Thank you sir! I'm just trying to work on getting up through the ranks now and have a long way to go!

I have pics to share from my website from my visit to the USS Drum down in Mobile, AL this past October. Since my visit I've been trying to come up with ways to raise money for the Drum. I feel like it is my duty, like it is what my grandfather would have wanted.

http://www.snakeyez.us/gallery/v/bat...park/uss_drum/

Here is just one of those pics of me and the guy who voluntarily works on the Drum day and night, Tom Bowser.

http://www.snakeyez.us/gallery/d/1487-1/USSDRUM010.jpg

I can't wait to get back down there as soon as the weather warms up and take some more pictures.

I know that feeling. I had six uncles. Four of them fought in the war, and two of them were at Pearl Harbor. I never bothered to ask any of them about their experiences, and they're all gone now. My dad was just barely too young to fight, and he just turned eighty.

Isn't that so odd? What would make us NOT be curious about such amazing wartime personal experiences?

Oh, I just realized that this topic should have probably been started in the "General Topics" board instead of this one. I apologize.

As long as nobody complains, don't worry about it. If one of the moderators thinks it should be moved, he'll move it.

As to questioning our elders, who knows why we do what we do. I've talked plenty about my Vietnam experience, but my own kids could care less. C'est la vie.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks for sharing the photos and memories of an old submariner!:up:

Welcome
 

to subsim. Thanks for sharing those personal pics, thats some awesome stuff man. Your grand father didn't just leave you priceless personal affects he left you with pieces of history. :up:

Yeah, well since this is a "Hello - im new to SH4" it will stay here.

Lots of people start out by saying hello :)

Here is me working on the Torsk.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=517


If you want to contribute to the Drum there are a lot of ways to do it. Not always monetarily either. Often these museums have work weekends. The Torsk hosts two each year. Usually about 35 guys and gals will spend three days cleaning, cycle valves, painting, etc. It is a lot of fun. Sure, we get grimy but we are fed over at the Taney and sleep either on the Torsk or the Taney. We can shower on the Taney and enjoy a BBQ(beer:smug:) on the fantail on the last day. A lot gets done. See if the folks at the Drum schedule these work weekends and make ever effort to attend. You will not be sorry I assure you. I'm fortunate that I'm so close to the Torsk I can go just about every weekend. I really volunteered to restore Torsk because of my uncle mentioned earlier in this post and my other uncle who lives in NJ. He served in the PTO on the carrier. I remember as a kid he and I touring the Torsk. Heck that was back in 1974. Now I'm working on her. His wife, my aunt was a WAVE. She has her name and picture at the women memorial in Washington DC. I went for that dediction years ago. Many people turned out. Women pilots flew over in helicopters. The weather was not the greatest so they cancelled the jets that were to fly out of Andrews AFB. All in all, a great day!

That's pretty cool! I had never read up on the Torsk until just now. She fired the last torpedoes of WWII eh?

Battleship Memorial Park, which houses the USS Alabama battleship and the USS Drum, among other military things, is right on 3 hours away from here. It's crazy difficult trying to plan a trip down there, as we started planning our October trip in June last year.

But yeah, the Drum does have work weekends/days, mostly in warmer weather. The interior is in great shape for the most part, it is just the exterior that got so bad off. Tom Bowser, a retired submariner, practically lives there on the park and has taken up the lead to restore the Drum's outer beauty. He has secured a nice paint donation from Sherwin-Williams and they will also supply a lot of the labor. I also believe he has received a steel donation that will be enough to patch up the exterior. I even think someone had offered to donate sand for a sand blaster. Last I heard he still needed an air compressor, but other than that I think they just needed good weather days this spring to do the work. With the park being open all day to visitors, the sand from the sand blaster was flying around everywhere...so sand blasting timeframe is very short.

The Mobile Bay Base of the USSVI is the main backer of Tom and Lesley. They have a website with a monthly newsletter (in .pdf format) that details the progress of restoration. The newseltter is called "The Signal Ejector" and can be found on the http://www.mobilebaybase.com website.

Yep, last torp sent and last ship sunk. Believe it or not, they used a "cutie". We have one set up in the tube that fired it. We had to ask the Navy permission to load the torp in for display, they gave us the OK. So, check into the work weekend. Plan now. Maybe just make the trip yourself. I do not know your wife/kids situation. My kids will come down with me every now and then. My wife does not. It is like a night out playing poker with the boys but it takes place every Saturday morning with rags and paint:rotfl: Lucky for us, the Torsk goes to dry dock at the Marine Terminals. She is going next year. The ship workers sandblast and add hull plates were she is getting thin in the skin. Then fresh paint and a tug will pull her back to her berth. We do enjoy some nice things from the city concerning the Torsk.

Damn, AVGWarhawk how many times do I have to tell you don't paint the damn megaphone!:rotfl:

Nice to see some folks putting their time in restoration work. We heard rumours some divers found what looks like a u-boat in the Gulf of Paria. Hell, I ain't goin' down there, too many nasty Hammerhead sharks and even worse- Barracudas!:o But it would be nice to bring one up. We found a crashed B-17 in the Northern Range some years ago. The remains of the crew were still inside the plane with their IDs. Sent them to their relatives in the US.