July - August 2018 Dolphin Brotherhood Posted

The July - August 2018 issue of the Dolphin Brotherhood has been posted and is ready to view and download.

USS Parche sail at the Puget Sound Naval Museum in Bremerton

This issue has information about the upcoming Independence Day parade in Kirkland, photos of the Seattle Base Holland Club induction, a story about USS Parche, and a story from 1978 about a plot to steal an American fast attack sub, along with other submarine related articles from around the world.

Hardcopies will be mailed out tomorrow. I hope you all enjoy the newsletter.

As always, remember to check back here for base updates and other articles of interest.

Dave Schueler
Seattle USSVI Base Newsletter Editor

June 2018 Meeting Notes

We started the June meeting with a visit from the VFW Post #2995 Commander. He told us about their upcoming efforts to support the troops and asked for help on these projects. You can expect emails about the upcoming projects.

We then moved to Tolling the Boats lost in June, followed by birthday wishes for our members. We followed that up with the Officer Reports and then the annual Holland Club inductions.

2018 Holland Club Inductions
This year Seattle Base added six new Holland Club members: John German - not present (USS Kamehameha), Bill Giese (USS Blueback), Earl Greening (USS Blueback), Scott Milne (USS Daniel Webster), Ken Murray (USS Theodore Roosevelt), and Steve Shelton (USS Razorback). 

Group photo of our Holland Club Inductees

The Holland Club is named after John P. Holland, designer of the first US Navy submarine. It is an exclusive group within the US Submarine Veterans organization, where the core requirement for eligibility is the designation “qualified in submarines” for a minimum of fifty years.

Bill Giese qualified on USS Blueback

Earl Greening qualified on USS Blueback

Scott Milne qualified on USS Daniel Webster

Ken Murray qualified on USS Theodore Roosevelt

Steve Shelton qualified on USS Razorback

Each new inductee received a certificate, card, patch, and challenge coin. Congratulations to all our new inductees.

Old and New Business:
Cabela’s Tulalip Armed Forces Day and Smokey Point Rest Stop Event Recap – We received a short update on our two events in May. Both events were successful and, together with the event in March, raised over $1,500 for Seattle Base. We’ll be looking at ways to use the donations for future Base events. So, if you have some suggestions for things to do, be sure to bring them up at a future meeting.

Kirkland Independence Day Parade – Once again, we are planning on participating in the Kirkland parade on the 4th of July. Parade plans are similar to previous years. We will meet near Kirkland’s Heritage Hall in the morning. The Kirkland Police will begin blocking roads near the parade route around 9:30, so you will need to be there early or come in from the north. Lunch will be served around 11:00 and the parade will start at Noon. Check the blog and newsletter for more details. We hope to see you there.

Summertime Base Picnic – We are planning our picnic for Seattle Base members, families, and friends on Saturday, July 21 at Al Smith’s place in east Kent. There will be grills and you should bring a main course for you and your guest, along with a potluck dish to share. We will have more information on this as we get closer to the date.

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 10:30 AM and must be finished and all cleaned up by 2:30 PM, so that we don’t interfere with another event.

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.

June Program:
Our program was a presentation by Brian Seguin of Puget Sound Honor Flights.

The Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization created solely to honor America’s veterans for all their sacrifices. They transport veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit and reflect at their memorials. Top priority is given to the senior veterans – World War II survivors, along with those other veterans who may be terminally ill. Brian gave us some background on the organization and showed a video of a recent Honor Flight trip.

Brian talking about the Honor Flight network

The 3-day trip takes veterans to Washington DC to visit the World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War memorials. Along with trips to Arlington National Cemetery and other memorials in the area. They normally plan four trips per year. Brian gave us more information on how veterans can apply for the trips and how to volunteer to help out.

After the presentation, Seattle Base donated $400 to help support the organization.

Good of the Order:
John Baker’s memorial service is planned for Monday, July 9 at 2 PM at Tahoma National Cemetery. You can find more information at this blog post and we will post a reminder as we get closer to the event.

We hope to see you at the Kirkland Independence Day parade.

June 2018 Meeting Reminder

The next Seattle Base meeting is this coming Wednesday, June 20, 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.

During the business meeting, we’ll get a recap of some of the events from May and early June. We also will be inducting 2018 Holland club members from the base.

The program for June will be a presentation by Brian Seguin on the Puget Sound Honor Flights. The Honor Flight Network is a non-profit organization created solely to honor America’s veterans for all their sacrifices. They transport veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit and reflect at their memorials. Top priority is given to the senior veterans – World War II survivors, along with those other veterans who may be terminally ill.

We hope you’ll come out to congratulate the new Holland Club members.

See you at the meeting!

Memorial Service and Reception for John Baker

We received the following information about the memorial service and reception for John Baker.

John Baker's memorial service is scheduled as follows:

When: Monday, July 9, 2018 at 2 PM
Where: Tahoma National Cemetery - Shelter #1, 18600 Southeast 240th Street, Kent WA 98042

Please arrive at least 15 minutes before the service. When you enter the cemetery, bear right and there will be volunteers to further direct you. Tell the volunteer you are attending John R. Baker's service and that he was a member of the United States Navy.

The service will include a Chaplin, Honor Guard, a flag folding ceremony, and the playing of Taps.

Immediately after the service, there will be a reception with refreshments at Tahoma Hall, which is within blocks of the cemetery. Tahoma Hall is at 23806 190th Ave SE, Kent WA 98042 - (425) 432-0303.

We hope you will join us for the service and reception.

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!