Chopper Reunion Report from Pat

Editor's Note: Pat Householder passed along information and photos from the USS Chopper (SS-342) 2012 reunion in Groton in April. I’ve been a bit tardy in posting the recap (sorry about that), but I hope you enjoy Pat’s account of the gathering.

USS Chopper Crew at the Submarine Veterans of WWII Memorial East

Day 1
The combined crews of USS Chopper assembled in Groton, Connecticut at our hotel on Thursday and the camaraderie and sea stories flowed like fine wine. Approximately 50 Shipmates and their wives and significant others travelled down to the SubVets Chapter in Groton for delicious growlies, adult libations, and a great number of memories shared by shipmates.

Day 1 Dinner

An interesting side note, JJ Lynch, John Pearce, and I were visiting USS Missouri (a Virginia class SSN) to make pre-arrangements for the group's tours, when a chief walked up to us and said, "You guys served on Chopper (we were wearing our hats)?” "My dad served on Chopper!" This was Radioman Chuck Harris' son, (63-65) and he wears his father's dolphins!

Day 2
The next morning, the combined crews of USS Chopper mustered for breakfast and then adjourned to the hospitality room for a short but important Association meeting.

Following the meeting, we headed down to the Sub Force Museum, located at Goss Cove just outside the main gate. What a magnificent museum it is, with a 20' long cutaway model of a Gato class fleet boat hanging from the ceiling, and another very large cutaway of a Los Angeles class "688" fast attack nuclear submarine.

Judy and Jerry Padrta outside the Submarine Force Museum

The museum has many submarine related exhibits, of course, including a replica of the Turtle. Some of our shipmates accused me of having qualified aboard the Turtle, but I assure you it wasn't me. Might have been Sweetpea (John Pearce), however... Dunno... Just saying...

Greg Rowell and his daughter Monica ready to tour the Nautilus

We then toured the USS Nautilus, all spic and span from a spring housecleaning, then back to the hospitality room to drag out and buff up some more sea stories.

Ready to tour USS Missouri

JJ Lynch, stewburner extraordinaire and first cousin to the energizer bunny arranged for fifteen of us to mosey on down to the USS Missouri, the incredible and awesome Virginia class undersea spaceship that has about the same things in common with USS Chopper as our boat had with the USS Holland (SS-1).

JJ did some serious smoozing with the sonar girls when he met them at the USSVI Groton clubhouse, and they gave us a magnificent tour and explanation of the high tech gadgets and gizmos crammed into that 377' hull.

They took us to a room on the second deck that they 'said' was the control room, but they're not fooling me... This place was a video game arcade, with screens, trackballs and joysticks everywhere. Periscopes? Fugeddaboutit! They have 'photonics masts' Think of a digital camera/camcorder on top a mast (along with lots of other arcane sensors) with video feeds to the 'Video Game Arcade.'

Following this visit to inner space, we went back to our dinosaur-powered reality when we returned to the hotel to continue our discussions of the finer points of Chopper's career. One of the high points for me has been watching shipmates who have not seen each other for years and years light up with delight when they reconnect with a shipmate of their youth! The years fall away and we and they are young hot runners again for awhile....

Day 3 
This morning we formed up in carpools and headed off to the Sub Force museum for transfer to Navy vans, then off to BESS (Basic Enlisted Submarine School).

Submarine Base New London welcomes the Chopper crew

The instructors and students of the USS CHOPPER class were very welcoming, even eager to meet with us and hear stories of the days of dinosaur-powered submarines.

Chopper crew at BESS

Most of the kids came here from boot camp and after BESS graduation will go on to "A" school training in a particular specialty. All the students we met with are non-nukes; the nukes have their own sub school in conjunction with nuclear power training in the Charleston SC area. A few of the students came in from the fleet, transitioning from Surface Warfare to subs.

Getting a tour of the Diving Trainer

Following a burger cookout with the class, we presented them with USS Chopper hats (without dolphins) and challenge coins, then formed into groups for visits to the various trainers, including the torpedo trainer, submarine escape trainer, navigation trainer and damage control (flooding) trainer. All were very impressive, but the DC trainer, for me, was the most dramatic.

We then broke into several groups, and those who had not yet gone to the USS Missouri headed down to the boat, while the rest of us returned to the hotel for lunch, a short nap and then back to swapping stories. It was Danny Hensley's birthday, so we treated him to a not very melodious rendition of Happy Birthday, energetically sung, and George Hubbard put on a seminar presentation on his theory of the loss of USS Scorpion.

As the night grew darker, the stories became more interesting and, dare I say, raunchier. Many memories were shared by the early 60's crew, of which quite a few were in attendance, and roars of laughter and tears of joy were in abundance. The last dog was hung about 12:30 AM.

Day 4
This day was brisk and clear as we formed up and headed over to the Submarine Veterans of WWII Memorial East, site of the USS Flasher (SS-249) sail and black granite slabs with the names of those lost on the boats in WWII.

We held a brief memorial service to remember the three hundred seventy men and five submarines lost in the month of April, then followed by a final salute to our 27 Chopper shipmates who have shipped out on their final patrol since our last reunion in 2010.

A special presentation of honorary dolphins was made to shipmate Al Clausen of our 66-67 crew and in true tradition, he ‘drank his dolphins’ on the spot.

Honorary Dolphin Presentation

Then it was back to the barn (also known as the hospitality room), and early afternoon the ladies headed off for their tour of the USS Missouri. Chief Corey Harris saw to it that they all had a very memorable experience, and I know his dad, our shipmate Chuck must be very proud of his son.

We then all climbed into our dress canvas and mustered over at the Groton USSVI Clubhouse for drinks and a very good prime rib dinner with all the fixings. Groton Base commander John Carcioppolo narrated the POW/MIA Table ceremony, and then we tucked into dinner.

Dinner at the Groton USSVI Clubhouse

Following the feast, the Sojourners, dressed in Continental Army uniform (and all men qualified in submarines as well) presented a drama explaining the history of the United States Flag, building a flag in the process. This performance was very well done and received a standing ovation from the Chopper crew in attendance.

Sojourners group presentation

After the performance, John Pearce recognized first our WWII shipmates in attendance, then Vic Hari and JJ Lynch for their hard work and everyone showed their appreciation with applause. Come the drawing time, Pat Householder, your humble correspondent, won the museum quality USS Chopper cutaway. Because I already had one, I donated it back and Dennis Pacurari won it next. Because Dennis had to leave early, he had left instructions to donate any prizes won back to the Association (is this beautiful cutaway 'Typhoid Mary' or what?). Finally, it was won by shipmate Bruce “Zipzap” Aquizap, EN2(SS) of the 53-57 crew.

Farewell remarks were made before the folks headed back to the Hotel.

Well, not everyone. Some of us manned the rail in the bar and slugged down some more firewater while agreeing this was the most memorable reunion we've ever had, and that is saying something.

Groton Clubhouse Bar

Back at the hotel, more stories flowed until after midnight, as the Chopper crew slowly disbursed, happy and satisfied, and already looking towards the next reunion in 2014 in Chattanooga TN.

On Sunday morning, we scattered like quail back to our normal lives, but with warm memories of this and other gatherings in our past. Kudos and BZ go out to John Pearce, Vic Hari and JJ Lynch, who have done the heavy lifting for this magnificent reunion.

Thus closes the 2012 USS Chopper reunion ... one for the record books!

USS Chopper at speed