July 2018 Meeting Notes

We started the July meeting with Tolling the Boats lost in July, followed by birthday wishes for our members. We followed that up with the Officer Reports and introductions.

Old and New Business:
Kirkland Independence Day Parade – We had a great time at the Kirkland parade. We had good participation from Seattle Base and the Thresher Chapter of the Silent Service Motorcycle Club. The city estimated there were around 45,000 people at the parade this year. Be sure to check this blog post for photos.

Summertime Base Picnic – We were reminded about the picnic for Seattle Base members, families, and friends on Saturday, July 21 at Al Smith’s place in east Kent.

Seattle Base Tolling the Boats Ceremony Reminder – The Tolling of Boats will be held on August 18 at Kirkland Marina Park. We will start the ceremony at 11:30 AM and must be finished and all cleaned up by 2:30 PM, so that we don’t interfere with another event. We expect to have drinks and light snacks at the event. We hope to see you there.

Bylaws Research and Updates – With the turnover of the Treasurer position this year, we discovered the need to make some changes for the banking process and bylaws. The Executive Committee asked for member input on how we would like to deal with this. After much discussion, it was decided that the Executive Committee would draft new processes and bylaw revisions to present to the membership at a future meeting.

Holland Club Challenge Coins – The Holland Club Challenge Coins are a recent addition to the Holland Club induction ceremony. If you are a Seattle Base member that has been inducted into the Holland Club and you did not receive a challenge coin, but would like one, please contact one of the Seattle Base officers or send an email to the newsletter editor and let them know. We are planning on getting some more challenge coins and want to determine how many we should order.

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.

July Program:

Ralph with a photo of USS Sea Owl in the background

July’s program was a presentation by Ralph Sterley. After a humorous word of warning about what to expect when the Seattle Base Commander compliments you, Ralph started to tell us about his service during World War II. He started with his trip from Sub School to Mare Island, then to San Diego, Pearl Harbor, and finally to Guam on the submarine tender USS Apollo.

On Guam, Ralph served as part of the relief crew for submarines returning from war patrols. Then Ralph talked about getting assigned to USS Sea Owl (SS 405) and going out on patrol. He told us about his first skipper, Cater Bennett, who was given the chance to test out the Mk 27 “Cutie” passive-homing torpedo in combat. He also talked about other patrols where the boat dodged mines, rescued downed flyers, and captured some Japanese and Korean sailors. He then talked about coming back to the U.S. after the war.

It was a fun and informative presentation by Ralph. You can read more about his exploits in this old blog post.

Good of the Order:
We will continue to send out emails to help the Troop Support group here at the VFW post. The Troop Support group creates care packages for troops deployed overseas.  The emails will give you times that you can volunteer to sit outside some of the local stores and ask people to pick up items for packages. Thanks to everyone that has helped on this and be sure to ask for more information if you are interested in helping out.

We hope to see you at the Tolling the Boats ceremony at Kirkland Marina Park.