MOORE MEMORIES
USS BELL
ASSOCIATION (DD587)
JUNE, 2006
IN THIS ISSUE:
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REUNION INFORMATION
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MAILBAG
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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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