The Jerseyman |
Annual Pearl Harbor Commemorative
Ceremony
Rich Thrash, Brass Team Volunteer
On December 6th
Congressman Robert Andrews
held his annual Pearl Harbor
Commemoration Ceremony on the Battleship. Below are
several photos from that event. |
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Presentation of the Rev.
Peter A. Molnar Veterans
Service
Award to Herbert Ruble for his life long
service to the
Veteran's Community.
Congressman
Andrews and
Peter Molnars' wife are
also seen in this photo.
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Alex Horanzy,
one of two Pearl Harbor
Survivors in the
area, addresses those in attendance at the ceremony. |
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Congressman Robert Andrews
and Alex Horanzy preparing
to cast the Memorial Wreath into the Delaware River. |
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Honor Guard assembled on the fantail for the
ceremony. |
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Patriot Day
Army-Navy Tug of War event
held on the Battleship Pier
Rich Zimmermann, Overnight Encampment Volunteer
A new tradition has developed around the
annual Army-Navy Game in Philadelphia. For the
past several years, the services have been staging Patriot Day,
a series of physical activities featuring underclassmen. Competition has
been quite fierce with the Navy holding the edge over the past several
years.
The last Competition is always held on
the pier at the Battleship New Jersey. It all starts
with a blast form the Battleship's starboard
Saluting Gun. The Army-Navy Tug
of War is only a small part of the pageantry.
This year the Navy won the sound war
with 96 musicians to drown out the Army. But it was all in vain. This
year, Army won the Tug of War.
You can
bet both services will be back in force next year. It is a great show,
mark your calendar and come on out. |
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Navy Band
getting the crowd fired up for the event. |
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Teams hanging
out on deck before the Tug-of-War. |
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Victorious Army Team. |
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Navy Team. |
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The Navy Team, pulling hard. |
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Miss Pennsylvania posing with the winning Army
Team. |
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Both Teams
together posing under the Big Guns. |
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A piece of
Army equipment on display during the event. |
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Breakfast with Santa
Rich Zimmermann, Overnight Encampment Volunteer
Each December,
the Battleship
New
Jersey plays host to a gentleman in a
red suit.
Santa comes for our annual Breakfast with Santa. This year, as in other years, we had
dozens of tiny children, their brothers,
their sisters, parents and grandparents who came aboard and enjoy
breakfast in the ships mess, lots and
lots of door prizes and a visit with Santa. During the private visit
with Santa, the children and families
were photographed and their pictures
were posted free of charge on the web
site, face book and many other
sources of social media. The program is very popular with many families
coming back year after year.
This year the
ships Sea Cadets
wanted to participate in this event so several of
them helped serve breakfast in the mess
and two were detailed to be Santa's'
official honor guard. |
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Santa onboard
with his official Sea Cadet honor guard. |
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Holliday Party in the Wardroom, a New Approach...
Rich Thrash, Brass Team
Volunteer
It had been several years since we had a
holiday party, and in the past when we did have them they were always
held somewhere other than the ship. This year we changed that trend and
had a holiday party in the Wardroom and it turned out pretty well.
Admittedly we were a little slow on getting the word out about the
event, and it was held the Saturday evening before Christmas, which is
usually a busy day for many people, but we still had about 100 people
show up in festive attire.
During the party volunteers were recognized for their continued service
onboard and presented Certificates of Appreciation. One of our Security
staff, Walter Murphy, also was recognized for his actions while on duty
at the ship when he came to the aid of a visitor who had suffered a
cardiac event. Walter performed CPR on the visitor until the ambulance
arrived to transport him to the hospital, and he was recognized for
saving the visitors life. He received a Red Cross Life Saving Award.
Walter served previously in the U.S. Marines and his performance in this
situation was outstanding, Bravo Zulu!
Next on the agenda was a big surprise
that Walt Urban and I had been working on for months. It all
started a while back when I asked Walt if he knew where we could get the
Navy insignia for a bugler. Nan LaCorte, a long-time member of the Brass
Team, has been playing her bugle at events on the ship for years and so
I wanted to get her the insignia to wear on her uniform. So, Walt
did some searching and was unable to find any through normal Navy supply
channels. Since the designation of Bugler has been gone from the Navy
for a long time there just weren't any to be had. Our next idea was to
contact the ships last official bugler, Bertrand Trottier, who served as
the ships bugler during her deployment to Vietnam in 1968 - 1969, and
currently resides in California. So Walt began corresponding with
Bertrand but it turned out he didn't have any of the insignia either. He
did tell us that he had some made for himself by a local "stitcher" and
he was willing to have that person make some for Nan. Bertrand had
several versions of the insignia made for Nan and sent them to us just
in time to present them to her at the party. He also wrote some nice
remarks about passing the ships bugler torch to Nan which were read
during the presentation.
The story doesn't end there though, fast
forward to this past May 23rd, the ships 71st birthday celebration, and
Bertrand came and visited the ship and spoke during the ceremony about
his time onboard and about his duties as ships bugler. Following his
remarks Bertrand and Nan played echo taps together on the forecastle, a
pretty cool moment for both of them. Bertrand also has the honor of
being the last official bugler to have served in the Navy. He is "The
Last Bugler" and if you have the opportunity I encourage you to
check out his website which is
http://www.buglerusn.us/nj.htm.
There is a ton of information there about his duties on the ship and
what it was like being a bugler onboard the Big J. More about
Bertrand later in this issue in the article about the ships birthday
party.
Then there was one more surprise at the
party, one that I was shocked about because it was me that was called to
the podium and recognized for my efforts as a volunteer and putting in
all those miles back and forth from Virginia. I was given a really nice
HNSA watch by Pat Jones, so Nan wasn't the only one surprised at the
party. Thanks again for the watch Pat, much appreciated and nice to be
recognized.
So, that was about it for the official
portion of the party, throughout the evening guests enjoyed the
hors d'oeuvres,
open bar, and hanging out in the Wardroom and talking to
fellow volunteers and staff. It was a
great party, we'll build on it and next years will be even better. Below
are a bunch of photos from the event.
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Phil Rowan, Executive Director & CEO of the
Battleship
tells
story of how Walter Murphy saved the life of a visitor to the ship. |
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Phil presenting
the Red Cross Life Saving Award to Walter. |
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Here,
Captain Walter M. Urban, Jr. USNR (Ret.) has taken the
podium and is
beginning to spring the surprise of the insignias
on Nan.
That's me there too, check out our festive attire. |
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Here we are
checking out the insignias Bertrand provided. |
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This was my
surprise, receiving the HNSA watch. Also in the
photo (left to right) are
Phil Rowan, Executive Director & CEO,
the
Honorable Patricia Jones, Trustee,
Home Port Alliance,
Captain Walter M. Urban, Jr. USNR (Ret.),
Dennis Levitt,
Chairman of the Board, Home Port Alliance
and me.
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Guests
mingling in the Wardroom, that was decorated
with lights, garland, and Christmas ornaments. |
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Another
shot of the festivities. |
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Hope everyone
had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! |
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