Navy League
Councils Recognize Heroes, Past and Present
Oklahoma City Council Salutes Petty Officer’s
Bravery During River Rescue
The Oklahoma City Council honored a Navy petty officer assigned to nearby
Tinker Air Force for his bravery in rescuing a child from a submerged
vehicle following a January traffic accident.
Council President Norm Tindall presented Petty Officer 3rd Class Wesley
Hollingsworth with a “Citation of Recognition” during a ceremony
at the council’s quarterly luncheon, Jan. 22 at the Petroleum Club
in Oklahoma City.
‘‘Through his selfless bravery, and at great danger to himself
... Hollingsworth saved a young child from certain death,’’
said Tindall, a retired Navy commander, in presenting the citation.
Hollingsworth, 23, of Norman, Okla., is with Navy Strategic Communications
Wing One assigned to Tinker.
According to Tindall and local news accounts, Hollingsworth was traveling
home on the evening of Jan. 16, when he came upon an accident at the junction
of Interstates 35 and 40 in Oklahoma City where a vehicle had plunged
into the North Canadian River. Hollingsworth dove in and swam to the vehicle,
which was resting in eight feet of icy water.
With an ax, he broke out a rear window and entered the car. Once inside,
he released the child, 7-year-old Deondre Patterson, from his car seat
and swam to the surface with him. He pulled the boy to shore where medical
personnel were waiting.
Hollingsworth then re-entered the river, swam back to the submerged car
and attempted to rescue the boy’s mother, 27-year-old Tameka Patterson,
but was forced to abandon the effort when he was overcome by hypothermia.
He ended up having to be pulled by rope from the river by emergency personnel.
Police divers recovered Tameka Patterson’s body from the vehicle
several hours later. Sadly, Deondre Patterson also died 10 days later
from injuries sustained in the accident. He had been underwater for approximately
four minutes before Hollingsworth pulled him out and had remained in a
coma since being rescued.
Hollingsworth noted at the citation ceremony that he was humbled by the
public attention he was receiving. ‘‘I don’t deserve
all this attention. I was just doing what I hope someone would do for
me,’’ Hollingsworth said, according to a report in the Ada
Evening News.
Hollingsworth has been nominated for the Navy/Marine Corps Life Saving
Medal, Tindall said.
Mayport Council Hosts Medal of Honor Recipient
The Mayport, Fla., Council hosted Medal of Honor recipient Robert R.
Ingram as its guest speaker during its monthly dinner meeting Feb. 19.
Ingram, who received the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Vietnam
War, was introduced at the event by Council President Robert Lowenthal
and Rick Hoffman, vice president of programs.
The modest Ingram, a Clearwater, Fla., native, chose not to speak directly
on his time in Vietnam during his remarks, according to council publicity
chairwoman Pat Pumphrey. Instead, he focused on the close friendship developed
within “Charlie Company” and the bond it instilled that made
selfless acts of courage commonplace as everyone watched out for their
buddies. Ingram served with Company C, First Battalion, Seventh Marines
as a Navy hospital corpsman.
According to his Medal of Honor citation, Ingram, a petty officer, continued
to go to the aid of injured Marines during a firefight in Quang Ngai Province,
Republic of North Vietnam, March 28, 1966, despite being wounded four
times himself.
“Bleeding, he edged across the fire-swept landscape collecting
ammunition from the dead and administering aid to the wounded,”
the citation reads. “Receiving two more wounds, with the third wound
being a life-threatening one, he looked for a way off the face of the
ridge, but again he heard the call for help and again he resolutely answered.
“From 1600 hours until almost sunset, Petty Officer Ingram pushed,
pulled, cajoled and doctored his Marines. Enduring the pain from his many
wounds and disregarding the probability of his own death, Petty Officer
Ingram’s gallant actions saved many lives.”
He was so badly wounded that a “killed in action” tag was
put on his body as he was evacuated from the battlefield. Ingram was presented
with the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton July 10, 1998. It was
the last Medal of Honor issued during the 20th century.
