Honor and Remember

As we approach Memorial Day, I thought it would be good to post the USSVI endorsement for the Honor and Remember organization for those that may have missed the original announcement. I hope you all will visit the Honor and Remember website and sign the petition to have the Honor and Remember flag established as an official flag of the United States.

Dave Schueler
USSVI Seattle Base Newsletter Editor

USSVI Officially Endorses and Supports Honor and Remember Project

From National Commander Pat Householder

HONOR AND REMEMBER is a Federally recognized ‘501c3’ organization whose mission is “To establish a tangible national symbol of gratitude, as a visible public reminder to all Americans, that perpetually recognizes all military lives lost in defense of our national freedoms.”

“In the more than 200 years of our nation’s history there has never been an officially recognized symbol that reminds us daily of the sacrifices made by members of our military and the lives lost in service to our country. We propose the Honor and Remember Flag as a national emblem for that purpose.”

The flag is intended to honor all those who have been killed from action, or killed in service, from the moment our nation began. If you have put on a military uniform in service to the United States, you have given authority to superiors to place you in harm’s way. If in the course of doing one’s duty an individual lost their life, regardless of where or how, this flag is meant to honor that individual. Click here for more information on the symbolism of the flag.



In addition to USSVI, this effort is officially endorsed by the Assoc. of the United States Army, MOAA, FRA, Air Force Sgts Assn, Air Force Association, and the Gold Star Wives of America.

It very nicely dovetails into the primary mission of USSVI. I encourage all bases to consider purchasing and flying an HONOR AND REMEMBER flag at your meetings and on your special occasions Please take a few minutes to watch the five minute introductory video: Honor and Remember introductory video.

Memorial Day Events

At our May meeting we discussed some of the events going on around the Puget Sound area for Memorial Day. Since it is right around the corner, I wanted to share some of the information.

Doug Abramson, Jim Harper, and Bill Giese are going to have a USSVI table at the Cruzin to Colby car show in Everett on May 30 and 31.

On Memorial Day, several members are planning on attending the ceremony at Tahoma National Cemetery. Everyone should note that the Tahoma ceremony will start at 1:00PM instead of the usual 11:00 AM time. You should still plan on being there early to find parking.

Finally, South Sound Base has borrowed our float and they are planning on doing some fund-raising at the Wal-Mart in South Hill and possibly Spanaway over the weekend. If you’re in the south end, stop by and say hi.

A couple follow-ups

I wanted to follow-up on a couple previously posted items.

First off, I wanted to pass along a message from Michael Bircumshaw regarding the USSVI Survey. He says:

"I want to thank you for taking the member survey. I will be answering or commenting on all of your comments as they come in and give a final review when it is done. 496 Shipmates have responded and that makes for statistical impact although I would like to hear from 2,000 or more shipmates by the time it is done."

If you haven't had a chance to take the survey, please click on the link below and answer the survey questions (it only take about 10 minutes).

USSVI Survey

Next, if you didn't get a chance to watch the Japanese Super Sub program on PBS, the full episode it up on the PBS website (the only problem being that you have you watch it on your computer). I thought it was a really interesting program.

You can click here to watch the full episode on the PBS website OR click the embeded version below to watch it right now.

Be sure to click on the Full Screen icon at the bottom of the video player (just to the left of the Menu) to watch the larger version of the video. The program is about 54 minutes long, so make sure you have your popcorn ready (although you can pause it by clicking on the Pause/Play button in the bottom left corner of the video player).



I hope you enjoy the program.

Dave Schueler
USSVI Seattle Base Newsletter Editor

Meeting Reminder

Hi Shipmates,

Hope to see you all on Wednesday night for the USSVI meeting. The meeting starts at 7 PM, but sea stories will be swapped in the lounge starting around 6 o'clock. In addition to our normal business, we'll be recapping last Saturday's Bremerton Armed Services Parade (with pictures) and checking out Facebook Seattle Base and USSVI Virtual Museum, with a possible look in on the Seattle Base Blog.

Fraternally,
Keith Watson
Commander USSVI Seattle Base

Parade Photos

Saturday turned out to be a great day for a parade. We had a good turnout and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Here are a few photos from the parade. There will be more in the next newsletter.

Ralph Sterley getting ready for the parade

Parade preparations

The Silent Service Motorcycle Club makes their plans

Steve Shelton gets the Seattle Base Float ready to go

Parade Reminder

I wanted to post a quick reminder about tomorrow’s (Saturday, May 15) Armed Forces Day Parade in Bremerton.

The parade will start at 10 AM. If you would like to join us in participating in the parade, the Seattle Base float will be located in the staging area on 4th Ave, along with the other USSVI entries. We are located in Section B ( B-18 & 19 ) of the parade. The float will be in place at 8:30, and we are looking to have everyone in place around 9:00.

If you would like to carpool to the parade, contact Keith Watson (360-886-0778) or Steve Shelton (206-520-1130).

