October 2019 Shipmates, First, the important news that our next reunion will be in Milwaukee September 2020, hosted by shipmate John Kraft. John has hosted previous reunions, in 2009 in Green Bay WI and in 2011 in Branson MO. The host has considerable latitude in choosing dates and location. Full details will be in the April 2020 newsletter. Call one of the shipmates on page 7 if you need to know the details earlier because of a potential conlict in your schedule. To tell you the truth I was a bit apprehensive as to whether we would be having a next reunion. It went like this. At the business meeting Jim Kelly began the discussion with a cruise ship proposal. I brought up two possibilities, one that we meet concurrently with Tin Can Sailors as some destroyers are now doing or that we transfer the grief to a reunion planner and thus be able to meet in a city of our choice without so much worry about a shipmate host having to do all the work. None of the proposals generated any enthusiasm. Our business meeting was being held in the room that would be used for the banquet and hotel staff needed us to vacate so they could set up for the banquet. Then when we resumed the business meeting at the banquet, with Doug Leland presiding, several people volunteered. I said I would do it in St. Petersburg in April/May but would not have tours, since it would be downtown with lots of museums and a free looper shuttle. Bob Fabianski then volunteered Chicago, where he had hosted a reunion years ago. Ski volunteered in spite of having moved to an assisted living facility recently. John Kraft proposed Milwaukee. Milwaukee proved to be the overwhelming choice. On page 7 is a list of the dates and locations of all our past reunions. For some of them attendance data is shown. The Mirst number is shipmates and the second is guests. High point of the reunion was the Grand Ole Opry on Friday night. We had two buses nearly full. The hosts for the four thirty-minute sessions we saw were Jeannie Seely, Bill Anderson, Riders in the Sky and Ricky Skaggs. Additional acts were SmithMield, Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X- Press, YOLA, Exile, Mason Ramsey, Suzy Bogguss and the Whites. Whisperin’ Bill Anderson recognized our group from the stage. He is an old, personal friend of Al and Gladys Eisenbraun. He sang one of his best known songs, “Still,” and another song which he humorously referred to as a love song. It was about a wife who had disappeared and the message was, wherever you went - stay there! In the crowd coming out of the show Bill Kelly fell or was pushed and ended up spending most of the night in the hospital but thankfully is okay although a little banged up. I did not go on any of the other tours but Natalie and I did take advantage of the free hotel shuttle to downtown. Every restaurant, it seemed, had live music and it was still mid-afternoon. Folks on the tours were impressed by Jack’s BBQ. Of the 100 attendees, 85 participated in tours. Thanks to Jenifer Shook for all her hard work. She had volunteered to help with the hospitality room, then took on the tours and then ended up doing everything after host Don Dedon died. Numerous other people helped, too many to mention, including those who arrived early to help set up. Natalie and I made several food and beer runs to Krogers, so many that we ended up with enough points to get ten cents a gallon off on gas at their store. There was plenty of food in the hospitality room but we ran out of beer at one point. Jenifer’s father, Charles Shook, is the only shipmate to have attended every reunion. The reunion attendee list is on the Mirst page, 38 shipmates and 62 guests. Charles Gattis and his son and daughter-in-law dropped in for a few hours, having made a special day trip from West Tennessee. He has been a member since the Mirst Nashville reunion in 2002, when he was riding by on his motorcycle and saw the ship name on the marquee of the Shoney Inn where we were having the reunion that year. Incidentally that motel is still in the same location across from Opryland. Bob Trisler was joined at the Opry by his brother and three sisters. His brother Dennis lives in Nashville. Bob Shenk has retired from college teaching but still on the lecture circuit. Tom Cunningham has recovered from a heart attack. Ski had a group of twelve. It was a pleasure to meet Al’s son Jack Eisenbraun for the Mirst time. I had not seen Donna Allen in a long time as she had not been able to travel while her husband Red was in declining health. We had a number of Mirst time attendees. Ridley Clifton had called me from West Tennessee