MOORE MEMORIES
USS BELL
ASSOCIATION (DD587)
JUNE, 2006
IN THIS ISSUE:
REUNION INFORMATION
MAILBAG
MISCELLANEOUS
Hello Everyone.
Well, summer is upon us and here in Georgia the
weather is fantastic now. The
temperature is around 80 with a nice breeze most days and blue sky and white
fluffy clouds. It’s just the kind of
weather that calls me outside to work in my yard. The only problem is that I have a hard
time telling myself that I can’t dig as many holes or rake as many leaves as I
used to, so I just take a couple of Motrin before going out to work just so I
can make it back inside. I do enjoy
working in my yard. It’s my kind of
stress therapy. I hope all of you
folks are enjoying the springtime and onset of summer in your part of the
country.
REUNION INFORMATION
Things have been taking shape for our 2006
reunion. I hope everyone has your
calendars marked for the period in September to arrive on the 6th
and depart on the 10th. I
look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Indianapolis.
Remember, hotel reservations must be made
before August 19th in order to have the rate of $89.00 per night.
After the 19th the rooms will be released back to the hotel and any
reservations after that date will be on a first come first served basis.
The phone number for the Marten House Hotel is 1-800-736-5634. Tell them
you are with the USS Bell group.
Wednesday, September 6th is
registration and a little Welcome Reception.
Thursday, September 7th, The
Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana will be taking us on city tour of Indianapolis with stops at
the USS Indianapolis and the World War Memorial and Shrine Room. We will have lunch at the
Rathskeller
Restaurant. The
Rathskeller
Restaurant is in the historic, 19th century Athenaeum Building
downtown and is reminiscent of a quaint little inn tucked in the Bavarian hills.
It was voted best German Restaurant seven years in a row.
It was established in 1894 and is the city’s oldest restaurant still in
operation today.
Friday, September 8th, we will
be going to the famous Brickyard for a tour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Hall of Fame Museum. We will also be
treated to a spin around the Speedway
which is an awesome experience. We
won’t be traveling as fast as the Indy cars, but it is truly an experience just
to be driven around the track. We
will have lunch at the Brickyard Crossing Golf Resort and
Inn.
Saturday, September 9th, we
will have a business meeting and memorial service, after which we will have our
auction. We have had so much success
with our auction and it also has a tendency to provide quite a few laughs and
entertainment. All money made from
the auction goes into the Bell
treasury. If you can bring just one
gift for the auction it will help to make some money for the little extras for
the reunions. Also, we will continue
the tradition of the raffle. If you
want to participate in the raffle, you must bring a small gift for the exchange. Saturday night will be our farewell
dinner.
Sunday, September 10th, we will
depart the reunion with a lot of great memories.
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MAILBAG
…..Thank you so much for the hat, shirt
and mug. That was a great surprise. Tom told me about Mike passing away. He was such a great guy. What a great time we had in Miami and on the cruise. That was a great time! I hope to go the next reunion in Indiana. I can drive there. I was with Tom and Wayne at the VFW for
corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day.
We had a good time. Again,
thank you and the Bell
group so much. The only trouble
going to the reunion, I can’t walk very far.
My left leg is not very good, so I will have to see what the activities are. Again, Ann,
Thanks.
Love to All, Jim Humbert, 1810 Marywood Avenue, Aurora, IL 60505
…..I am happy that someone remembered our
ship. I remember your uncles Glen &
William Sanders well. I ate their cooking for thirty two months. I am sorry to see that so many of my
shipmates that I knew are deceased.
Commander Petross was our first Commander. He was a great one. We didn’t enter a port that he didn’t
have liberty secured and somebody going ashore.
I am 89 the twentieth of April.
My wife and I have been married 56 years the 26th of March.
We have two daughters and a son and between them we have seven grand children
(five girls and two boys) and 3 great grandsons and two great granddaughters.
I am writing this letter and hope you can read it. I won’t be able to attend the reunion,
but thank you for inviting me. Sorry
I can’t be there.
As always, your shipmate, Robert T. Baker, USNR MM2/c, DD587 USS BELL
120 E. College,
Corsicana, Texas 75110
P.S. I was the throttle man in the aft
engine room until they moved me to forward engine room to make fresh water for
the ship. The called me the Salt
Water King. HaHa.
…..My name is Kenneth
DeMars. My grandfather, who passed away in
February 2004, was an electrician’s mate, on the USS BELL during the Pacific
Campaign of WWII. He was very active
in Bell reunions until my
grandmother got sick in 1996. She
died shortly thereafter and then I think his loneliness caused disinterest. I was wondering if anyone had
information, stories or pictures of my grandfather during that time. I am currently trying to capture his
DD214 and service record as a gift to my father.
Any help that you may provide would be greatly appreciated. Is it possible to send out a notice to
other crew members to ask if they might have any photos or stories about my
grandfather? I am also writing a book about my
family’s contributions to our nation through military service and first hand
accounts would be very beneficial.
Kenneth W. DeMars,
SFC, US Army Platoon Sergeant, Ft. Detrick, MD –
301-619-3679
Kenneth DeMars@us.army.mil
…..Hi Ann & USS
Bell People – Good to receive the newsletter from you. I was afraid the storm down south had
blown you all away. The last time I
wrote to you, I had trouble walking.
