News from National

 Here are a couple items of interest from USSVI National. The first is about a way to communicate with the National Officers and the second is about a way to get episodes of the old TV series 'The Silent Service.'

 

Announcing the USSVI Member Questions and Comments Bulletin Board System (BBS)

We are happy to announce that USSVI has a new Bulletin Board System (BBS), the USSVI Member Questions and Comments BBS at: http://bod.subvets.net/category-view.asp

This is a place where any member can ask a question, comment or make a complaint. Ground rules are: identify yourself, keep it clean, and fraternal. Got a problem? Offer a solution. We want to build a better and more satisfying organization for all our shipmates. Our mission is to remember our fallen shipmates, encourage fraternalism between subvets and benefit our submarine family. Your questions and suggestions to help achieve these ends will be very much appreciated.

There are six topic areas covered on the BBS:

• Constitution and Bylaws related questions and comments
• USSVI Membership questions and comments
• AMERICAN SUBMARINER related questions and comments
• Charitable Foundation Questions and comments
• National Convention questions and comments
• General Questions and Comments

To participate, go to the BBS and click the General Member Questions and Comments section. Find the topic you are interested in and click on it. From there you can read through the information in the thread and add your own questions and comments by clicking the Reply button.

Don’t forget to add the BBS to your bookmarks.

Your National E-Board

The Silent Service TV Series Available
Thanks to the generosity of USSVI Northern VA Base member Ray Stone, episodes from the submarine adventure series 'The Silent Service', which aired during the 1957-1958 television seasons, are available for downloading.

The Silent Service is a documentary styled anthology series about the U.S. Navy's submarine fleet and their missions during World War II and the Korean War. Every episode was fact based and the realism of the show was elevated by the use of actual combat footage from the files of the United States Navy.

The stories, which varied between the South Pacific during World War II, the Atlantic campaign and the Korean War, were the brainchild of Rear Admiral Thomas T. M. Dykers, himself a WWII submariner who commanded USS Jack (SS-259) and retired from the Navy in 1949 after 22 years of service.

Admiral Dykers also did an introduction for each episode, narrated the action and filmed a closing segment, usually with a member of the crew of the submarine that was highlighted on that particular episode.

Each season was comprised of 39 episodes. All of the episodes for season one are complete, however there are three missing episodes for season two. (If anyone has copies or knows where they are available, please let Ray know).

In addition to the episodes, Ray has included copies of the press kits that were issued to the stations along with the films. He also included episode summaries which are handy in preparing notices/programs for individual viewing.

All episodes are in MP4 format. Ray suggests downloading to your device rather than trying to view online. Each episode is about 30 min. in length so consider that when trying to download. To download the episodes, go to www.olgoat.com, scroll down and click DOWNLOAD to get to the Silent Service page. Then click the appropriate series (SERIES ONE or SERIES TWO), find the episode you want to download, right-click on the title and then select “Save Link As” to save the file.

For those interested in short-cutting this process, the entire series can be purchased on DVD from USSVI Member John Clear. Visit www.usssealion.com for more information.