Memorial Day and May 2018 Meeting Notes

Reminder the Memorial Day ceremony at Tahoma National Cemetery begins at 1 p.m. at the cemetery’s Main Flag Pole Assembly Area.

Tahoma National Cemetery

The Cascade Warbirds will do a flyover to begin the ceremony. The keynote speaker will be Monica McNeal, a Gold Star Mother and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell is the guest speaker. Parking space is limited in the cemetery. Visitors should plan on walking to and from their parking spot to the ceremony. Parking is available for disabled passengers, and a shuttle will be available to take visitors to and from the ceremony assembly area.

May Meeting Notes:
We started the May meeting with Tolling the Boats lost in May, followed by birthday wishes for our members, and introductions. We followed that up with the Officer Reports, introductions, and then our business items.

Old and New Business:
Smokey Point Rest Stop Event Reminder – We will be manning the coffee booth at the north-bound Smokey Point rest stop on June 1 – 4. We still have a few open spaces. Please contact Steve Shelton if you are interested in helping. We hope you’ll take some time to help out with this important fund-raising event.

Cabela’s Tulalip Armed Forces Day – We were reminded about our event on Armed Forces Day weekend, May 19 and 20. We hope to have some photos to share soon.

American Submarines Throw Raffle – Don’t forget about the raffle for the American Submarine. Raffle tickets are on sale now and will be sold throughout the year. The drawing will be done at the Holiday Luncheon on December 8. Raffle tickets cost $1 per ticket.

American Submarines Throw

Seattle Base Tolling the Boats Ceremony Update – The Tolling of Boats will be held on August 18 at Kirkland Marina Park. But we have a small scheduling conflict with a wedding reception on the same day. Due to this we will start the ceremony at 10:30 AM. We must be finished and all cleaned up by 2:30 PM.

Summertime Base Picnic – We still hope to have a picnic in July. As of this moment it may not be at the VFW because of the hours they are open on weekends. We are still working on it but if someone comes up with another place please contact one of the officers and we will check it out.

Binnacle List:
We were informed that Karl Krompholz’s (from base commander and current point of contact) son was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Please keep Karl’s family in your thoughts and prayers.

We hope to see you at the next meeting.

Western District 4 "Traveling Dolphins" Change Hands

Rogue-Umpqua Base Commander Ken Earls sends the following about capturing the WD4 Traveling Dolphins.

Blueback Base Commander, Bill Long, "reluctantly", hands over traveling Dolphins to Rogue-Umpqua Base Commander, Ken Earls. L to R Phil Hill (R-U), Clive Waite (R-U / B), Bill Long (B), Ken Earls (R-U) and Michael Tribble (R-U)

It takes a minimum of 3 base members to capture the Traveling Dolphins, including at least 1 elected officer. We had 4 members, with 2 elected officers. It also takes a Sea Story. We had a Sea Story - from each person. Imagine that, everyone had a Sea Story. Phil's Sea Story was the focus story, including Show and Tell with him bringing actual replicas of his experience on the Woodrow Wilson performing a Cumshaw event on the tender to get the safety chains for their fairwater planes coated with plastic so that those poor fellows would not get cold hands when holding onto the chain. Think about Ritz Crackers, salami and the all-important gourmet cheese-in-a-can. Phil did a great job, as usual. Clive, Michael and Ken also had Sea Stories. Maybe we can get Michael to repeat his story about the Red Velvet Dress.

There is no telling how long we will have these Traveling Dolphins in our custody.

Make a point of attending our next base meeting on May 25th at Seven Feathers and check out the Traveling Dolphins. Let's get a picture of each and every one who attends holding the Dolphins. We can fill a couple pages in the next newsletter with just photos of us all sharing in the bounty.

Outstanding job by Phil Hall, Clive Waite and Michael Tribble!

Thanks to Dave Vrooman and John Mansfield for sharing the photo and story.

May 2018 Meeting Reminder

The next Seattle Base meeting is this coming Wednesday, May 16, 2018. We will meet at VFW Post #2995 (4330 148th Ave N.E., Redmond WA 98052). Social hour starts at 6PM with business meeting at 7PM.

Be sure to test out your submarine recognition skills before the meeting (image from Covert Shores website, which has a lot of interesting submarine related articles)

We’ll have the latest information on the upcoming Cabela's event on Armed Force Day weekend (May 19 and 20). This is a great opportunity to introduce ourselves to the public, look for new members, and do a little fund raising for the base.

Also, this will be your last chance to sign up for spots for the Smokey Point Rest Area event on June 1 - 4. Steve will have the sign-up board at the meeting. This is always a fun event.

We also hope you’ll come out to welcome our new members to the base.

See you at the meeting!