Celebrating 50 years of USSVI
Submitted by: Michael Bircumshaw Natl Cdr on 6/9/2014
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On the 24th of May 2014, to the day exactly 50 years
since the official launching of USSVI, we honored the creation of our
organization with the dedication of a historical plaque now forever enshrined
in the Navy Memorial in Washington DC.
Officially dedicated, the USSVI plaque is now displayed
in the Naval Memorial Foundation building in Washington, DC.
It is to be noted that the USSVI plaque is on the obverse
side of a rotating panel on which is mounted the WWII Sub Vets plaque that was
initiated and completed by Charley “Scurvy” Brown (recently deceased) a WWII
Submariner Stew Burner, whom I was privileged to know and in fact spoke with
him on the day (13 May 2014) he went on Eternal Patrol. His last words to me were, “Please don’t forget us.” I promised him that we would not ever forget.
There were about 100 shipmates and guests in attendance
and I was honored to read the history of USSVI as written by Peter
Koester. I will admit that I had trouble
reading about the Thresher SSN 593, which was one of the primary motivating
factors in Joe Negri’s desire
to form USSVI. I lost one of my best
friends, Laird Heiser MM1 (SS) and the shipmate I went to SINS school with in
1961,Roger Van Pelt, who took the SINS job on the Thresher so I could go the
USS Scamp SSN-588.
Sincere congratulations to everyone involved in the
celebration, from Al Singleman NJVC, who organized it and made it happen to
Paul Halle, Director of the Memorial, to RADM Fritz Rogge of OPNAV and RADM
Walker, who always improves the quality of personnel in attendance, wherever he
shows up.
The parade on Monday was a hoot. I rode with Pete Koester in his jeep with no
top, which allowed me the opportunity to stand in a precarious manner for the
entire parade, not know or ever having seen the “King” wave,
I went ahead and used the “Queen” wave for the duration of the
ride.
Four bases had floats in the parade, Columbus Base, Rhode
Island Base, Marblehead Base and Nathan Green Base.
Most of us wandered around the museums and
memorials. The WWII memorial was
particularly impressive and to tell the truth, Not only myself, but everyone
that I spoke to within our group had a great time and USSVI was very well
represented by the marchers and the Bases who pulled the floats and sounded
those Klaxons.
NEWS-02: Chicago TV:
Crash Dive Base: Chicago Memorial Submitted by: Office on 6/11/2014
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Vice Commander Steve Benicke of the U.S.S. Chicago base
for the U.S. Submarine Veterans and Vice Commander of the Crash Dive Base,
Frank Voznak spoke about their efforts for a submarine memorial project for the
city of Chicago.
Go to the link...
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