This page is a collection of statements and letters, not only from our elected leaders but from shipmates around the world.
2 December 2005
When I opened
up the newsletter this month, and saw the Sterett in Yoko 1969, it really
hit me with a jolt. I was standing cold iron watch the day that picture was
taken. It really did bring back a lot of memories. If it had not been for
Pat Patrick, I probably would have gone AWOL and tried to get back to the
states.
For years I
have tried to explain to my wife about the Sterett, showed her pictures, and
even took her to the Silverdale reunion, but she never really understood the
affection for the ship until she saw me staring at that xmas picture so long
and hard.
I am truly
saddened to know she will be scrapped. I wish I knew someone in Brownsville
that could get me a piece of the forward engine room for a souvenir.
I think we
will try to make the 2007 reunion to see the commissioning for the new
Sterett.
Please have a
Merry Christmas and Thank You again for picture.
Rick Day
MMC (Ret)
22 October 2005
Dear Shipmates,
2005 was a year of change for the Sterett Association. First, we held our first
reunion East of the Mississippi in Baltimore Maryland. Actually the first East
of Denver! Many of our shipmates who attended had never been that far North and
East and it was a great chance to see a new part of the United States .
The second change was the knowledge that our beloved CG-31 had been sold for
scrap. While our plans of a museum ship are gone forever, she will live on in
our memories and in the pictures and stories contained in this web site. But
with the loss of CG-31, another Sterett is on the horizon. DDG-104 is emerging
from sheets of steel at the Bath Iron Works in Bath Maine to become the fourth
ship of line carrying Andrew Sterett's name. At the Baltimore Reunion we voted
to organize our next reunion in 2007 in conjunction with her christening in
Bath. At this point the dates are a bit tentative, but we are pointing toward
early May 2007.
This is where all of you come in. We would like to give our newest Sterett the
finest welcoming of any ship in today's modern Navy by having a big contingent
of active Association members at the christening. For us to do that, and for us
to provide this site as a living monument to all the Steretts past, present and
future, we need all of you to become active members for the year 2006.
Mac McGuire, Vice President of the Association, is leading a membership campaign
to build up the treasury, but more importantly to build the enthusiasm to
support our newest Sterett. Please help us by sending your membership dues in
before the start of the year so we can begin 2006 in a strong fiscal position.
Thanks to the hard work of Denis LaCrosse, our past President, your dues now
qualify as a charitable deduction.
It also helps to have friends in high places. The Navy's new Chief of Naval
Operations and his Deputy for C4 Integration and Policy, are both Sterett
sailors and have been active in helping us make contact with the newest Sterett
as she takes form in Bath.
While you here, take a good look at all the hard work that our Webmaster Elden
Miller has put into our new site. You will find more information on all the
topics I mentioned in this letter and much, much more.
Wishing you fair winds and following seas,
John King
President USS STERETT Association