| Dear Crew Members, The ninth reunion was held on 27, 28, 29 May 04 in Philadelphia, PA. Officially there were 139 crew members and 114 guests/spouses. The actually number was probably higher as there were some who just showed up and wanted to pay on arrival. A note about this, as it happens to some extent every year. If people show up unannounced, it makes it very difficult for the banquet/tour directors as they have been given specific numbers and plan accordingly (i.e. number of busses, place settings, etc). If you plan to attend any or all of the functions, let Harry Miller know in advance. If you only want to do part of the functions (like the banquet only, banquet guests, which several do) make prior arrangements with Harry. USS Lookout (AGR-3) had the most in attendance with 18 thereby taking the attendance trophy from Tracer. Tracer had 13 registered with two more attending the banquet for a total of 15. There were 12 spouses/guests. Tracer had three first timers, Ben Coski and Rod Flannery (both former XOs)and Gerald Mickelson. The pre-reunion tour was of the Battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) and a subsequent luncheon on a dinner boat that took us down the Delaware River. The reunion tour was downtown Philadelphia to Independence Square where we toured the various historical buildings and the Liberty Bell. Harry gave the annual financial report and the association is still in good shape and in the black. Members voted to give another $1,000 to the USS Massachusetts (BB-59), where our memorial spaces are located, bringing the three year gift total to $3,000. The newsletter regularly relates the progress being made to the spaces. As of May 04 there have been 1,914 former crew members located or accounted for. Dues will remain at $15.00. For the second row in a year the reunion was in the black. The long standing proposed book about our ships was brought up and Harry reported he had probably amassed enough information to write the book but need specifics on how to proceed. After discussion he appointed a member (name unrecalled) to find out how you go about publishing a book. If you know how to write/publish a book, call Harry. Next years reunion will be in San Francisco, CA on19, 20, 21 May 05 which will mark the 50th anniversary of our ships. The hotel is the San Mateo Marriot near the SF airport and rooms will cost $79.00. The hotel is approximately 30 to 40 minutes from downtown SF and was selected to keep costs down. Instead of a pre-reunion tour, there will be a post re-union tour onboard the Liberty Ship, SS Jeremiah O’Brien which will get underway for a tour of SF Bay. No site selection was made (or proposed) for the 2006 reunion site. However Harry (and I also) feels that there have been too many held in the eastern half of the country. We have only had one in the west. It was San Diego in 2001. So if any of you “Westies” would like to host it let me or Harry know. It really is not that hard as Harry does most of the work. You just do the initial survey work and help at registration (with your ship mates). I put my bid for one of the following, Tucson, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Denver, Portland, or Seattle. Lee Doyel |
| ANNUAL REUNION REPORT BY LEE DOYEL |
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