the Memorial Page. So we spent a day and
a half....waiting for a dead guy to show up! Happily,
especially for Bob Burch, Bob showed up Friday morning, very much alive!
The rest of the weekend went great.
Once again, our Opening Ceremony was very
moving...especially the Two Bell. The poolside
gathering went off without a hitch, except for the PA system, which crapped
out right away, but we overcame that. The highlight of the evening was
Jessica Stanley, the 13 year old daughter of the local
preacher who sang "God Bless America" and
then went on to sing "The Navy Hymn" during
the Two Bell Ceremony. Her appearance was arranged by Cassandra
just a week before the Reunion.
After a few words by Captains Goulds,
Coulter and Olds, we presented a gift to the Desert
Caballeros Western Museum for their permanent USS
Hassayampa Display. Tom Joyce (CS1
1963-1965) had a wagon wheel that the Mayor of Olongapo
presented to Captain Walley in 1962 which hung on the Mess
Deck over the salad bar. When Tom left the ship, he took the wheel
with him and has had it ever since. The hub has an inscribed brass
plaque detailing the original presentation. Royce Kardinal
and Mayor Lon McDermott were presented the wheel for the
museum and the people of Wickenburg, at which time Mayor McDermott declared
that henceforth, every October 24th shall be known as USS
Hassayampa Day.
I can't let another sentence go by without
giving a Hassayampa Well Done to Ed Swedenborg SH3,
1958-1961. Thursday afternoon found us lacking just one thing for our
Reunion...San Miguel beer! Try as they did, no one
could locate any of the Hassayampa Holy Water anywhere!
Royce's source was as dry as the Hassayampa River and we were in trouble.
At that point, Ed suggested we try the Commissary at Luke AFB....just down
the road a bit. Around noon Ed and Dick Eilers embarked on a road
trip. They returned, empty handed, about 3 hours later...much to the
chagrin of all hands. No San Magoo!
Not one to give up, and in true Hassayampa
spirit, showing the highest traditions on the Navy and all that, Ed
jumped into his car and told us he wouldn't return without enough San Miguel
for the crew! We figured that we had seen the last of ol' Ed and
somebody would be eating his chow Friday night. Not so. About an
hour later Ed pulled into the driveway. He came into the lobby and
asked me to come outside where I was met with a back seat filled with cases
and cases of that golden, sudsy quaff! Ed had done it!
In less than an hour's time he found enough San Magoo for everyone! Tom
Rogers even had tears in his eyes! I quickly grabbed a bottle,
opened it and sucked it down....just to make sure he had the right stuff and
not some mislabeled imitation! Oh....where did he find it you ask?
At the supermarket....just 2 blocks from the hotel!
Business Meeting
Our Saturday morning Business Meeting
went along well, with the main items on the agenda being the election of new
officers for the coming year and the selection of next year's Reunion site.
I'm a firm believer in term limits, even for
a group such as ours. The one thing I don't want to see happen to our Association
is for things to get stale. I did what I wanted to do....got the Association
started and off on the right foot and got our Shipmates together for a
Reunion. I felt it was now time to get some fresh ideas into the mix.
It's time to change the watch and get a different man at the helm.
With that in mind, rather than accept the nomination for re-election, I
chose to nominate a new slate of officers for the coming year. It was
my pleasure and honor to nominate Norm
Barron for President, Dick Eilers as Vice-President, Russ Hawkins as
Secretary and George Brown as Master-at-Arms. The nomination
was seconded and the Membership voted their approval, electing the slate as
nominated. Your new officers are all fine men and a hard working
group. I'm sure all hands will join me in pledging our support
for them in the coming year.
I will be as involved as ever in the Association.
The web site will be updated soon with new photos from this year's
reunion and a couple of new features. You'll still be getting
these pesky e-mails from time to time and I'm working on a newsletter, which
I will be calling "The Hawsepipe", which will be
available on-line and in print for those of you that feel you are too
old for all this computer crap. (Just a point of information: Our
former skipper, Captain J. Maurer just purchased a new computer...at 91
years of age, because his old one was too damn slow!) I will also
be able to devote my time to fulfilling one of my goals for this
Association...namely accounting for every man that ever served
in USS Hassayampa.
A word about "the
girls"...
Our "adopted" Shipmates, Cassandra
Flick and Kristan McPeeters really outdid
themselves this year. They spent the last few months hitting up the local
merchants for discount coupons and the little gee-gaws we found in those
goody bags, arranged all the meals, coordinated everything with the caterer,
printed the meal tickets and went out of their way to insure that all was in
readiness for our arrival.
With the hotel having been sold on the Friday
before our reunion, their future employment was, and still is, in doubt.
However, they still proceeded as if nothing had happened, even to the point
of showing up at our functions on their own time to make sure all went well.
Admiral Update!
Being the great investigator
that I am (they don't call me Inspector Clouseau for nothing),
I have succeeded in tracking down VADM A. T. Church, III,
our "pal in the Pentagon" and the son of our former
skipper Captain A.T. Church, Jr. Seems that the
Admiral finally got the Navy budget straightened out and moved on to greener
pastures. He is now the Navy's Inspector General...as
of March, 2003. I've sent a congratulatory message to the Admiral on
behalf of all hands. I may be wrong (but I doubt it) but I think our
ship has had the highest number of officers go on to flag rank and
attain very high positions in the Navy chain of command. Our Captains,
sons of our Captains and our junior officers have gone on to become Vice CNO,
head of Navy Exchange worldwide, CinCPac, ComSubPac, Inspector General
of the Navy.....the list goes on. One could say that it was the
influence of the Hass that brought them to great things. Yet others
would say they happened to be in the right place at the right time.
The truth is that these men were, and are, all fine Naval
Officers and achieved because of themselves. We just happened
to be lucky to have them as part of us. Well Done
to Admiral Church...and thanks for making a bunch of crusty
old salts mighty proud!
Well, Shipmates....that's about it for now.
Taps has sounded on the Right Coast and it's time for me to climb my tree.
I would like to thank all hands for working
with me in making our Association what it is. The past two years have
been the most fun I've had with my clothes on in years! It's been a
real kick in the ass...and I thank you for letting me enjoy it so much.
Fair winds and following seas to
all hands!
Vic Alasio
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