Memorial Day 2011 Recap

We had a nice day and heard a good program at Tahoma National Cemetery on Memorial Day. Turnout for the program was good and base member Robbie Robertson was honored with a plaque for all the work he has done for the cemetery, including his most recent work on getting the carillon tower installed. After the program, we gathered at the USSVI plaque for our annual photo.

It was a little sad to note the missing and damaged plaques from last Thanksgiving (click here for more about the original incident), but there is some good news on that too. The Tahoma National Cemetery Support Group, through the generosity of private citizens and local businesses, has been able to obtain enough donations to replace all the missing and damaged plaques. A local monument company is fabricating the new plaques and they are expected to be installed by the end of summer.

Things at the Cruzin to Colby car show went pretty well. Base Treasurer Jim Harper reported that the base raised $100.74 at the event.

Bill Giese and Larry Abbott with a SubVet fan

Finally, I wanted to share the Memorial Day message from the USSVI National Commander, T. Michael Bircumshaw.

Shipmates,

Memorial Day is the most significant day of each year that touches the deepest part of our reasons for being Sub Vets. Our purpose is headlined with the words; “To perpetuate the memory of our Shipmates.”

The vast majority of those who remain on “Eternal Patrol” were lost to many of us during our lifetime. For example, my shipmate, Bud Atkins TMCM SS of the Groton Base, and I were born in the 1930s and since then 57 of our 65 honored submarines and the 3,500 valiant shipmates that rode them down from the Squalus to the Scorpion are a part of our living history. I daresay that either Bud or myself personally knew someone aboard the Stickleback, Thresher, and Scorpion, as do many of you reading this today.

Why have I chosen to make this message so very personal? Because it is about you and me. On this day I relive my feelings for one exceptionally close friend, Laird Heiser MM1 SS, serving aboard the USS Thresher (SSN-593) on that fateful April day in ‘63 and I try to imagine his loss to me and his family times the 4,000 Shipmate Submariners that we choose to never forget. I find it to be a staggering number of shipmates, souls and loved ones and I know that there are brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters and lots of grandkids, shipmates and girlfriends, who also hold memories of their Submariner in that vacant place in their heart destined to never heal.

I urge you to take this day to a new level in joy by reaching out to your living Shipmates and loved ones as you pay tribute in sad remembrance for those who have made the supreme sacrifice.

Don’t make the mistake of not having taken every opportunity to make your true feelings clear to those you care about. There is no escape for any of us, nor knowledge of when it will occur, from that eventual “Eternal Patrol”.

Fraternally,
Michael