Newsletter 7 Number 1
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U S S R E E V E S (DLG-24/CG-24) A SSOCIATION Spring 2014 Volume 7, Issue 1 The Ironman—A Double Ender’s Newsletter Membership Scorebox Sailors Leaving Navy Over Stress On Social Issues Current 38 By Rowan Scarborough but got only 36 percent. Past Due 134 A Navy F-18 fighter pilot and for- "Unfortunately," Cmdr. Snodgrass Snail Mail Ad- mer Top Gun instructor is publicly warn- says in his 24-page study, "the fact that a dresses Only 268 ing admirals that retention is beginning growing number of quality officers have to suffer from the military's relentless already left the service or are planning to Email Address 463 social conditioning programs. head for the doors seems to be going un- Total Shipmates 3,223 Cmdr. Guy Snodgrass, until recently detected by senior leadership." a Pentagon speech writer for the chief of He lists long wartime deployments Dues Notice! naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Green- as a leading retention negative. Please be sure to check your ert, said sailors are becoming fed-up with He also tackles a touchier issue, what mailing label or email nota- the constant emphasis on social issues — some sailors have referred to as "political tion. an apparent reference to gays in the mili- correctness," such as the banning of uni- If it doesn’t say Current tary, women in combat and ending sexu- form patches that might offend someone. above your name at the top al harassment. of the label, you should re- Cmdr. Snodgrass writes of "a recent new your annual dues. To "Sailors continue to cite the over- shift within the Navy to eradicate behav- reach the greatest number of focus on social issues by senior leader- ior that is, by its every nature, ineradica- shipmates, we will publish ship, above and beyond discussions on ble." the complete Association newsletter to any valid email war fighting — a fact that demoralizes "Put simply, there is no dollar or snail mail address. Your junior and mid-grade officers alike," amount that can be spent, or amount of dues payments make this Cmdr. Snodgrass wrote this month on training that can be conducted, that will possible. the U.S. Naval Institute website, an inde- completely eradicate complex issues pendent forum for active and retired sail- such as suicide, sexual assault, or com- Inside this issue: ors and Marines. manding officer reliefs for cause — yet It is a remarkably frank assessment President’s Message 2 we continue to expend immense re- from an upwardly mobile fighter pilot sources in this pursuit," he says. "Sailors Shipmates’ Deck Log 3 who is due to become the executive of- are bombarded with annual online train- Tricare Emergency Care 3 ficer of a F-18 unit in Japan. ing, general military training, and safety He says one troubling sign already stand-downs — all in an effort to combat Restore AO Exposure Pre- 4 has emerged: a drop in applications to problems that will never be defeated." sumption the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis Some of the pressure comes from Our Next Reunion: Portland 5 last year. Congress. Financials 6 "The U.S. Navy has a looming of- "The perception is that these efforts ficer retention problem," Cmdr. Snod- are not undertaken because they are in- Website Changes 6 grass writes, adding there is an "erosion credibly effective, but rather because of Passing 6 of trust in senior leadership."' significant political and public over- He says retention racked up its sight," the commander says. Ship Store Order Form 7 "worst year in history" for the special warfare community, including Navy Shipmate Passes 7 http://www.washingtontimes.com/ SEALs, with a record number of lieuten- news/2014/mar/25/sailors-leaving-navy- ants declining to stay. Commissary Changes 8 over-stress-on-social-issues-/ The aviation side had a goal of 45 Reunion Registration Form 9 percent "take rate" on retention bonuses, New VA Link 11 PageP a g e 222 The IronmanIronman————AA Double Ender’s Newsletter The President’s PagePage————HappyHappy Springtime Happy Spring- making forward looking decisions This time we’re still very west, time to the for vacation time and travel ar- but much further north to the up- Reeves Associa- rangements. Now is a good time per left corner of the country. This tion Family. to get deals on tickets. Mary and I puts us in convenient striking dis- What a long cold already have ours! We also re- tance for shipmates in Oregon, winter