USS BELL
ASSOCIATION (DD587)
JULY, 2010
IN THIS ISSUE:
It was another wonderful gathering of the
BELL family. A reunion is something
that I always looked forward to when I was a little girl. My Mom’s family met once a year to
celebrate with all the family and it was so much fun to see everyone laughing
and enjoying the day. It was a time
for hugs and kisses when we arrived and it was the same when we left. It is so much the same with the BELL
family. When you look up and see a
shipmate and family members walk into the hospitality room it like a family
reunion. Everybody gets a warm hug
and greeting. This year’s reunion in
Savannah was no different.
Our city tour was interesting, with so
much history and heritage in that sweet and charming city. The parks with so many trees,
statues and trees are a beauty in themselves with so many beautiful homes that
have been restored and kept up makes you just imagine what it was like when
people only had horses and carriages and would visit or come by for tea on the
veranda. Our Riverboat Cruise
and dinner was so nice. The food was
very good and our party was invited to be the first to serve ourselves from the
buffet. The weather was nice and I
don’t know about anyone else but I really enjoyed my walk up on the upper deck
and feel such a nice comforting breeze.
On Saturday morning, we met for a brief
meeting and remembrance service.
Pastor and Shipmate Jimmy Faith spoke and his daughter Gina treated us with a
couple of beautiful songs. It is
always a pleasure to listen to Gina.
She always has a story in her music.
Afterwards we had some fun with our auction.
With the absence of our professional auctioneer, Shipmate Al Lewis, Gina Daniels
was so nice in volunteering to take the job of auctioneer. Man, did she do a great job and our
treasury is very happy. We missed Al
and Pauline due to a conflict in dates.
Hope to see them at the next reunion.
We also missed Maurice Moe this year due to illness.
It was the first reunion he has every missed and we really missed him. Many thanks to Moe for a very generous donation. We love you, Moe. Tom Gutierrez had to do the 50-50, but
with the help of Lupe managed quite well.
Kathy Nielson, daughter of Shipmate Jimmy Faith was the big winner and
the treasury was also a winner.
The shipmates met afterwards to select the
city for the next reunion. They were
impressed with our reunion in San Antonio and decided to select San Antonio for
the 2011 reunion. The Request for
Proposal has gone out to the San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau for
distribution to all the hotels. I
will soon begin to receive the bids and hopefully we will be given our usual
great interests that we have gotten in the past.
I receive a large number of phone calls and emails requesting that we
visit their city and/or hotels for our reunions, so I am expecting some very
good bids to choose from. So,
put a note on the refrigerator that in September or October 2011 we will be
meeting in San Antonio.
MAILBAG
…..Yes, I am still around but we, Rosemary
and I are much slower and much less ambitious, (because of me) so just sending
this for you to apply wherever it will be best used. Yes, as always, Ed Flowers, 3724 26th
Avenue, N., St. Augustine, FL 33713
…..Thank you for this website. My Dad served on the USS BELL and I was
wondering if other pictures are out there and if anyone remembers Ralph (Slim) Overis Brumitt from Arkansas.
He died in 2000. I am doing a memory photo book for my
family and it would be nice if I had stories because my Dad never talked about
it. He worked either in the boiler room or
shooting a large gun. Thank you.
…..Linda Bridgewater – LB1013@aol.com – Tel. 574-271-5675
NOTE:
If anyone knew or remembers Mr. Brumitt either
contact Linda at her email address or by phone or you can pass any information
along to me and I will see that she gets it.
…..Once again we missed a reunion that we
would have loved to attend. Savannah
sounds like a wonderful city, so many interesting and historical places to see.
This has been sort of a tough year, health wise, for Ruth & I both, but there
are better days ahead. Maybe next reunion we can be present!! We do enjoy reading your newsletters and
recognize some of the names. Had a very nice telephone visit with Bud Haskin several months ago. He lives in Minnesota as you know. Same town he talked about back in 1945!! Thank you for everything you do
…..Sincerely, Ken Seckman, 3143 Lori Circle, Simi
Valley, CA 93063-1053
…..My name is David
Palombo
and I’m the National Awareness Coordinator for the
Mesothelioma
Center. While I was browsing through
a number of navy ship sites I came across your website and was very impressed by
the information you have listed. I
‘m writing you because I thought you may be interested in including a link to
our site on your resources page.
