President's Message

Hello My Fellow Shipmates!

I hope that everyone has enjoyed a very pleasant, if not very hot, summer!

I would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of Auriol Doherty on the loss of her husband John.  (DL-3, 1953 – 1956.)  Together, John and Auriol attended many of our reunions through the years.

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Today was a beautiful day for Detroit; the USS Detroit, LCS-7, is now docked downtown for public viewing and commissioning ceremonies. She is the fourth of the Freedom Class warships of the littoral Navy.  (I had to look that one up, it means to operate close to shore.)  She is also the fastest ship in the Navy, classified of course.  All four of these Freedom class vessels will be home ported in San Diego.

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USS Freedom

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Our 20th reunion in Kissimmee, Fl. this year and, though attendance was low, it was a very successful one. As sometimes happens, we did have a few hotel-based glitches but they were quickly corrected.  Seems that everyone enjoyed the activities, sights, meals and comradeship.  

Those who went on the “Wild Florida” air boat ride rated it a “10.”  There were even cows grazing in the water along with alligators.  Not to mention eagles, egrets and herons…

  

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Our buffet dinner night was a very entertaining evening with an all-you-can-eat menu and a dinner musical comedy presented by the staff of Capone's.  Our very own Walter Alexander appeared on-stage!

We had four newcomers to this reunion and judging by their comments they will be returning next year in San Antonio. They are Dave Mader DL- 4; Michael Biggs, DL-5; Henry Cub Amos, DL-5; and Alvery Smith, DL-5.

At this reunion’s DLA business meeting, the election of Treasurer and Vice President was held.   Mike Bugara was re-elected Treasurer and Gary Marchido was elected as our new Vice President. Congratulations to these men.  I would like to thank Dave Levy for the many good years he served as our Vice President and I look forward to seeing him at our future reunions.

We had a very successful auction (benefitting our general fund) led by our resident auctioneer Auriol, who again made us dig deep.

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As you may know, our next reunion will be held in San Antonio, Texas. I hope that the many members who belong to our organization will give serious thought to attending.  Mike has planned some exciting tours there and they have the famous River Walk (where our hotel is located!) as well as the Alamo…to name just a few of the attractions.

If you have not paid your dues, please consider doing so now.  I know that life membership starts at age 80 and we have more and more of our members approaching this age.  Those who are there already have generously contributed donations in lieu of dues and we thank you very much for that.

In closing, I hope that all stay healthy, live long and prosper!

Larry Rossi
President, DLA 

 

Editor’s note – Reunion photo’s by Jim Claypool, Picture Day Photography.