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Text Box: Greetings from Your President Text Box: Ahoy Shipmates!   This President’s Report marks a transition in the leadership of the USS Whetstone Association.  Marion Goble has “retired” and I’m proud to be your new president.  And I can tell you that I have some mighty big shoes to fill.    We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Marion and Kay for their selfless service to the association since it’s inception nearly ten years ago.  They have truly been the catalyst behind the association’s success and I am lucky to have them “in the wings” for advice in making sure the association runs smoothly.  Fortunately, we only “retired” half the Goble team, as Kay has graciously consented to continue serving as our Secretary-Treasurer and Marion will continue to run the ship’s store ( so I guess he’s just semi-retired).  Other officers elected at the reunion were Rusty Draper, First Vice-President and Chuck Hall, Second Vice-President.    The Seattle reunion was a great success.  We enjoyed many attractions, from harbor cruises to shopping on the waterfront to a dinner train and wine tasting on Friday evening.  And we “brown water sailors” even enjoyed Boeing’s Museum of Flight, which held many aircraft from World War I to the present.  The original Air Force One which carried President Kennedy’s body back to the capital was on exhibition as was one of the Concords.    On Thursday morning we took a ferry from Seattle to Bremerton and began the day with a memorial service for our departed shipmates on the fantail of the USS Turner Joy DD-951.  (You may remember Turner Joy was one of the US Navy ships fired on by North Vietnamese gunboats in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 in the “incident” that began the escalation of the Vietnam war.)  Turner Joy is now a floating museum and was quite shipshape.  Unfortunately, the navy presence in Bremerton now consists primarily of a few mothballed ships and several others  being cut up for scrap.  A sad sight for us sailors.     As usual the hospitality room at the hotel was a big attraction due to the availability of ship’s memorabilia and liquid refreshments.  Sea stories were plentiful, of course, and although most of these yarns have been told many times over, we never seem to get tired of hearing them.  I believe we had approximately 120 attendees, of which number nearly 70 served aboard Whetstone.  Some were attending their first reunion and, of course, many were back for their bi-annual “pilgrimage” to see old friends and shipmates.  And we all always make new friends at these reunions, which, from my standpoint, is one of the main reasons for attending.   Our next reunion will be held in Corpus Christi, TX in two years.  Corpus was  selected because of its navy presence and the many attractions it has to offer groups like ours.  While the exact dates have not yet been determined, I think we can plan on late summer once again.  Although some concern was expressed about the heat in southern Texas, Rusty Draper, who lives in the Corpus area and nominated it as our reunion site, assures us that they do have air-conditioning in that part of the country.  We’ll hold him to that promise or he can buy the cold drinks for everyone.   Personally, I really look forward to the reunions, but it’s frustrating to me that so many of the men I served with don’t attend. The reunion is the major function of the association and my personal goal is to get more of our shipmates to attend.  I served on the ship from March, 1967 until February, 1970.  I’d love to see more of the guys that served on the “Stone” in the late 1960’s.  I’m interested to find out what happened to them; how their lives have been; their jobs, families, etc.  My guess is that each of you know a few guys that you served with that you would dearly love to see once again also.    For those of you who do not regularly attend the reunions, I encourage you to come to Corpus.  You will not be disappointed.  There are lots of your shipmates who would love to see you again.  For the “regulars” who attend nearly every year, I hope you will make a commitment to calling a few of your old shipmates to encourage them to come to Corpus.  I’m making it a personal priority, and over the next few months some of you reading this newsletter will hear from me because I value greatly the privilege of serving with you and want to see you again.    Let’s call it “OPERATION SHIPMATE RECOVERY”, and let’s make it a success.   I’d like to hear from you.  Let me know if there’s anything else that your association can do to make it more valuable for you.  Call me at 800-235-2816 or email me at president@usswhetstone.net   Best regards,   Jim Dunn  (LT 1969-70)

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