USS BELL
ASSOCIATION (DD587)
JULY, 2010
IN THIS ISSUE:
Ø MAILBAG
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”.