Asbestos was commonly used on military vessels and was highly valued for its
resistance to heat and fire. These
materials were extensively used in engine and boiler rooms and other areas
including mess halls, sleeping quarters and navigation rooms.
Products such as cables, gaskets, valves, adhesives and many others also
contained asbestos. Any Naval
personnel working in the construction, repair, demolition or renovation of these
ships were likely exposed to asbestos.
As a result, many veterans are being diagnosed with asbestos disease due to the
exposure they encountered during military service. The Mesothelioma
Center provides a complete list of occupations, ships, and shipyards that could
have put our Veterans at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases. In addition, we have thousands of
articles regarding asbestos and mesothelioma and we’ve
even created a veterans-specific section on our website in order to help inform
them about the dangers of asbestos exposure.
With more than 3,000 pages of content, our site features information on
asbestos,
mesothelioma, and other cancers that are caused by
asbestos exposure (lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, etc.). Unlike other sites, Asbestos.com has
achieved HON code approval (Health on the Net Foundation is a not-for-profit
foundation that works to preserve the accuracy and trustworthiness of Web-based
medical information). Our site has
employed a full staff of writers dedicated to research and writing about
asbestos exposure and the diseases that result from exposure to the toxic
mineral. In addition, our medical adviser and
editor, Dr. Mauricio Salazar, M.D. who has worked in the field of cancer
treatment for years, has personally reviewed, edited and approved all medical
information on our site. If you are
interested or if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at
david@asbestos.com or call me at 407-965-5755.
…..Best Regards, David Palombo, Mesothelioma
Center
…..You can also find additional links on
the Bell website at www.ussbelldd587.org.
…..IF YOU DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO A COMPUTER AND WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ON MESOTHELIOMA PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEND YOU SOME INFORMATION VIA MAIL
…..Kenneth Palmer Lamb was
born April 11, 1924 in Colmore, New Mexico. On January 4, 2010, he left his family
and friends here to join his parents, Kenneth and Naomi, his three children,
four brothers and two sisters in heaven who were waiting for him. Palmer spent his early childhood in
Floyd’s Knob, Indiana, where he attended school.
He graduated from New Albany High School. Palmer served in the U.S. Navy from
December 1942 to 1946. He did a lot
of traveling during those years and had a lot of stories to tell.
In 1959 he came to
California to work for Aerojet. In 1960, his family purchased a home,
where he lived until the end of his life.
Palmer worked at McClellan Air Force Base for a short time. Then, onto the Vallejo
Ship Yard. In 1982, Palmer
left the shipyard and later bought and ran a business called “The Sharp Shop,”
which was located in Rancho Cordova, California.
During these years he was active with Boy Scout Troop #399 and with quite
a number of Little League games.
He was there for the youth and he loved to watch the games.
Palmer was very active with
the V.F.W. Post 10125. He was very
attentive to the Men in Mission at Grace Lutheran Church. He was very loving and kind to everyone. He never saw a stranger. He was a total prankster and we are going
to miss him very much.
A Celebration of Life
service was held on February 20, 2010 at Grace Lutheran Church in Rancho
Cordova, CA. A memorial
service and interment will be at the Military Cemetery in Dixon at a later date.
Lucy’s address is 10934 Cristobal Way, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
It happened every Friday
evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was
starting to dip into the blue ocean.
Old Ed cam strolling along the beach to his favorite pier and clutched in his
bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed
walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to
himself. The glow of the sun is a
golden bronze now.
Everybody’s gone, except for
a few joggers on the beach. Standing
out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts and his bucket of
shrimp. Before long, however, he is
no longer alone. Up in the sky, a
thousand white dots come
screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky
frame standing there on the end of the pier.
Soon, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and
flapping wildly. Ed stands there
tossing shrimp to the hungry birds.
As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, “Thank
you. Thank you.”
In a few short minutes the
bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t
leave. He stands there lost in
thought, as though transported to another time and place. Invariably, one of the gulls lands on his
sea-bleached, weather-beaten old military hat he’s been wearing for years. When he finally turns around and begins
to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him
until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to
the end of the beach and on home.
