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USS
Moosbrugger Association
April 24, 2006 - A Rainy Day in D.C. I've managed to find one update, the last voyage of the Moose from Mayport to Phillie. It's not exactly information packed, but it is a really good insight from the Moosbrugger family perspective. Please read it. Any other news items are always welcome - for our history pages. February 20, 2006 - Presidents Day Well, I must have a day off! It's time to post the latest email updates to the Roster. I haven't made much progress on the reunion - could use some help. Right now, I'm helping a shipmate from the USS Reeves to put together a first reunion in Boulder. It's good experience in planning, but slows down the planning for the Moose. So, if there's enought interest out there for getting together next Fall, like after school starts, let me know. January 13, 2006 Happy New Year to everyone! The number of inquiries about a reunion are increasing - this is great! To keep the lines of communication open, I have procured a Post Office box in the name of the Moosbrugger Association (that I established on the spot, don'tchaknow). This will make it easier to get mailing information for newsletters, crewmembers that don't have access to email or the web and get us set up for a 2007 reunion. I am going to contact Military Reunions to Remember and try to get the ball rolling. There should be news along that line soon. The biggest thing is getting both a complete email and mailing list together. I have collected well over 100 email addresses and will be putting a e-newsletter out (it'll be brief - don't delete it as spam). Around all of this activity, the biggest thing will be getting a mailing list together. So, if you've communicated by email, send me another with your mailing address. Gathering this information is crucial to organizing a reunion. Mailing Address:
Bad News - This just in from our shipmate Alan Turrill (ET2, 1985-1989). The Hancock, Moosbrugger and Radford have been reclassified by the Navy from Mobility B status (Inactive Reserve) to Disposal status (SINKEX or scrap). It doesn't come as a big surprise since so many of the Spruance class have already met the same fate. It's just hard to see your ship on that list - especially when you've ridden on each of them at some time or another. Personnally, I'd rather see the ship serve some training purpose rather than end up as razor blades and lawn furniture. I don't think there's enough support to try and save the Moose through a donation hold - that is very convoluted and expensive. Being a member of the Forrest Sherman Foundation and saving her was a real nail-biter over several years. The 2006 Defense Appropriation Bill finally provided the funds to release the Sherman from INACTSHIPS in Philadelphia and move her to Baltimore as part of the Living Classroom Program at the Inner Harbor. (Some of you old-timers may remember that the Sherman was homeported in Charleston when the Moose first arrived back in 1978.) I'm giving the soapbox back to a lunchtime orator in front of the White House. Let's get those cards and letters started, shipmates! October 23, 2005 Now that the vacation season is over, school has started (for those with school-age kids), and the last ship or family reunion has wrapped up successfully, it's time to start looking forward to the next events. Things are moving slowly toward our goal of reassembling the combined crew of the Moose for the first time. Reunion News - John Burek, one of our mates, contacted Military Reunions to Remember after attending a memorable reunion of the USS William V. Pratt (DLG-13/DDC-44) Reunion Association. MRTR has sent a sample package that is very complete and scalable, depending upon our needs. If we are going to have a reunion, there needs to be some forward movement very quickly. A good target time frame is Spring or Fall 2007 in Charleston. Fall is probably better - avoiding the no-see-ums and Carolina humidity (and it gives us more time to get our collective act together. The Moosbrugger Association - We need to form an association as our first step. This provides us with the means to build up a modest treasury for incidental expenses that will be required for reunion planning. The structure of the assocation can be formalized at our first reunion bull session - but, at least the basics need to be in place soonest. MRTR can help us with this. For the time being, I, your erstwhile rabble rouser, have stepped up to the plate to lead, follow and get out of the way when necessary, until we can finally get together in Charleston. My wife has accepted the fact that all things Moose will sit on the kitchen table for the next couple of years. We have both been to several reunions for different ships and have always found them to be a lot of fun. Mailing List - Many of you have responded with your email address and years-on-board info. We need to assemble a mailing list for reunion planning. A post office box will be rented to provide a drop point for any mail to the association. For the time being, it will be located at the Mt. Vernon, VA, post office (yes, George's place). Our biggest problem is going to be contacting the thousands of you who served in Moose over 20 years of active service. For that, any and all help from each of you will be appreciated. Drop me an email with your information. Charleston Planning - DSC Mike Roberts lives in Summerville and has volunteered to be our contact for planning in the Charleston area. (Actually, he lives in Sangaree which used to be east of Summerville down the Ashley River Road, as