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Home of the "Weather
Guesser's"
Northwest Chapter
(Formally Puget Sound Chapter, WA)
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Source:
Aerograph November 2009
HEALTH OF LT FRANK BAILLIE USN RET
Frank Baillie is recovering from serious heart surgery.
His current address is: Washington Veteran’s Home, Wing E, Room
207-A,
P. O. Box
698
,
1141 Beach Drive
,
Retsil
,
WA
98378
. He would certainly appreciate any cards or letters sent to him.
The Northwest Chapter slid its meeting from September to 30 August at
Submarine Base Bangor. President
Earl Kerr
and wife Lynn provided steak,
sausage and corn on the cob. The
rest of the good food was provided by members attending.
The only thing missing from a good weatherman’s picnic were
thunder and hail showers. Instead
we had light wind and bright sunshine.
Giving notice ahead of time that they would not be able to attend
were
Dick and Barbara Gilmore
, Wayne and Betsy Olsen, Fred Olson
and Merilyn Brosseau, Dennis and Tara Ruth, and Phil Humble and Jeanne
Hamadyk. Missing and
unaccounted for were Jim Northup,
Jim Black and Louise Ogle, and Tom and Sharon Southworth.
Southworth’s it turned out missed the meeting notice.
Because the Northwest Chapter moves its meeting places around its
large area to accommodate members some members are expected to attend
meetings only when they are in their area.
During the meeting President
Earl Kerr
called Frank Ballie’s room at the hospital but received no response to
the call. The chapter at each
meeting does what it calls Typhoon Platoon (it could have been called
Hurricane Platoon but the Hurricane group was outnumbered).
From Dee Berrian and daughter Linda we learned they have been conserving
water as it is very dry down in their area.
She was visited by Ken Boden
and is looking forward to a trip to
Utah
and
Colorado
. Also a family gathering at
Thanksgiving. Bob
Coppo and Dorothy Huff spent time at Pacific Beach Resort and
Conference
Center
(which is an old Navy Communication Station) where they practiced their
kite flying skills. Shortly
they will fly to
Holland
to visit relatives and obtain visas to enter
Kazakhstan
where they will visit family in that county working for Shell Oil Company.
In late June Earl and
Lynn
Kerr with their knowledge of old logging roads and ATV’s were able
to supply their freezer with many bags of wild blackberries.
Currently Earl is converting a work shed to a storage shed
including changing the flat roof to a peaked roof. Ken
Boden (whom recently lost his wife Marion, and came clear across the
state from near
Spokane
,
WA
) traveled to
Cedar City
,
Utah
and
Boise
,
Idaho
visiting with a daughter and grandson.
Ken and a son are restoring an old refrigerator rail car.
He had hoped to add a caboose but the moving fee alone were
estimated to be $21,000.
Dan and Marilyn Collins
did a 12 day Elderhostel trip to
Newfoundland
. On the way hone they spent
10 days with Dan’s daughter and granddaughter in
Maryland
, and visited Dan and Ethel Story
whom he last saw 56 years ago while stationed at NWC Washington, D. C.
To make life more interesting they flew east on Air
Canada
, and west on AMTRAK. The next
two meetings will be held on
November 1, 2009
and
January 10, 2010
. They finished the meeting leaving the picnic area as clean, or cleaner
than when they occupied it.
Submitted by LCDR Dan Collins USN RET
Source:
Aerograph August 2009
President J Earl
Kerr
VicePres Phil Humble
Secretary Dan Collins
Treasurer Jim Black
VP East Ken Boden
VP So. Dennis Ruth
Lack of WA state
car carrying ferrys and extensive repairs to the
Hood
Canal
bridge wrought havoc to our NW Chapter’s meeting schedule.
Our next meeting may be a picnic in the “Rec” area of the
Bangor
,
WA
Sub Base in September.
Wayne & Betsy Olsen enjoyed a week on the beach on
Oahu
staying in the former NAS Barber’s Point Cabins.
Fortunately the Navy held on to that recreational area although the
station was manned by the USCG.
Jim Black recently had successful cataract surgery on both eyes
including a pair of lens implants which have allowed him to retire his
glasses.
