Blue Ridge (LCC 19) - Naval Cruise Book

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Hiiihlii hts-Rcfuiicc Assistance 1 I Coming aboard. MACS(SW) Pomeroy assists with ID ' S. 26

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Highlights-R efugee A ssistance The end of a run to freedom. DEAR CAPTAIN: ' ' My name is NGO LACH VAN. 1 am a Vietnamese refugee. I came to the U.S. on 21 October 1982 and I live at 23171 2 Cortland Ave., Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1 have received a letter from my son on your ship. My sons name is NGO NINH GIANG; 16 years old. He announced that he escaped from Vietnam on 13 May 1985. After 4 days and 3 nights in the small boat with 13 other people they were very unhappy on the ocean. They waited for death to come to them but they saw your ship and you decided to rescue them. They came to Japan safely on 21 May 1985. Now they wait for resettlement in U.S.A. 1 am very happy because my son got out of my country. 1 feel that it is hell. When Communist took over Vietnam I became a prisoner, because before 1975 1 was an officer of the Vietnamese Navy. 1 must go to jail for 5 years, 2 months and 3 days. After 1 was released I escaped my country. Your country helped me with everything and now I am a resident of your country. Hopefully 1 will meet my son soon. I am very happy; 1 thank you, and all your people on your ship who rescued and helped my son and all the other people on the trip. My wife and three children are still living in Vietnam. I think that they are happy too, when they get the good news. Please tell everybody on your ship. I thank you so much and always remember benefaction on the ocean from you and USS Blue Ridge. Sincerely, LACH VAN NGO. Petty Officer Prentiss soon won the confidence and friendship of a young refugee. 25

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Highlights 1ST TALENT SHOW PUTS CREW IN THEIR OWN PACIFIC THEATER Ten contestants and one rain squall performed during Blue Ridae ' sVnsi Annual Talent Show while the Flagship was enroute to Thailand in April 1985. At first 1 had my doubts about how the crew felt about a talent show, says talent coordinator RP3 Douglas W. Ryan of San Antonio, Texas. But 1 couldn ' t have been happier the way everything turned out! Actually, 21 -year-old Ryan first thought of staging a talent show in May ' 84 as a way of doing something nice for the crew. It looks like we may have started a fine tradition for the ship, he smiled, adding, people are asking me when the next show will be. Seven officer and enlisted judges presided over the contest held on the ship ' s main deck. Gift certificates of $100, $50, and $25 were awarded to the first, second and third place winners. Each winner also received a duty day off in Pattaya Beach, Thailand. A regular performer at the Coffee House in Yokosuka, ET2 Gregory T. Breeden took first prize with his solos on the guitar and harmonica. I believed I had a good chance of winning, said the 26-year-old from Ranson, West Virginia. Besides, I ' m a firm believer in the old adage, ' you never know who ' s going to be in the audience ' ... I didn ' t have anyone come up to me later and say they didn ' t like it, said Captain Thomas D. Paulsen, then the Blue Ridge ' s Commanding Officer. The $25 third prize went to ISSR Paul E. Curtis on the accordion. For SI 12 Sheadrick D. Eddington, music is as much a part of his life as his job in the Navy is. He ' s the lead vocalist and keyboards for the second-place winning jazz group, Highway One. I ' ve been involved musically now for 25 years, says Eddington, 3 1 , of Dallas, Texas. I played in a rhythm and blues band back in Los Angeles before I joined the Navy in 1976. We toured both U.S. coasts — even played once in Japan at a club named Mugen ' s in Tokyo. 27