Saturday, April 30, 2011

The End and the Beginning

The 2011 Hazelwood reunion in Jacksonville, FL ended officially last night after the banquet and relaxation in the hospitality room. Based on the comments of the 43 shipmates that attended, it was a very successful reunion and enjoyed by all. There were 7 shipmates attending that never had been to a Hazelwood reunion in the past and all said they would be coming to the next one. Future postings will have photos of the reunion and links to albums of all the candid photos I took during the reunion.

The planning for the next reunion is already beginning. The next reunion will be in 2013 in the Newport, RI area with Richard Ernst, ET2, 59-63 as chairman and Jim Julian assisting. Richard lives in Newport and has extensive local knowledge that will be valuable in the selection of a site. I will continue with the Blog postings and keep shipmates informed by mail and email.

It will be held in late April with the date of April 29 as one of the reunion days so that we can commemorate the Kamikaze attack on that date in 1945. Mark your calendars and plan to attend.

Smooth sailing,

Jim Julian

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Everything is happening on April 29!!

I am in the final stages of the reunion planning and I am starting to gather up all the needed item to take to Jacksonville this coming week. I will leaving North Port early on Tuesday so I can arrive early that day. There is lots to do!!

I need to pick up the caps and shirts that have been ordered. We need to get the supplies for the Hospitality room. I have to get the registration desk ready to be quickly set up on Wednesday AM and get the coffee brewing in the hospitality room. Even with all that is going on it will be a fun time.

I have been somewhat disappointed in the number of cancellations though. We will have only 43 shipmates attending. Each shipmate will get a list of those attending.

Now, what all is going on April 29th in addition to our banquet?? At about 4 AM in the morning the royal wedding in England will be shown on TV. At about 3 PM in the afternoon a shuttle launch will be going up from Cape Canaveral. Since we can sometimes see them from the gulf coast I am sure we may get a glimpse of it heading for orbit from Jacksonville.

So it is a busy day for many different people.

Today I just received a package from the son of W. B. Smith who served on the Hazelwood at Okinawa. I will be taking the items to the reunion so they can be put on display. When I gt back I will have photos taken of them so you all can see them on this site.

Smooth sailing.

Jim Julian

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Scrapping of the Hazelwood

Several weeks ago I was contacted by Stewart Abelson from La Mesa , CA. In the 1976 he was buying various items from the government and received information about items that were for sale. Even though he did not intend buying ships, he received information about ships that were for sale.

The following pictures are of a document offering the Hazelwood for sale in 1976. There are several pages of information about the items as well as pictures of the engineering items. I found it interesting that they appraised the value of the Hazelwood at $152,000.




Reunion Door Prizes

In the past several weeks I have received door prizes that were donated to our reunion. These will be given away in drawings at the banquet on Friday evening.

TIN CAN SAILORS has donated one-year of free membership;  a complimentary copy of the book DESTROYERS LOST AND DAMAGED; a complimentary copy of the book HISTORIC NAVAL SHIPS VISITOR'S GUIDE; two $5.00 gift certificates for use in The Tin Can Sailors Ships Store; and one $10 git certificate for use in  The Tin Can Sailors Ships Store.

D. L. SEARS BOOKS has donated a 2012 TIN CAN CALENDAR. It will be mailed to the winner in December of this year. I will have a copy of the TIN CAN CALENDAR 2011 to look at. The non-winners may wish to order their own copy of this calendar. Each month has a full color rendering of a destroyer involved in various operations.

The calendar also includes "Roll Calls" for each ship. These list the names of those who served on the various destroyeers. Any "Tin Can Sailor" can have his name added at no cost to the roll call for the ship(s) he served on.

Smooth sailing, Jim julian

Monday, April 4, 2011

Patches, Taps and reunion guest

Several shipmates have asked about the availability of Hazelwood patches. Well I have good news. Ed Schroeder, 62-64 will be attending the ships reunion AND he has arranged to bring a supply of patches with him that he will be making available at a nominal cost. The patches are from both eras of the Hazelwood so regardless of when you, served you will be able to get the patch you want from him.

While talking to Ed Schroeder today, he informed of a shipmate of his and ours that passed away in 2010. Art Godown passed away in 2010. Ed recalls that he was a BT in the engineering department. Art attended many of the reunions and was at the most recent one in Philadelphia. If you go back to the archives of this blog and look at the posting of SEP 13, 2009 there is a video of the Philadelphia attendees and Art is shown on in that video.

Sherwood Bradford, 45-46 had intended to attend the reunion but his health is not allowing him to do so. However he has a brother-in-law living in Jacksonville and he will be attending in Sherwood's place. Bill  Tardiff will be visiting in the hospitality room and may have dinner with us. You may find it interesting to chat with him since I am sure he has some very interesting stories.

BILL TARDIFF IS A PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR. When you see him, give him a warm welcome.