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WALWORTH COUNTY REUNION
FIRST REUNION FOR LST-1164 Almost one-third
century after decommissioning, a baker’s dozen of former USS WALWORTH
COUNTY Following the Florida passages of Tropical Storm BONNIE, as well as Hurricanes CHARLEY, FRANCES and IVAN, it appeared that we might remain foul weather-free for the last part of September. Storms JEANNE, KARL and LISA were frittering about in the Atlantic, and looked to be no threat to our gathering. We used one of the hotel master suites as the WALWORTH COUNTY hospitality room, where we relaxed, swapped sea stories (only the unvarnished truth, of course) and passed around souvenirs of our ship, the deployments and her crew. One of the participants was surprised to find that CAPT Franklin Slaven, the Supervisor of Shipbuilding at Pascagoula, MS, who commissioned USS LST-1164 in 1953, was one of his high school math instructors. We exchanged recollections of former shipmates and experiences aboard and on liberty. The fellowship, meeting old friends and generating new acquaintances, was a continuing source of enjoyment. We had shipmates spanning the entire existence of LST-1164 in the fleet, plus a glimpse of her as BAP (translates to Peruvian Navy Ship) PAITA, in Callao, Peru, in September 1986. A couple of our shipmates had been in contact with some of the Peruvian crew, and hoped for a few of them to visit us for the reunion. Jim Barnaba (68 to 71), one of the decommissioning crew: Mike Barnaba (66 to 70); Jeff Blomgren (60 to 61), with his wife Karol: Harry Draper (66 to 68); Chuck Farmer (64 to 66), with his spouse Laura; Roger Grabczynski ((56 to 60), with his wife Sandra; Richard Henninger (68 to 71) John Hogan (53 to 55), a plankowner, and Faye, his spouse; Jay Jascenia (53 to 54), a plankowner, and his spouse, Mary; Bob Landru (63 to 65); Don McDaniel (65 to 69); Frank Vadnais (61 to 65), accompanied by Linda, his wife; and Ron Zamrok (53 to 55), a plankowner, with Elaine, his spouse, joined in celebrating WALWORTH COUNTY. Some of the earlier guys reminded us newbies that, in the early days, LST’s had only hull numbers, not names. John and Ron, both cooks on the commissioning crew, spoke of the interesting, and sometimes unusual, menus they served the crew. Both protested that they featured fresh bread, rolls and pastries, without resorting to hard tack and boiled salt pork (too often). On Friday, 24 September, we visited Mayport, with a tour of USS PHILIPPINE SEA (CG-58), an Aegis-class guided missile cruiser, followed by lunch at the Ocean Breeze club, and a most interesting, but unplanned, stop-in at the NAVSTA Mayport Chief’s Club, at the invitation of a retired MCPO we met at the Ocean Breeze. The Chief’s club, one of only six such clubs remaining in the Navy, is a treasure trove of Navy memorabilia, with hundreds of ship’s plaques, battle trophies and uniform material. Our two WALWORTH COUNTY chiefs, Bob Landru and Jay Jascenia, were presented with CPO coins, the present-day replacement for ship crest Zippo lighters and match books. An unplanned resurrection of, and pending visit by, Hurricane JEANNE, caused cancellation of the trip to St. Augustine on Saturday. The Castillo de San Marcos was closed, while other sites were frantically boarding up in anticipation of JEANNE’s approach. Several of our shipmates opted to leave before the Saturday banquet, to ensure that they were able to reschedule flights and fly out of Jacksonville before the airline crunch. To accommodate the stalwart remainder, the Clarion rapidly transformed the planned evening banquet into a fine luncheon. We had eleven to enjoy the banquet luncheon of London broil, rice pilaf, steamed veggies, all followed by a superb key lime pie. There was a twelfth place setting, unoccupied, for shipmates no longer with us. Even with a partial transformation of the Clarion Hotel into an evacuation safe haven for JEANNE, the staff members were most helpful and accommodated our needs and changing banquet plans without a hint of upset. Thanks, folks, you handled it well. In spite of royal glitches by one airline (which will remain nameless, but uses Newark, NJ as a major hub) and flight reshuffles seemingly generated by a Vegas card shark, all managed to make it out of the path of JEANNE safely. As no good deed goes unpunished, the participants in the 2004 WALWORTH COUNTY (LST-1164) reunion Olympics are looking at holding a second reunion. We are considering the Norfolk, Virginia area, as a possible site, with visits to Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, and possibly Jamestown, for our next go. One essential criterion exists; not in Florida during hurricane season. Are there any WALWORTH COUNTY shipmates in the Tidewater area willing to lend a hand in setting up a gathering in 2005 or 2006?
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Please sign our Guest Book before leaving. |
