Norton Sound (AVM 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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1 The wrlv existence and continuation of the Associat vn lid tiff ?fi'3Ti1Y due '- the selfless effort of a few stalwart men ers inc -.a' live ii and 'around 4 Oxnard, california. These founders and members who devoted their time and affqft ever the long haul are or have been: ROV Eujklgy f qgghp William NBillH Carl f C7th7 I Tig Colsoh William R. Carlson ff 613th 8 14tn3 Lltvd J. Eddy DDS Vincent Ertenberg David L. Garner James D. Handy Odis Havnes f f1StJ Robert F. Hovestadt ff C8th 8 75th3 Jerry Onconnor f C9thD aJohn G. HJackH O'Connor f C5thJ Timothy P, Regan CVPB-267 f C1OthJ Gerald HDustyH Rhodes f C2nd? HTommyU Stocks w C4thJ Clyde J. Taylor W C3rdD William J, CTBD Thomas III Louis E. Vann f C11thJ Frank Viglione 1 f12thQ Clinton HClintH Zachry 3 1 K J Association President and order of succession. These men have comprised the Executive Board Cfondly called the Hold Guarduf X and ha '..1' e served in various elective and appointed offices over the years. Their wivea and friends and sweethearts have also given magnificent stty rt to the Association through their patience, mailing preparations, and contri- butions to the success of the ongoing social calendar by arranging the Annual Christmas Dinner, offering their homes for meetings: and by preparing count- 1 less potluck lunches freally elegant banguetsb. Without these men and women the Association would have come to naught. I The Association is not just a social organization, it has a very serious side as well. To Quote from the By-laws: NPREAMBLE To commemorate in fellowship, the glorious traditions and hallowed memories of our naval service and of our gallant ship, the United States Ship NORTON r SOUND, and of our shipmates who paid the last full measure of devotion to God if and Country with their lives, we who have served in the USS NORTON SOUND, I W without regard to rank or length of service, do associate ourselves together and do ordain this,to be the Constitution and By-laws of the USS NORTON SOUND Association. 9 Article III PRINCIPLES yi I, Section 1. The USS NORTON SOUND Association maintains the belief that the ' - - - . L United States Navy, from its inception, fully merited the faith and trust be- Q stowed upon it by a grateful nation, both in war and in peace. We who have worn. its uniform pledge ourselves to assist by word and deed and in any way possible, to keep our beloved service in a st fulfill its assigned mission as our nation's first line of defense. ate of perpetual readiness tO iw I l I I x 1 .-... kg-kg,

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x From the small group of Association Charter Members fHPlankownersHJ enrolled in 1971 and 1972, the Association has grown to an active membership of Four Hundred Seventy Five. In this process of slow but continuing growth, the Association has located over One Thousand Norton Sounders, maintaining con- tact with Seven Hundred and Fifty of them through the HSNORTIN NORTONH. Contact with the others was lost through deaths and failure to appraise the Association of address changes. Several special events have been arranged during the various reunions, such as: The re-enactment of NORTON SOUND's Christening in 1977 CHer 32nd Anniversary yearh, at the Naval Shipyard, Long Beach, CA. Mrs. Ernest CHelen Saint Goarb Gunther who sponsored NORTON SOUND, Christening Her on 28 November 1943, at Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., San Pedro, again broke a bottle of champagne over NORTON SOUND's Stem and renewed the good wishes for the Ship's success that she made so many years before. Rear Admiral Ben Scott Custer USN CRet.J, NORTON SOUND's first Commanding Officer, Commander Thomas J. Loftus USN the Commanding Officer f28thD at the time of the re-enactment Association President Roy Buckley, officers and members of the crew and many members of the Association participated in arranging or executing this gala event to honor our Fine Lady of the Sea. I Three Reunion local daytime cruises in NORTON SOUND 11972, 82 and 837: and for those members who could be contacted on short notice, the honor of going to sea in NORTON SOUND for Her last cruise under Her own power with Her own crew onboard C8 August 19869. A grand birthday party to celebrate the Fortieth Anniversary of NORTON SOUND's initial Commissioning into federal service was held in 1985. On three occasions the Association and the Ship have sponsored joint family picnics, which were delightful to all attending and helped to establish and cement the relationships between former and current Norton Sounders. UAll Handsn attending the reunion were in agreement that this was indeed a great success, well worth the time, effort and expense involved, and should be continued into the distant future. All of the subsequent fourteen annual reunions have met with the same enthusiastic response, and we expect that all future reunions, Know scheduled to be bi-annual eventsl, will meet with the same response. Many members have attended the reunions year after year and others from the east coast have attended the reunions on alternate years- To say that the reunions are high points in the lives of those members who have been able to attend and did so, would be a gross understatement. Each of our reunions has been well supported by the membership, with representation of Norton Sounders from the original Hplankownersn CCommissioning crew of 194535 VPB-26, The primary HFlying Boatn squadron She supported during the final phase of WW II in the Pacific: Second HPlankownersH fRecommi2sioning crew 196439 and Ship's Company and supporting personnel, from all of the other years of her active service to the present ffinal decommissioning? Ship's Company i986. During these reunions former shipmates have renewed old friendships, and members from different periods have made new shipmata and lifelong friends.

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ax' Section 2. The USS NORTON SOUND Association shall be nonsectarian and non- partisan. No candidate for public office shall be endorsed by it. The Asso- ciation shall not, through its governing body or through any of its officers, branches or members involve the Association in any question of a political character, but each officer and member shall have freedom of thought and ac- tion as an individual and is strongly urged to accept the responsibilities as well as the privileges of citizenship- Section 3. The USS NORTON SOUND Association is not a charitable institution or organization, and as an organization shall not participate, through the use of its funds, in charitable endeavors. This does not preclude the taking of a traditional HTarpaulin Mustern to assist a shipmate, nor does it set this principle up as a recommendation for the conduct of its members as indi- viduals. On the contrary, the members of the Association are urged to sup- port anyfor all charitable organizations in which they believe.U Implementation of these policies has to date taken the form of establishing an annual scholarship competition and award for members Cactive duty, retired or otherwise qualified? and their dependents. As of 1986, two scholarship awards have been made by the Association the first to ET2 Micheal Lacy II, USN CActive duty onboard? and Mrs Anne M- Renschler iDependent of deceased member Loren Kinneb. We also cooperate with the Ship by participating in the Sailor of the Quarter Program, thus recognizing those crewmembers selected by the Ship to be Sailors of the Quarter, with a letter of commendation and a monetary award to the Senior Sailor of the Quarter ithe Junior Sailor of the Quarter being similarly rewarded by the Navy Leagueb, Up to the end of NORTON SOUND's active service, a total of 14 men and women have been recog- nized in this manner. Finally, during Her active service, we have made a long standing commitment to assist any member of NORTON SOUND's Ship's Company or their dependents in any manner possible, should difficulty arise in settling int: the area or while the Ship is away from homeport. ,f7'X