Recent widower,
Ken Boden, drove from eastern WA to visit Dee
Berrian, widow of the late CDR
George Berrian. They had
been
Cedarville
,
WA
schoolmates many years ago & they enjoyed “old time friend” visits
with other classmates still in the area.
Like a good (but distant) neighbor, he also mowed
Dee
’s LARGE lawn. Ken & his
son Tom have a new puppy which they have already house trained. It has
been a great morale builder for the two men.
Congratulations
to Captain Gary Fisher SC USN ret (former AG1) & wife Lois (former SK3) who will celebrate a 50th Wedding
Anniversary on 5 July 2009.
Gary
has been diagnosed with Peripheral Neuropathy as a result of Agent Orange
exposure in
SE Asia
. It is anticipated that his
60% VA disability will increase to 80%.
”If a nation
values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony
is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that
too.”
W. Somerset
Maugham
Dick & Barbara Gilmore, two sons & one grandson drove to
Corvalis
,
OR
on 12 June to attend the OSU graduation of their recently married grand
daughter on the 13th in Reser Stadium.
Her husband also graduated with aPhD in plant genetics.
It was a nice time & the first in some time when most of the
family could get together. Dick
suffered with allergies from the grass seed crops of the
Willamette
Valley
but decided that the visit was well worth it.
He’ll have another trip to OR in the near future to attend a VW-1
Typhoon Chaser reunion.
Dennis & Tara are currently exploring local & area
attractions. They call it
“stay-cationing”. For one,
the 300 wineries of the
Willamette
Valley
opened their doors in the spring & the couple stocked up with a few
favorites (no they haven’t visited all of them).
Other favorite include the Pacific coast & Wildlife Safari in
Winston, OR (just south of Roseburg) where over 500 assorted animals roam
freely in their natural habitat. Visitors
drive through the area on a 4 ½ mile dirt road.
It reminded Dennis of a one day safari in the Amboseli Game reserve
Kenya
during a deployment (that must have been an interesting deployment.
(Did you meet any of President Obama’s relatives, Dennis?)
The Ruths have
become big time users of the Skype program connecting regularly with their
youngest daughter Karen in
Munich
& other distant friends & relatives (for free).
They are looking forward to a two week visit by Karen & her
husband.
”Efficiency
can never be substituted for due process. Is not a Dictatorship the
“more efficient” form of government? Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshal.
An E-mail from
NWSA President/ NW NWSA Chapter Prez Earl
(& Lynne) Kerr attended Reunion 35 in
Jacksonville
. The event was well attended
and there were some 127 meals served at the Sunday banquet which was a
buffet. I did take over as
President and it is somewhat ironic that I relieved Bill Bowers this year
and he will relieve me next year in
Dallas
. The hotel had great
accommodations for a reunion and served very good food.
Having said that, let me say a bit about the rain.
We had rain every day and occasionally went to Thunder One.
The welcome Aboard Party, which was scheduled to be held on the
patio was moved into the Hospitality Room due to the rain.
We did get to go
camping on the Olympic Peninsula over the Memorial Day holiday with our
son Steven, daughter in law and grand daughter.
We ran our ATV's along several miles of DNR (dirt?) roads and the
weather was excellent. Lynne
was in the lead most of the time and she saw a very large black bear
running down the road ahead of us. Too
bad she stopped as that gave the bear an early out and thus the rest did
not even get a glimpse of the bear.
Both Lynne and I
have been busy in the garden and have had some success.
My peas were advertised to grow to 4 feet and at last count they
were topping 6 feet. Conversely,
lots things like beans did not make it at all which was probably due to
little varmints digging up and eating the seeds.
We will however have corn, knee high by the 4th of July.
Cheers to all. James Earl
Kerr.
“A people that
values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” Dwight
Eisenhower
Jim Northup has been busy with home repairs & planning for the
wild blackberry season. He usually prepares 30 gallons for jams every
year.
*U of WA
“Husky” Fred Olson is
preparing for the new college football season.
In pre WW2 days he was a two way End (defensive end &
receiver). He was also the team’s kicker.
Fred & his lady friend Merilyn are frequent travelers &
will be heading east soon to see friends & family in the DC area.
Submitted by LT Frank Baillie
USN RET
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