I recall. My son tells me that Summerville has more than doubled in size since 1983.) Read down to see the Charleston info that was posted earlier. Events, Costs and Expenses - For the first union, MRTR would waive the normal per-member registration fee. They would also help us to organize our association, locate shipmates, put together a newsletter and arrange our schedule and events. Our direct costs would be on a per-individual basis: that is, the fee/cost for those events that each attendee selects (tours, dinners, etc.) First of all, we need to establish a date and length. I recommend October, 2007, over a long weekend - maybe Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning. A couple of tours can be scheduled for Friday and Saturday. I also recommend an hors d'ourves, wine, beer and soda gathering on Friday night, and a buffet or banquet dinner on Saturday night. If we have a banquet dinner, we should probably also have a guest speaker. also. If we are going to have a dinner, banquet or buffet, a deposit will be required by the hotel - not sure when this would be required (MRTR will tell us that). That means we need an early count of attendees (shipmates, spouses and guests) so that hotels can be contacted well in advance for bidding purposes. It isn't unusual for hotels to be booked a couple of years in advance. Anything we want to include is really up to us. Do we want a ship's store? (If so, how do we fund it?) Are we going to have a raffle or a 50/50 drawing as seed money for the next reunion? Do we want to have a special recognition event, a beach party or anything else? This doesn't have to be planned now, but we need to keep it in mind. Typical Costs - These estimates are based on usual costs from previous reunions that I have attended. They are not actual costs for any planned reunion:
It's not too soon to start putting aside a $5 every week to get ready. March 24, 2005 - It's Easter Reunion Update - As you can see in the Deck Log, there is growing support for Charleston. Nearly half of you have specifically chosen Charleston. For this first go-around, I'm thinking that a committee may not be a good idea. Everything I've read from "professional" reunion organizers, the first one is typically a effort of a committee of one, and a couple of helpers. Once the reunion becomes a reality, a future reunion committee can be formed from the participants. It's important to find bedrock before building the foundation (a Michael-ism). Admiral Moosbrugger Biography - Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, has been contacted for more information about VADM Moosbrugger, the second Superintendent at the converted Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. The NPS PAO will dig through the archives to get us more information and a good photo of Admiral Moosbrugger during his three year tour there. Needed - Ship's History - The ship's history on these web pages (and almost everywhere else on the internet) was pulled from the COMDESRON 14 home page. It picks up with the Moosbrugger's homeport change in 1995, but fails to mention the first 15 years. There is a lot that happened in that period...and we need to find it. March 21, 2005 - Happy First Day of Spring! Reunion News – There will be in Moose reunion in our future. Every "expert planning" page has provided an 18-month timeline. It's looking like Spring 2007 for our first gathering. Those who provided a preference have indicated that Charleston is the place for it to be, at least for the first reunion.
Expectations – We could have a really big turnout, or not. Right now, there are 29 crew members that have said let’s go for it (see the table at Reunion News). With spouses and guests, that would mean about 60 attendees – assuming everyone is able to make it. Realistically, we’re probably talking about 50. That’s a pretty good number for a first reunion. Some older ships have trouble getting 30 people together. Some things to be remembered are the number of crew members with young families, people heavily into their careers (usually under the age of 60), and the small number of fully retired crew members. Examples of this effect include the USS Renshaw (DD 499), decommissioned in 1972 – the youngest crew member is nearing 50; USS Forrest Sherman (DD 931), decommissioned in 1982- the youngest crew member is about 35; and, the Moose, decommissioned in 2000 – the youngest crew member is about 25. That means that reunions will grow the longer the ship is decommissioned. Alternate Options – Rather than planning a full out reunion, complete with a formal dinner, we could have a one or two day bull session over a weekend. This would be an excellent way to gauge actual interest and lay a foundation for a complete reunion in following year or so. Of course, spouses would be included, but there wouldn’t be a formal dinner or tour activities. It’s probably a little easier to organize, for a first-time event. Problem – We don’t have a good contact list, just an email list that isn’t very large. A lot of people are anti-email and could only be contacted by snail mail or phone. That’s going to take time to build. It’s going to take the help of everyone reading this to gather all of that information. And, it needs to be sent to a central gathering place – like this website. So, help out and email me with lots of information...If you are interested in a recommended checklist and haven't already been to the page, take a look at this one...
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Updated November 27, 2006 |
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