Naval Station Mayport also honored Ingram by dedicating its Branch Medical
and Dental Clinic in his name. A dedication ceremony was scheduled there
for March 26, according to Pumphrey.
Tampa Council Uses Surplus Lassen Donations
to Benefit ROTC, JROTC, Sea Cadets
The Tampa Council has donated surplus funds from its USS Lassen commissioning
activities to a group of Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Officer Training
Corps (ROTC), Junior ROTC and Sea Cadet programs in the area.
The council and its Lassen Finance Committee in January handed out more
than $10,000 to 11 different programs. The money will be used to pay for
everyday expenses not ordinarily covered by the programs’ operating
budgets. Recipients included: the Navy ROTC program at the University
of South Florida; Navy Junior ROTC programs at Gaither, Leto, King, Riverview,
Robinson, Tampa Bay Technical, Wharton and Freedom high schools; the Chamberlain
High School Marine Junior ROTC program; and the Tampa Bay Division 06
Naval Sea Cadets.
The committee made several previous donations for Sea Cadet and ROTC
programs, Robert Silah, Navy League Florida region president, said.
The Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyer, was commissioned
in April 2001. The Tampa Council coordinated the fund-raising efforts
to support all of the commissioning events. When the events were completed,
the council found itself with $12,000 left over. The Navy recommended
the funds be donated to worthy causes, and the council formed the Lassen
Finance Committee to decide how the money would be distributed.
“We decided we wanted it to benefit the youth,” Silah said.
“So it all went to youth programs. Now all the bills are paid, the
donations have been made and we can dissolve the committee.”
Committee members include Silah, Treasurer Gerald Jacobs, Anne Childers,
Laura Merciez, William P. Whalen, Robert F. Sawallesh and James E. Berth.
Normandy Crewmembers ‘Invade’ Richmond
Council’s Annual Meeting
The Richmond, Va., Council had something of a Normandy invasion during
its annual meeting in January as a contingent of crewmembers from the
Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Normandy attended as honored guests. The
Normandy, which is homeported in Norfolk, Va., is one of the council’s
four adopted ships.
Among those visiting were Normandy’s commanding officer, Capt.
Matt Streeter; Command Master Chief Daryl Charles; Cmdr. Pat Picard, the
ship’s executive officer; and Lt. Craig Cates, the ship’s
chaplain. Also attending was Master Chief Mike Sleeper, command master
chief of Navy Regional District Richmond, and his wife, Lisa. The crewmembers
were welcomed by new council President Joseph Moschetti at the meeting,
which was held at the Willow Oaks Country Club.
The Normandy has been at Norfolk for a leave and upkeep period since
late 2003 and is awaiting its next deployment, according to Capt. Streeter,
who addressed the meeting to provide an update of the ship’s recent
activities. While in port, the crew is implementing a new training and
schedule routine and, at the time of the January council meeting, was
readying for a major inspection in February.
Bakersfield Council Member Recounts Airship
Macon Crash, Rescue Efforts
The Bakersfield, Calif., Council got a bit of a shock after newsletter
editor Bill Hample gave a presentation on the history of lighter-than-air-aircraft
at its January meeting that featured footage of the ill-fated Navy dirigible
USS Macon.
In attendance was council member John Schacht, a retired sailor who happened
to be serving aboard the light cruiser USS Milwaukee that was in the vicinity
when the Macon crashed into the Pacific near Monterey, Calif., and took
part in the rescue effort — nearly 70 years ago.
“This came as a complete surprise to most of us,” Hample
said. “After I finished the presentation, I asked ‘Do any
of you have any questions?’ And he stood up and started talking
about how he had picked up some of the survivors.”
“A lot of our members are World War II veterans,” said council
President Catherine Hansen. “And every one of them has a story.”
Ironically, Hample, a local historian, wasn’t scheduled to be the
speaker at the January meeting. But when the originally scheduled speaker
had to cancel out, he brought the dirigible presentation, which he had
prepared for just such an event.
Hample spoke later with Schacht and his description of the chain of events
of Feb. 11-12, 1935, from the time the 785-foot-long Macon crashed during
a storm until the search for two missing crewmembers was called off, was
published in the Bakersfield Council’s February newsletter.
