June Meeting Notes

We began the June meeting with the Tolling of the Boats for May, birthday wishes for our members, introductions, and officer reports.

We also had a visit from the new Western District 4 Commander, Al Durkee. Al has been going to meetings of the bases in WD4 to introduce himself. He also let us know that Seattle Base member Robbie Robertson was one of the people that signed his qual card when he was qualifying on USS Seawolf.

Western District 4 Commander Al Durkee and Seattle Base Commander Doug Abramson

Old and New Business: 
Armed Forces Day Weekend at Cabela's - On Saturday May 18 and Sunday May 19 Seattle Base set up our float in the parking lot of Cabela's Tulalip store. You can see a few photos from the event here. We had a good time talking with all the people coming to the store, including some submariners that didn't know about our organization, and picked up several hundred dollars in donations from the event. It was so successful that we are planning on going back for another event on August 24-25. We will have more information as the date draws closer.

Smokey Point Rest Stop Event - The Smokey Point Rest Stop event is set for the southbound rest stop on June 28 - July 1. We have posted the current schedule here, but we can use more volunteers. If you would like to fill in one of the open slots, contact Steve Shelton as soon as possible (you can get his phone and email on the schedule page). Additionally, we can use donations of cookies (or donations to buy cookies) to for the event.

Kirkland Independence Day Parade - We will be participating in the Kirkland parade on July 4. The City of Kirkland goes all out for veterans and always has treats, a pizza lunch and boutonnieres for all military members and veterans in the parade. Additionally, WWII Subvets and members of the Silent Service Motorcycle club, including the Snorkel Schnauzer, will all be there.

We will muster near Heritage Hall, the large white two-story building on the north side of the street, at the corner of Central Way and Market Street. The float will be in place before 10:15 and all members should be in place by 10:30. If you run into problems at any street barricades, just tell the police that you are marching in the parade.

DIRECTIONS: To get there, you take Exit 18 off of Hwy 405, head west toward Kirkland. This road turns into Central Street. Follow Central until you reach Market and turn right to find parking at Heritage Park. You'll pass Heritage Hall while looking for parking. The Children’s Parade starts at 11:30, followed by the main parade at noon.

Edmonds Independence Day Parade - World War II Submarine Veteran Ervin Schmidt has been named as the Grand Marshall for the “An Edmonds Kind of Fourth” Parade. If you can't make it to Kirkland, consider going to the Edmonds parade and waving to Ervin.

Tolling the Boats Ceremony - The Tolling ceremony is set for August 17 at the Kirkland Marina Pavilion. Be sure to reserve the date on your calendar. As with previous years, there will have a burger cookout before the ceremony. We again want to thank base members John Roberts and Dick Gonzales for stepping up to take care of this important event.

Missing in America - Bob Opple gave a short talk about the Missing In America project. The purpose of the Project is to locate, identify and inter the unclaimed cremated remains of American veterans through the joint efforts of private, state and federal organizations. To provide honor and respect to those who have served this country by securing a final resting place for these forgotten heroes. Bob recommended that the Seattle Base look into helping out the project. You can read more about the project at their website.

Possible Event at the Seattle Museum of Flight - Dick Gonzales let us know that he is talking with Museum of Flight about letting us set up a booth with our float at the museum's SeaFair events. He and Pat Householder are planning to present information about our organization and WWII Submarine Lifeguard League to the museum. We will let you know how this turns out.

June Program:
Pat Householder showed a short video about the attack on Nagasaki harbor by USS Tirante during World War II. After the video he asked Robbie Robertson to share his memories about the attack. Robbie told us about this action and other actions he was involved with, including the action that earned the sub's CO George Street the Medal of Honor. He also told us about his memories of making the film that Pat showed.

You can see the video below, the story about Tirante starts at the 29:14 minute mark (if the embeded version doesn't work, click here to go to the YouTube page).



Good of the Order 
Al Smith, South Sound Base Commander, was in attendance at the meeting and let us know that South Sound Base recently took the WD4 Traveling Dolphins back from Bremerton Base. He told us that Bremerton Base is planning to try to take them back and he invited Seattle Base to try and capture the Traveling Dolphins too by having 3 members (including a Base Officer) attend the South Sound Base meeting on July 11, 7 PM at VFW Post # 969 (3510 McKinley Ave., Tacoma, WA 98404).

Sam Ronnie let us know that he has a hospital style bed available for any Base member interested in taking it off his hands (no charge).

Binnacle List:

• Gene Posel is still recovering from a torn back muscle. 
• Don Ulmer is recovering from shoulder surgery. 
• Art Thompson is recovering from foot surgery. 
• Robbie Robertson is still battling prostate cancer, but is doing better and has officially removed himself from the Binnacle List. 

 We hope to see you at the next meeting.