to check on what to wear and what to expect, having never been to any ship reunion ever. If Karl Hudson’s entry looks confusing it is because he was aboard Mirst time as a regular crew member in the late Mifties and then a second time as a part of the reserve crew in Hubbard’s Minal days. We also have a machinist mate, MMCS Jesse Fox, who was aboard as an MM1 in the Reserve Crew, on our roster but so far he has not attended any reunions. All are welcome. We are a friendly bunch and always have a good time at the reunions. We are governed by an executive committee that is empowered to make decisions between the annual reunion business meetings as well as to recommend action items for approval at the business meetings. One such pending item has been selecting a shipmate to replace Don Dedon, who died after the Newport reunion and before the Nashville reunion. A tribute to his life, service and leadership was in the previous newsletter. Volunteers to serve were requested. Jim Stromberg was selected to take Don’s spot. John Kraft was selected to replace Wayne Sundberg, who has been unable to attend recent reunions. The board is still in the process of drafting by-laws and Miguring out how future members will be selected and their term of ofMice. It was also reported that the Newport hosts have been reimbursed for the net loss incurred in their reunion. Looking at the reunion attendee lists brings back a lot of memories and sometime in the future I will do a short article and mention legends such as Red Hastings and Bill Kanipe. Shipmates are invited to send in their recollections, which I will print next time. I am reprinting several items that shipmates have asked about. One is the man overboard story and the other is the last days of Hubbard. Our membership has changed quite a bit since they Mirst were written and new members may not have seen them. In the past I have suggested shipmates attend the annual Tin Can Sailors reunion. For the 2019 annual reunion in Jacksonville FL in September there were 19 destroyers having their reunions concurrently with TCS. One of them was the USS Samuel N. Moore, DD-747, our sister ship. My understanding is that the ships can have time and space for a meeting (not a hospitality room) and that for tours and banquets they are seated together. The 2020 TCS reunion will be in San Antonio TX at the Wyndham Riverwalk Sept. 27 to October 1. The 2021 reunion will be in Baltimore Aug. 29 to Sept. 2, at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. I hope to attend the 2020 TCS reunion and report back to the group. Hopefully my wife Natalie will not leave me over the issue of attending two ship reunions in one year. I served on more than a few ships in my twenty years in the Navy but none have the appeal of a destroyer, where you knew nearly everyone on board by sight if not personally. I am not at this time proposing TCS reunions as an alternative to our own ship reunion, which we should continue as long as we can, but someday there will come a time when we have no shipmate to host our own or our numbers dwindle below the break-even point. Dick Oliver 2019 Nashville Reunion Attendees Donna Allen, widow of BT2 Burney (Red) Allen (1954-57); GMG1 Terry Barton (GMG3 ,1967-68) and Cheryl Barton; LTjg Ed Blanchard (1964-67); FT2 Otto Brock (1956-57) and Charlene Brock; ETN2 Mike Caruccio (ETN3 1962-66) and Doris Caruccio; SFP3 Bob Chavez (1966-69) and Patty Chavez; MM3 Ridley Clifton (FN, 1968-69) and Kathy Clifton; RD2 Tom Connolly (RD3 1965-67) and Diane Connolly; Phyllis Crim, widow of EM3 Jesse Crim (1966-69); MM1 Tom Cunningham (1952-55) and Ruthe Cunningham; ICC Dennis Ditsch (IC2 1968-69) and Diana Stanton; SH3 Al Eisenbraun (1963-67); GMM3 Bob (Ski) Fabianski (1950-51); MEG3 Vern Fairchild (1955-57); SN John Fried (1959-61) and Susan Fried; MM3 Charles Gattis (1956-59); GMG3 Joe Griffie (1966-69) and Cathy Griffie; FTG3 John Grimmke (1965-67) and Pam Grimmke; SM1 Karl Hudson (SM3 57-59, SM1 1969); QM1 Bill Kelly (1968-69) and Irene Henning; MSCM Eduardo Jose (TN 1967-69) and Elisa Jose; CDR Jim Kelly (LTjg, 1966-68) and Beverlee Kelly; LTjg Gerald Kitchen (1964-65) and Beverly Kitchen; Mavis Knowles, widow of SFM3 Bob Knowles (1963-64); RM2(SS) John Kraft (SN 1965-67) and Darlene Kraft; MM1 Doug Leland (MM2, 1966-69) and Dorothy Leland; SFP3 Jimmy Loy (1968-69) and Mary Davis; BM2 Dick Martin (1968-69) and Mary Martin; ET1 Ernie Moore (1950-51); SN Bill Obedoza (1960-62) and Grace Obedoza; LT Dick Oliver (Ens, 1968-69) and Natalie Oliver; MM3 Tom Ornazian (1968-69); RD3 Ray Rexroat (1965-67) and Linda Rexroat; Capt.