Gertrude Check

"Just found your "Gertrude Check" web site. I thought you and your readers might be interested in the attached. I am the author of Unknown Waters, A First-Hand Account of the Historic Under-Ice Survey of the Siberian Continental Shelf by USS Queenfish (SSN-651) and, of course her skipper during this voyage. The book has been published and will be shipped out to book stores this coming week (vice late March as listed by the Amazon.com web sites. Talks (see attached) and "book signings" are now being set up, with the first one scheduled for Bay Books on Orange Avenue in Coronado, California, the evening of 28 February 2008. No other Navy towns as yet, although other signings have been firned up for the Nautical Archaeological Institute at, and the University itself, at Texas A & M, The Explorers Club in New York City, the Boulder Book Store in Boulder, Colorado, and the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University in England. I would particularly like to do one in the Seattle/Bangor/Pacific Northwest area, if it can be set up, because that was our departure point for the expedition

I will be happy to sign any copies purchased, if mailed to me along with a self-addressed and adequately stamped (about $5.60 postage) envelope.

Best regards,

Alfred S. McLaren

Captain, USN (Ret.), Ph.D.

Director and Senior Pilot

Sub Aviator Systems LLC www.subaviators.com

PO Box 3120

Nederland, Colorado 80466-3120"

(PS: I responded to Capt McLaren with a contact at Keyport Museum for a presentation/book signing)

Please read below, a proposed amendment to USSVI Constitution concerning Holland Club. Please respond to below ads.

(I already have made my view clear to them/Don)

"We at Charleston Base are submitting a proposed amendment to the National Constitution and would like your support in this effort. Those at the National level need to know this is important to all USSVI members. PLEASE pass the following information on to your base leadership, general membership, District Commander and Regional Director.

As you know, currently the Constitution states that one has to be qualified for 50 years or more and be either a National Life Member or be a member in good standing for 5 or more consecutive years. The part we want changed is the 5-year requirement for annual members. As we see it, once a guy is qualified for 50 years he should be inducted into the Holland Club regardless of how long he has been a member of USSVI. That is the main reason, however several other factors can affect a member's eligibility. Since pretty much everyone who is qualified for 50 years is in their 70's a major concern is health. For example: a new guy joins as an annual member and is 75 years old (probably just heard about USSVI) possibly has some health issues and doesn't want (or cannot afford) to spend $200 for National Life membership. He pays dues for four years and he has major medical problems (or even a spouse with problems) and his membership lapses a year. When he re-joins he has to start the 5-year requirement all over again. This in our opinion is totally wrong.

Similarly, what if the member goes on eternal patrol at the 3 or 4-year point (or 4 years, 11 months)? Sure seems like we as an organization can induct these guys and recognize them for their accomplishment without having them "buy" Holland Club membership. We feel this also lives up to our creed.

As mentioned earlier, we believe that when a member reaches the qualified for 50 year milestone he should be inducted into the Holland Club regardless of how long he has been a member of USSVI.

We want you to know that we are submitting this proposal because if it doesn't make the ballot you would never know it was submitted. We also believe that the majority of USSVI members are in agreement with and will support this proposed change. PLEASE discuss this amendment with your base leadership and membership. Also discuss it with your District and Regional Commanders. The National leadership of this organization needs to know that this is an important issue with the membership.

Below is the proposed change:

Currently the article reads as follows:

Section 4: HOLLAND CLUB

A. Any member who has been designated “Qualified in Submarines” for fifty (50) years or more and who is either (a) a National Life Member in good standing, or (b) an annual member in good standing for five or more consecutive years, is eligible to become a member of the “Holland Club” within the organization.

The proposed change is to paragraph A as follows:

Section 4: HOLLAND CLUB

A. Any member who has been designated “Qualified in Submarines” for fifty (50) years or more and who is a member in good standing is eligible to become a member of the “Holland Club” within the organization.

Please send any feed back to me.