The crash of the Macon effectively ended the Navy’s trouble-plagued
rigid airship program, according to Richard K. Smith’s book, “The
Airships Akron and Macon.” The USS Akron crashed under similar circumstances
off New Jersey two years earlier; however the outcome was much more tragic
than in the Macon crash. Only three of the 76 people onboard the Akron
survived that accident, whereas all but two of Macon’s 83 crewmembers
were rescued.
Dallas Council Recruits First Community Affiliate
The Dallas Council has signed on its first community affiliate recruit,
one of the state’s leading law firms. Dallas-based Thompson, Coe,
Cousins & Irons LLP (Thompson Coe) was introduced as a community affiliate
in mid-December 2003 by Nicholas D. Ricco, Lone Star Region national director
of the Navy League, who presented a delegation from the firm with a plaque
to commemorate the event.
The firm decided to become a community affiliate after discussing the
numerous benefits of membership with Dallas Council recruiter, Kathy Strawn,
who is a paralegal for the firm. “I feel tremendously supported
by my law firm with regard to participation in the Navy League,”
she said.
The Dallas Council hopes to tap into the energy and leadership capabilities
of its new members at Thompson Coe while generating additional membership
opportunities through networking with the law firm, Strawn said. Members
of the Dallas Council are actively recruiting additional community affiliates.
The Chambers & Partners legal directory ranks Thompson Coe No. 1
in Texas for its insurance defense work, according to a release from the
Dallas Council. Since its founding in 1951, Thompson Coe has grown to
a firm of more than 100 attorneys with Texas offices in Dallas, Austin
and Houston, and a Minnesota office in St. Paul.
Seattle Proclaims Navy League Day
Feb. 28 was “Navy League Day” in Seattle, following a proclamation
by the Seattle City Council that was approved Feb. 23.
The designation coincided with the Navy League Northwest Region’s
annual conference, which was held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in downtown
Seattle Feb. 27-29. The “Navy League Day” proclamation was
accompanied by an official welcome letter to the conference from Seattle
City Council President Jan Drago. Drago was presented with an honorary
Navy League membership during the Seattle Council’s Installation
of Officers & Awards Banquet last year, said Council President Thomas
E. Jaffa.
“We hereby thank the members of the Navy League for their service
to our communities and do hereby proclaim Saturday, Feb. 28, 2004, as
‘Navy League of the United States Day’ in Seattle, and wish
you the best for a most successful conference,” read the proclamation.
The Northwest Region Conference brought together Navy League council
members from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. This is “the
first time in years” the conference has been hosted in Seattle,
according to Jaffa.
The conference featured workshops, planning and business sessions as
well as opportunities for attendees to see the sights of the Emerald City.
Short Bursts
¨ After almost 20 years with the U.S. Navy Sea Cadet Corps, Lt. Cmdr.
Norman Wason, USNSCC, regional director for the Empire Region in New York,
retired in January and turned over his command to Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Yockel,
USNSCC, former commander of the Rochester Division. A change of command
ceremony was held Jan. 18 at the Naval and Marine Reserve Center in Rochester,
N.Y. The Empire Region oversees Sea Cadet programs in all of New York
state, excluding New York City, and grew from four divisions and 150 Sea
Cadets to eight divisions and about 400 members under Wason’s command,
according to Lt. George Allen, USNSCC, commanding officer of the Rochester
Division, which is sponsored by the Rochester Council.
¨ The USS Plymouth Rock will hold its fifth reunion Sept. 8-11 at
the Lodge of the Ozark in Branson, Mo.
For information, contact:
Norm Jepson
(810) 755-3814
E-mail: mjepson@aol.com
Items for “Council Digest” should be sent to:
Peter E. Atkinson
Deputy Editor
Sea Power/Navy League News
2300 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201-3308
E-mail: patkinson@navyleague.org
Council news items and photos (prints or high-resolution jpegs) are not
returnable and will be published at the editors’ discretion. |
