March 2004 Newsletter
Reunion News
Yes,
last year’s Fall River reunion was well attended and lots of fun!
But there’s another, reunion just ahead:
New Orleans,
Louisiana 2004 “The Big Easy”
The
reunion committee, which was represented by Bill Quinn ’45-46, Perry Ballinger
’59-’61 and Paul Wieloszynski ’69-‘72, made the choice for this venue
because it was in the South, it’s centrality, lots to do, and, best of all,
was a Fox port of call. Here are the details, and updates can be found on the
web site:
Date: October
21-23, 2004
Hotel: Holiday Inn Metairie 3400
I-10 Service Road
Metairie, LA 70001, 800-465-4329, Mention Myles C Fox DD/R-829 when making reservations: $72.64/night
w/tax.
Activities:
Friday: 2 PM – 9 PM Guided City Tour aboard bus followed by
a Jazz Dinner Cruise aboard SS Natchez Sternwheeler on Mississippi River. Total
cost of Tour and Dinner Cruise is $84.00 each, including dinner, taxes and
all transportation to/from hotel.
Saturday: D-Day Museum 1 - 4PM Cost: $20 per person. Includes transportation to/from hotel.
(PRINT AND CUT AT DOTTED LINES AND MAIL TO ADDRESS SHOWN BELOW)
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Saturday Banquet at Hotel
Cost:
$35.00 per person, includes tax/gratuity. Three
Entrees:BAYOU CHICKEN or RIBEYE STEAK (12oz) or GRILLED RED FISH
Choice of five side dishes: CRAWFISH MASHED POTATOES or GARLIC ROASTED
MASHED POTATOES or TWICE BAKED POTATOES or BOURBON MASHED SWEET POTATOES or RICE
PILAF. Dinner includes Salad or Gumbo/Rolls & Butter, Dessert, Coffee/Iced
Tea, CASH BAR
Registration: Circle
dinner/tour selections: send payment, AND Friday/Saturday tour
selections to:
Perry Ballinger
2468 Bellevue SW
Massillon, OH 44647
330-832-8612 or e-mail: w8au@sssnet.com
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Ship’s Store
All
of our items are available via mail, and also will be at the reunion. We have:
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DD and DDR Fox ballcaps @ $25.00 each
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Fox jacket patches at $8.00
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CD versions of 59-60, ’70 and ’72 Fox Cruisebooks for $15.00
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Zippo lighters: $25.00. Beauts!
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CD’s of ’52-’54 photos $15.00 each.
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Video VHS or CD of 2003 Reunion
All
proceeds support the Fox Ass’n.
ASSOCIATION UPDATES
Last
newsletter included a request for financial support for the Fox Association.
The response was overwhelming, and I suppose we should not have been
surprised. A total of 186 men responded totaling $8,900.00!!
Our total assets, including the ship’s store inventory and bank
statement are now over $12,000.00 as of this writing!!
Sixteen of the 187 men who responded sent in Life Memberships of $200.00!
Yes, that IS a lot of money for what seems like a small DD/DDR
association, but this membership fund permits us to do plenty of things that
other groups have difficulty doing:
·
Mailing
Materials/postage
·
Newsletter
Printing
·
Web
hosting/registration/software
·
Misc.
Reunion expenses, printing.
·
Ship’s
store inventory/
·
Incorporation
expenses
It
is our stated goal to support the Destroyer Museum at Battleship Cove, once we
have enough excess funds and a member vote on how much to offer; we will have an
executive committee meeting breakfast meeting 10/23 and expect to have a very
short general meeting at the banquet. More details just prior to the reunion.
We are creating a reunion committee for 2005 for the 50th anniversary of the Fox commissioning in Bath, Maine, so let us know if you want to contribute your time and talent. We anticipate having Fox family present for the event!!
Postal/e-mail shipmate list
Fox
shipmate list is now up to 876 and the number of names of shipmate is 2,459. We
have come a long way since Bill Quinn started this reunion activity back in
1993; I’m not sure he ever thought his work would reach out and touch so many
men. This newsletter includes the complete list for your review, in
chronological order. Please let us
know about errors, omissions, or updates. We
are working on purchasing shipmate lists from each of the 34.5 years of the
ship’s service to make a complete list, and have a few volunteers for the
process of gleaning them, but need a few more.
Let us know if you can help.
Volunteers & Committees
We need a few men to help with some of the work later this
year at the hotel & banquet, tours, etc.
Please contact Perry Ballinger 330-832-8612 or Paul Wieloszynski
813-872-8739.
Websites
Our Fox website at http://MylesCFoxDD829.net
continues to be the largest single-ship site in the World!
Hard to imagine, but there over 2,000 pictures and files on the site, and
it will only be three years old in May 2004.
We continue to receive photos and other memorabilia to include in the
site, and that’s what makes it so great, so please let us know if you have
something to share. We have lots of folks from around the World looking at it,
too, as we are averaging about 3,400 “page views” every day.
If you don’t have a computer and haven’t seen the site, go to the
local public library and ask the librarian for help with on their personal
computers and go to that “address” noted above.