If you were sitting there on
the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like “a funny old
duck,” as my dad used to say. Or, “a guy that’s a sandwich shy of a picnic,” as my kids might say.
To onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding
the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.
To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether
unimportant,
maybe even a lot of nonsense. Old
folks often do strange things, at least, in the eyes of Boomers and Busters. Most of them would probably write Old Ed
off, down there in Florida. That’s
too bad! They’d do well to know him better.
His full name is Eddie
Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero
back in WWII. On one of his flying
missions across the Pacific, he and his seven=member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived,
crawled out of their plan and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated
for days on the rough waters of the Pacific.
They fought the sun. They
fought sharks. Most of all they
fought hunger. By the either day
their rations ran out. No food. No water.
They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were.
They needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple
devotional service and prayed for a miracle.
They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back
and pulled his military cap over his nose.
Time dragged. All he could
hear was the slap of the waves against the raft…..Suddenly,
Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!
Old Ed would later describe
how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk
from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his
starving crew made a meal – a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it they caught fish, which gave them
food and more bait and the cycle continued.
With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors
of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.
Eddie Rickenbacker lived
many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first
lifesaving seagull. And he never
stopped saying “Thank You”. That’s
why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket
full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.
Eddie was also an Ace in WWI and started Eastern Airlines. (Reference:
In the Eye of the Storm by Max Lucado)
AMAGIRI – A
Japanese destroyer that collided with and sank American PT-109, commanded by
John F. Kennedy.
BAZOOKA – Hand-held, anti-tank
rocket launcher named for a home-made musical instrument used by comedian Bob
Burns.
CHINDITS – Commandos led in
Southeast Asia jungle fighting by English Maj. Gen. Orde
Wingate. The name came from Chinthe, the Burmese word for lion.
DAKOTA – British name for the C-47
Skytrain, the military version of the Douglas DC-3 transport plane.
ENOLA GAY – Name of the B-29 bomber,
commanded by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. that dropped
the atom bomb on Hiroshima.
FIRE STORM – A violent storm created
by flames raging through bombed cities with such force that they generate
whirlwinds and vacuums, dragging victims into the flame and suffocating people
outside the reach of the fire.
GIBSON GIRL – An
emergency radio transmitter for downed airmen. Hand-cranked, it had a “wasp waist” shape
for holding between the knees.
HEINKEL 111-H – A sleek, twin-engine
Luftwaffe bomber. The 1936 plane was
tested in the Spanish Civil War and it was one of the principal craft used to
carry out the 1940 blitz against England.
INVASION FUNNEL –
Pattern of the courses Allied ships in the Normandy invasion took across the
English Channel, converging at one point (code-named Piccadilly Circus), to
follow mine sweepers across the Channel to the Normandy Beaches.
KAMPFGRUPPE PEIPER – A
battle group led by SS Colonel Joachim Peiper which
was responsible for the Malmedy Massacre and other
atrocities during the Battle of the Bulge.
LEBENSRAUM –
“Living space” – Nazi rationale for territorial expansion.
MAD – Magnetic Anomaly
Detection – Devices used in airplanes to locate submerged U-boats.
NEBELWERFER – A German rocket launcher.
PANZERS –
German Tanks.
Panzer means “armor” in German.
ROGER – The Morse Code letter “R”
for “O.K.”, “Received”, etc., became “Roger” in the radiophone voice code and
constant use made it part of the common language.
SALT TABLETS – Pills of plain salt,
given to men doing heavy physical work in hot climates.
U.S.S. BELL Cookbook -
$15.00
White Caps w/USS BELL Logo
in Gold - $12.00
Navy Caps w/WWII Veteran
w/Pacific Ribbons - $15.00
Navy Caps w/USS BELL in Gold
embroidery - $15.00
Navy Golf Shirts w/USS BELL
in Gold embroidery - $20.00
White Golf Shirts w/USS BELL
in Navy embroidery - $20.00
CLOSE OUTS: Ladies Navy Golf Shirts w/USS BELL w/Gold
Embroidery - $10.00
• Postage
for cookbooks & caps - $3.00
• Postage
for shirts - $5.00
Have a safe, happy and
healthy summer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson quote –
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience”.