I had arthritis but with the help of my wife and medication I have whipped the
disease and can walk again. Also, my
wife had cancer and has whipped it.
I am still raising a vegetable garden and giving most of it away. I finally had my 80th birthday
on Christmas Day. My wife and son
gave a birthday party for me, my two children, eight grandchildren and seven
great grand children.
Twenty two at the party. The
neighbor down the street is a local news reporter for the local paper. She had her friend, also a reporter
interview me about my Navy service on the
Bell
during WWII for the salute to our Veterans to be printed on Veterans Day. I am sending you the local home town
paper and a photo of the USS Bell, a model of the ship my son gave me. It is above my fire place. It’s 30 inches long and is of wood and
some metal. Seeing the model of the
ship made tears come to an old man’s eyes.
I can’t give an answer to you about being at the reunion, but traveling at my
age is a little difficult. I am sending
you a check for my membership dues.
I lost the form for the Silver Star.
If you have a copy, please send it.
James R. Hanson, 1140 Cedar, Willows, CA 95988
…..Ralph Thomas Marino, 85, a longtime
resident of Sierra Vista,
Arizona
passed away in peace at Sierra
Vista Regional Health Center
on Sunday, March 12, 2006. Ralph
Marino was born in Brooklyn, NY on Christmas Day, December 25, 1920 to
Bernadette Martone and Frank Marino. He was the oldest of seven siblings and
grew up in New York City
during the Great Depression. He left
home at 17 and went west to join the Civilian Conservation Corps. At 18, he returned home and enlisted in
the US Navy in 1939. He served as a
machinist mate during WWII and served a second enlistment during the Korean War.
He saw battle at Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941, and was a crewmember of the destroyer USS Bell, which participated in
numerous engagements with the Pacific Fleet under Admiral Halsey.
He married Violet Loretta Ozborn of Brooklyn, NY
while on furlough in 1942. After the
war, he continued his federal service as a police officer in Washington, DC. He retired from federal service in 1962,
and he and Loretta moved to Sierra
Vista. They began and raised a family. He was active as a local businessman
during Sierra Vista’s early
growth in the 1960’ and 1970’s and was a member of the Rotary. He also served on the hospital’s Board of
Directors, which oversaw the first major expansion of the facility. He retired from business in the early
1980’s and since has devoted his time to his wife and daughters and their
families. His wife Loretta passed
away in 2002. He is survived by his
three daughters and their families: Kathleen Samples and her husband, Tracy of
Chicago, IL; Tina Shaffer, her husband, Dennis and their children, Thomas and
Danielle of Sachse, Texas and Adelaide
Vidinski, her husband Walter and their children Lauren and Andrew of
Sierra Vista. Also surviving are three brothers and
many nephews and nieces. At the time
of his death, Mr. Marino was the Treasurer of the local chapter of the Disabled
American Veterans. In his Last Will
& Testament, he requested a burial a Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery with full military honors. Graveside services were held at 1 pm
Friday March 17, 2006 at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery with
Rev. Gregory Adolf officiating. Adelaide Marino Vidinski, 2853
Palmer Drive, Sierra Vista, AZ 85650
…..It is with deepest sorrow to inform you
that Ralph T. Marino, a shipmate on the Bell has passed on. Ralph can be remembered as a co-editor of
the popular Sailing News which provided many hours of fun to the crew of the BELL, especially those who
remembered its release weekly.
Sincerely, Ben Lipkin,
9750 N. 96th St., Apt 177, Scottsdale, AZ 85258
…..I just wanted to let you know how
excited I was to see a picture of my father on your website! My father, Donald L. Nash is the person
listed as Nash in your old pictures of the crew. Sadly, he died on January 27, 2003 at the
age of 80. I may have some
additional pictures that I could email you.
I will have to check my father’s office to see what he may have kept.
Kimberly Nash-Yore,
kmnash@yahoo.com, 216-521-9797
Acknowledgement –
…..Your kind expression of sympathy was
deeply appreciated and is gratefully acknowledged.
The Michael DiVeronica Family.
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MISCELLANEOUS
DID YOU KNOW?
…..On May 31, 2002 Secretary of the Navy
Gordon R. England ordered the First Navy Jack “Don’t Tread On Me” to fly over all ships’ bows as symbols of our
freedom and our resolve to triumph in our war on terrorism.
THE CODE – The Code used by the Navajo
Code Talkers created messages by first translating Navajo words into English,
then using the first letter of each English word to decipher the meaning. Because different Navajo words might be
translated into different Navajo words for the same letter, the code was
especially difficult to decipher.
For example, for the letter “A,” the Code Talker could use “wol-la-chee”
(ant), “be-la-sana,” (apple), or “tse-nil”
(ax.) Some military terms that had
no equivalent in Navajo were assigned their own code word. The word America, for example, was “ne-he-mah”
(Our Mother). Submarine became “besh-lo” (iron fish).
Military commanders credited the Code with
having saved the lives of countless American soldiers and with the successful
engagements of the U.S.
in the battles of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and
Okinawa. At Iwo Jima,
Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division Signal Officer, had six
Navajo Code Talkers working around the clock during the first forty-eight hours
of the battle. Those six sent and
received more than 800 messages, all without error. Major Connor declared, “Were it not for
the Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”
So long for now. Hope to see a lot of you at the reunion. Please keep sending your stories. I love to get them and our members love
to read them as well. Have a safe
and blessed summer.
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