The following link has some information on the Bremerton Armed Forces Day Parade.
Parade Information

Also, don’t forget that our monthly meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 19 at VFW Post 2995, 4330 148th Ave. NE in Redmond.

Invitation from South Sound Base

South Sound Base has passed along an invitation to attend a special presentation on the Hunley at the May South Sound Base meeting on May 13.

They are also trying to arrange a spaghetti dinner before the meeting. If you are interested in the dinner and meeting, please contact John Mansfield directly (email: john@erasumner.com) or through the South Sound Base. The dinner (which includes spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread) will cost $6.00 per person and you need to RSVP to John ASAP so that he knows how many people are coming for the dinner.

Here is John's message:

*******************************************************

Shipmates,

Through arrangements made by our almost new member, Chuck Kraft (USS Pomfret), we will be honored by a visit and PowerPoint program by guest speaker Drew Ruddy. Drew's life-long dream of finding the CSS Hunley (the Confederate submarine that successfully attacked USS Housatonic during the Civil War) came to fruition after years of dedication and painstaking archeological work. He will be presenting a program on his work finding the CSS Hunley.



South Sound Base meeting May 13, 7 p.m. VFW Post 969, 3510 E McKinley Ave., Tacoma, WA 98404.

Please come out and welcome Drew whom I'm sure would enjoy seeing all of us submarine veterans.

Spread the word, and it would be great if you could give us a head count of the numbers of base members and guests (Seattle, Bremerton, Upper Peninsula, Yakima) that will be attending.

Many thanks, Chuck, for arranging what will be a very memorable program.

Fraternally,
John Mansfield
South Sound Base PAO

Bremerton Armed Forces Day Parade

Shipmates,

The following link has some information on the Bremerton Armed Forces Day Parade. The parade is set for Saturday May, 15, 2010 and starts at 10 AM.

Parade Information

In you would like to join us in the parade, our float will be located in the staging area on 4th Ave, along with the other USSVI entries. Our units are located in Section B ( B-18 & 19 ). The float will be in place at 8:30, and we are looking to have everyone in place around 9:00.

If you would like to carpool to the parade, contact Keith Watson (360-886-0778) or Steve Shelton (206-520-1130).

Please join us in participating in this large parade; it has over 150 entries. Bring your sun glasses. We have ordered sunshine!



Last year's parade group






Also, please join us at the Tahoma National Cemetery for Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday, May 31st at 11:00 AM. The Seattle Base will be presenting our flags in the ceremonies. The address of the cemetery is: 18600 SE 240th Street Kent, WA. 98042

It is a good idea to arrive early to get close parking.

Hope to see you at both events.

Fraternally,
Keith Watson
Commander Seattle Base USSVI

USSVI Survey

USSVI National Jr. Vice Commander Michael Bircumshaw has asked us to pass along the following message and link to a survey for USSVI. I hope you'll take the time to click the link below and answer the survey questions (it only take about 10 minutes).
_______________________________________________

You are invited to participate in a survey covering some future plans for USSVI, as well as a critique of some of our functions, and a little general information about yourself.

Help us set the course for the future! The answers you provide will greatly help the leadership of USSVI move ahead in the proper direction.

USSVI Survey

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Michael Bircumshaw

Japanese Super Sub

PBS is running a feature on the Japanese I-400 class on the Secrets of the Dead program. The program airs locally (in the Puget Sound area) at 8:00PM this Wednesday (May 5) on KCTS Channel 9.



Seattle Base member Victor Horgan was on USS Segundo (SS-398), which captured one of these subs at the end of the war. When I spoke with Vic at the Christmas Luncheon, he mentioned that he had talked with the people working on the program, but I don't know if he will be included in the final production.

You can read a little more about the program at the PBS website

I think the program will be available for viewing online sometime after the 5th.

Dave Schueler
USSVI Seattle Base Newsletter Editor

Alternate Links for Presentation

I was looking at the videos in the previous post and thought they may seem a little small for some viewers.

The following links should provide a little better viewing. The only problem is that there is a bandwidth limit (2GB) for monthly viewing, so some people may be blocked from viewing (although it will probably take a while for this to happen).

AIP Presentation Part 1: AIP_Part1

AIP Presentation Part 2: AIP_Part2

When I get some free time (and if there was enough demand), I might look at reworking the videos so that they are short enough to go onto YouTube (that would probably require that I turn it into three shorter videos).

Let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Dave Schueler
USSVI Seattle Base Newsletter Editor

Air Independent Propulsion for Submarines presentation

The video below is from a presentation Dave Schueler, our newsletter editor, gave to the Seattle Base last year on Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) for submarines.


We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.


If you have any questions about the presentation or information, you can contact Dave through the base link at the right.


The video is a around 30 minutes in length.

If the embedded version below isn't working, you can find the video on YouTube.