we are quested that you consider contact- Washington, Idaho, Montana, Ne- happy to have ing old shipmates to see if there vada, and northern California. The behind us. Nice may be any interest in meeting rest of us will be flying in, but concept, but Southern Colorado is you, and the rest of us, in Portland. we’re good with that. once again proving that all bets are So talk to your significant others So far Mike reports plenty of off for springtime. I’m doing and get them thinking towards Oc- interest for Portland. He’s been in some start-up work in Pueblo tober and Portland, and call an old contact with more than a few ship- (again), and this past week had friend and see if they may be inter- mates who say they’re going to be excellent weather - with temps ested. These simple steps are what there with us. We’ve seen a lim- hovering around the 80 0 mark yes- it takes to make our next reunion a ited number of reservations being terday. Today, however, is a dif- success. made to date, but we’re not too ferent story. As I write, it’s snow- You may all recall that our re- disheartened by low numbers at ing like mad and they’re calling unions are set-up in an east/west/ this point. San Diego got off to a for 4 to 6 inches by morning. The middle rotation to accomplish two slow start. The trend that year foothills just west of Pueblo and goals; first to make sure we move started slow, and really ramped up the Springs are looking at 12 to our show closer to shipmates that as it got very close to the reunion. 18” overnight. Enough already! reside in different parts of the We actually ended up with a pretty I’m hoping that your spring weath- country, and also to make sure we decent crowd. Now that certainly er is not out to prove anything, and have differing venues for our ship- doesn’t predict a sell-out, but you you get to enjoy some respite from mates who wouldn’t think of miss- may consider your travel decisions a tough winter. ing a Reeves reunion. Turns out sooner rather than later. The good news is that it brings you gotta have a good venue to get So that’s it for my weather rant us a bit closer to summer, and then ‘em away from Connecticut or and reunion sales pitch for this on to Portland. Surprisingly Wisconsin in the Fall. This is the edition. I sure hope you get some enough, this edition of the news- second time we’ve made our west nice weather to enjoy, and are able letter places us about six months coast swing. The first westerly to enjoy some time outside. out from our next reunion. It was- run to San Diego was a smashing success. The southern CA crowd Here’s wishing you Fair Winds n’t all that long ago I was happy to and Following Seas write we were inside the one year was happy to join in the festivities, mark, and now we’re in the and the rest of us were happy to stretch. My last article spoke of once again visit our friends, and TomTomTom old haunts, in the SD area. Volume 7, Issue 1 PageP a g e 333 Mail/eMail/Decklog/Facebook From Our Shipmates ——— Regarding getting the 1966 deck it, and more description about the Mike Ketelaar @Gary - Well, we did logs... West Pac we went on. Thank you. get bombed with a 500lb training Mike, Email: round that put a 10 foot diameter hole [email protected] above the Bos'n Locker. All antennas I am forwarding the correspond- forward and the 5 ton anchor were all ence I had with the archives people. Cell # 858-357-1014 gone. Shrapnel punctured forward My first contact I just asked a ques- radar directors and wave guide. Punc- tion and I heard nothing. Later I in- tured Starboard CIWS and even formed them that I had heard noth- Michael , It's me again. I have some more artifacts for your archives. If through some armor plated missile ing. Another month went by and I house doors. Broke several bridge received the log in the mail. If you you are still interested. I have some photos, patches, a few postal covers, wing windows. Diego Garcia welded email them and ask I think they will some steel plates and back to Japan tell you how to get your information. another Far East Tour 66-68 cruise- book signed by DC1 Freeman Haun, we went. I imagine that justified the John Pounder (1965-1968) some magazine articles, and...I finally overhaul since they weren't ready to We now have the deck logs for 3-8 found a Westpac 77 cruisebook. decom Reeves quite yet. Captain McKinley's first underway after he July 1966. A copy can be found in Neal Cozart (1976-1979) the Archives on the web site.