Regards,

Carl Chinn, Vice Commander/Membership Chairman/Newsletter

Charleston Base, USSVI"

Respond to

Author Carl Chinn carlc@sc.rr.com

NJVC Householder householderp@comcast.net

C&B CHairman Bill Lee sub_ssn589@yahoo.com

WRD Dave Harnish daveharnish@cox.net

WD4 Cdr Bud Berg crberg@comcast.net

Bremerton Base Commander Don Bassler down-scope@comcast.net

Jim Demott and I discussed start up and maintenance of the USSVI Base Web Site provided by National. As I have most of the images and other information on hand, and I can just as well update the site as relaying it through him to post. He is also a working person and I have the time. I envision this site to eventually replace the Gertrude-Check site as it is easy to update and can provide links to specialty image pages, if needed./Don

As you will note, quite a few our faces are already up on the site. Please consider submitting your face pictures to me. Two for each member. It is suggested that one be from yesteryear and a current one so all can see handsome or beautiful you are or were or both. Instructions on the site. The image should be in JPG format and reduced in SIZE (in pixels) not exceed a WIDTH of 200 pixels or a HEIGHT of 176 pixels. I will resize and crop any images you send.

Lets fill it up, especially with those "then" images.

2008 Lt William "Willie" Spoon Memorial Scholarship Program Update

Scholarship Chairman Bob Webster reports: "To date $1935 has been collected for the 2008 scholarship program that I am personally aware of. Also 63 members have responded (21%) to date with cash and checks from the raffle ticket mailings. NFCU Manager Jim Thompson has pledged $1,000 this year for our scholarship program." BZ!!!

2008 Applications, Instruction and Tips at Mason, Jefferson and Kitsap county high schools and Olympic College. Eligible Students are children or grandchildren of qualified submariners (need not be members) living in those counties or any child or grandchild of a submarine qualified Bremerton Base member in good standing. Bob may be contacted at 360-307-9012 or e-mail rwebster@web-o.net for questions, applications etc. This year, 11- $1250 scholarships will be awarded and a $1250 donation will be made to the USSVI National Charitable Foundation Scholarship Fund

As a member you should have received 10 raffle tickets and a note to be returned in a addressed envelope with any donation to the Scholarship Chairman. If you are unable to sell or buy the tickets, please return them in the envelope. This raffle has a grand prize of $500, and a 2nd prize of $250 plus many, many smaller gift certificates and the like. Please note that over half of the funding for these scholarship are financed by this annual event. Also Bob has left 1000 tickets in the national office with Fred if you need more.

Raffle Prizes (gift certificates) are solicited from local restaurants that we visit 2 or 3 times a year each. Listed to the right are the ones that made contributions in 2007. Also individual members are encouraged to solicit prizes or cash contributions from businesses that you trade with. It is suggested that you go back to the ones you solicited last year for a donation. Here is a pdf file that appeared in last July/August's Puget Soundings that could be used to show what we did. Also this letter (word file) could be used to solicit prizes.

GO GET EM!

As many know, Base Storekeeper Tommy Robinson has really revved up of the Bremerton Base Ships Store. His sense of business has really made the store a profitable venture for the base. His enthusiasm and constant updating of products available for you to purchase is remarkable. He has even started up a webpage for the store and is taking vest orders via an order form. Please take a look here. The page is just a starter and I am sure he will have more info on it later on. His reputation has Subvets around the country ordering from him. Great job Tommy!

An international gathering of submariners in Victoria in May 2008 http://members.shaw.ca:80/saocwest/2008.htm

The Lone Sailor Statue Project Bremerton Base has forwarded a check to the Lone Sailor Statue Project for $1000 and received a thank you npte. According to Co-chairman, Tim Thomson, the base will get permanent recognition. Hopefully you will consider contributing to this project's success. See Donor list here and recently updated.

NEW SKED You can still make your submarine experience count! Trident Training Center (TTF) Command Master Chief Scott Fusco and USSVI Bremerton Base Past Commander John Gardner have a program that lets you share your submarine experience and lessons learned with young sailors graduating from the TTF ET course. Each one of the classes has been named after one of the "Forty One for Freedom". On graduation day Master Chief Fusco invites a team of two Bremerton Base members (preferably that has served on that class's name sake boat) in, to give a short talk on their experiences, etc. We have been involved in two or three of these graduations to date.

Coming up on the following dates are graduating classes with the boat names with members names that served on those boats. TEAM UP! Then/or e-mail John (jgardner@donobi.net) or call him at

360-692-8994.

                      NAVET                                                               Radioman
USS Sam Houston - 15 APR 08 @ 1100               USS Ethan Allen - 04 MAR 08 @ 1100
USS John Marshall - 17 JUN 08 @ 1100                 USS Mario G Vallejo - 16 MAY 08 @ 1100
USS Alexander Hamilton - 19 AUG 08 @1100       USS Thomas Jefferson - 02 SEP 08 @ 1100
USS Andrew Jackson - 15 OCT 08 @ 1100            USS Lafayette - 10 DEC 08 @ 1100

Tribute to Today's Submarine Sailors:

I had the honor of being the guest speaker, representing the USSVI Bremerton Base, for the Electronic Technician Graduation Class (Radiomen) USS Abraham Lincoln(SSBN602) at the Trident Training Facility (TTF) Bangor on 12 December 2007.

It was a great emotional feeling seeing the bright young sailors in dress blues (the old cracker jacks) sitting in the front row intensely listening to and old 76 year old retired Chief telling them how it is was 47 years ago on the pre-commissioning crew for the Abraham Lincoln. They showed respect and complete interest in what I was saying. I looked at them and I could see all the faces of my old shipmates that were once as young and brilliant as they are.

I was very impressed with the caliber of the students in this class. They were as ready to get to their boats as I was fifty two years ago and I think they are better trained on more sophisticated hardware then I was at their age.

I will never question the ability of our young submarine volunteers to safely man our boats again. As an ex- COB I would be honored to have any one in this class aboard any submarine that I was on....We are in good hands gentlemen.

The reason the students graduating from TTF are so well trained and have such a great attitude is the quality of the training staff and the great leadership that they instill in their students. I take my hat off to every one at TTF that is involved with their training. This is why we are Submariners, to teach the young and new to be better qualified and smarter then we are.

"Dirty" Dave
Oliver Dave Davenport FTGC(SS) USN RET.

Subject: USSVI POC Broadcast : #200-004 <Direct Link

Date: 1/30/2008
To: Distribution List

NEWS-01: Norfolk VA Scorpion Memorial Services
NEWS-02: Groton's Annual Super Bash
NEWS-03: Soliciting nominations for the USSVI Awards and Recognition for 2008
NEWS-04: Quick Bytes
NEWS-05: Calling all USS Parche (SSN 683) Shipmates
NEWS-06: Make a Difference, Help improve USSVI!
NEWS-07: Just because... some membership stats
VET-01: TRICARE Goes Digital
VET-02: TRICARE to Cover Lap-Band Procedure
VET-03: VA Offers Hospice Care
VET-04: For Florida Subvets - A New VA Hospital coming for Orlando
VET-05: For Ohio Subvets - Military Pensions Tax-Free in Ohio
VET-06: For Illionis Subvets - Tax Help for Illinois Veterans
VET-07: Save Money on Tri-Care Prescriptions
CHARITABLE-01: Get more bang for your donated buck...

Don "Red" Bassler

Commander

USSVI Bremerton Base

360-479-1642

down-scope@comcast.net

2008 Soup Down Sked

11:45 Start Time

1-4	Sunset Grill, 4926 Point Fosdick Dr NW, Gig Harbor
11	Keeper's Cove Restaurant,7989 Salish Lane NE, Kingston
18	Pats Restaurant, East Bremerton
25	Aztecca, Silverdale
2-1	Harbor Rock Cafe, 6565 Kimball Dr , Gig Harbor
8	Boat Shed, Bremerton, under the Manette Bridge
15	Azteca, 19045 Highway 305, Poulsbo
22	Tony's, 4908 Kitsap Way, Bremerton
29	Clear Water Casino, Suquamish
3-7	Silver City Brewery, 2799 NW Myhre Rd, Silverdale
14	JJ's Fish House, 18881 Front St NE, Poulsbo
21	Sizzler, 3558 Wheaton Way, East Bremerton
28	Cloverleaf Sports Bar and Grill, 1240 Hollis St, Bremerton
4-4	FRA #29, 521 National Ave, Bremerton
11	Brother Don's, 4200 Kitsap Way, Bremerton
18	Whiskey Creek, 1918 Washington Street, Keyport
25	Sunset Grill, 4926 Point Fosdick Dr NW, Gig Harbor
5-2	Keeper's Cove Restaurant,7989 Salish Lane NE, Kingston
9	Mandarin, 2928 Nw Bucklin Hill Rd, Silverdale, Next to Azteca
16	Ceasar's Restaurant, 3621 Wheaton Way, East Bremerton
23	Airport Diner, Bremerton Airport
30	Ponderay Café , Callow Ave Bremerton
6-6	2 Margaritas, 10600 Silverdale Way, Silverdale
13	Pats Restaurant, East Bremerton
20	Whiskey Creek, 1918 Washington Street, Keyport
27	Brother Don's, 4200 Kitsap Way, Bremerton