Hampton Roads Council Showcases ‘Admiral’s Quarters’ At ‘Homearama’

By PETER E. ATKINSON, Deputy Editor

Council-Sponsored Model Home Draws Crowd, Raises Awareness

The Hampton Roads, Va., council got plenty of visibility in October through its sponsorship of a model home that was part of the 23rd annual “Homearama,” a display of new homes hosted by the Tidewater Builders Association.

Homearama was held at East Beach, a new waterfront neighborhood on the Chesapeake Bay in Norfolk, Va., and featured 17 fully furnished custom homes designed to depict a quaint coastal community of years past. It is the first Homearama to be hosted by the city of Norfolk, and the first staged along the Chesapeake Bay.

In a release prior to the event, Hampton Roads Council President Owen Pickett said, “One of the principles of the Navy League is to educate the public. That is why we want to be a part of public events like Homearama that will draw in interest and create awareness for the Navy League.”

After it was over, Council Executive Director Maryellen Baldwin said that mission had been accomplished. “It was extraordinary,” she said. “The challenge for us is to think outside the box and do something different, and this created a tremendous community awareness about what we do. The Navy League has a more well-known name and clearly made a statement in this area by participating.”

Homearama was expected to attract 100,000 visitors during its Oct. 9-24 run, and, despite some less-than-perfect weather, Baldwin said attendance was good.

The Navy League-sponsored home was dubbed “The Admiral’s Quarters.” The 3,336-square-foot, Manor-style home was built by Simpson Builders Inc. and inspired by the stately officers quarters along Admirals Row at the Norfolk Naval Base.

The Hampton Roads Council helped procure military artwork and memorabilia to display throughout the home. The guest suite, or “admiral’s quarters,” featured historical relics from Norfolk and the Naval Museum, including the bell from the first USS Virginia and a scale model of the current USS Virginia, the first nuclear-powered Virginia-class fast-attack submarine and the ninth Navy vessel to bear the state’s name.

People obviously liked what they saw, because the house ended up being sold during the event, Baldwin said.

As Homearama was concluding, the Hampton Roads Council hosted the commissioning ceremony for the USS Virginia. The Oct. 23 ceremony at Norfolk Naval Station was the first submarine commissioning the council had sponsored, but “went very well,” said Baldwin. “The weather was perfect, people were enthusiastic and the crew couldn’t have been more grateful.”

Commander, Naval Submarine Forces, Vice Adm. Charles L. Munns, gave the order to commission the sub. U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., was the principal speaker at the event. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark, U.S. Rep. Ed Schrock, R-Va., and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner also spoke. The boat’s sponsor is Lynda Johnson Robb. Virginia, which was to be adopted by the Northern Virginia Council, will be homeported in Groton, Conn.

Coast Guard Presents McNeill With Hope Award

Navy League National President Sheila M. McNeill was given the 2004 U.S. Armed Forces Spirit of Hope Award during the Coast Guard Ball Oct. 2 in Arlington, Va.

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas H. Collins presented the award to McNeill in honor of her nearly 40 years of service with the Navy League and her unflagging support of the sea services. With specific regard to the Coast Guard, McNeill was cited for advancing the service’s legislative agenda in Congress and promoting the $800 million Deepwater modernization program appropriation, the largest project in the Coast Guard’s history, as well as supporting the service during its transfer to the Department of Homeland Security.

“Sheila McNeill has been one of the Coast Guard’s most consistent supporters,” Collins said. “Her influence is felt throughout the Coast Guard at all levels, from adopting local units and taking on quality of life issues for our sailors to providing trusted council to our senior leaders.”

The Hope Award is presented to entertainers, legislators, service members, private citizens and organizations whose patriotism and service to the troops reflects that of the late Bob Hope, who was designated the first honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces for his decades of entertaining troops.

Navy Leaguers Fete Navy’s 229th Birthday

The U.S. Navy marked its 229th birthday Oct. 13, and Navy Leaguers, sea service members and many others gathered to help celebrate at balls and special events throughout the month.

The Seattle Council played host to Navy Secretary Gordon R. England and 22 veterans of the Normandy invasion at its celebration at the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center on the Seattle waterfront Oct. 12. The veterans were presented with Jubilee of Liberty medals and congressional certificates, according to council President Thomas E. Jaffa. England also swore in eight sailors from the area who re-enlisted. U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., also were on hand.

In Iowa, the Naval Reserve Center Dubuque celebrated the city’s naval heritage at its annual Naval Ball at the Holiday Inn, Dubuque. Though it is in the heart of the heartland, Dubuque has had two ships named after it. The first, PG 17, a gunboat, was in service from 1905 to 1945. The current ship, LPD 8, an amphibious transport dock, was commissioned in 1967 and is still in service.

Reserve Center Dubuque Commanding Officer Lt. Cmdr. Laurence Davis offered Navy birthday congratulations from Secretary England. Dan Dolter, a reservist who drills at the Dubuque Center, was guest speaker and told of his experiences during a just-concluded seven-month deployment to Iraq. Special guests included Dubuque Council Navy Leaguers Mike Martin and Dean Hubbard. About 120 people attended the ball, and heard music by the U.S. Navy Band from Great Lakes, Ill.

At events elsewhere, the Pittsburgh Council hosted Navy Reserve Rear Adm. Robert M. Clark, deputy commander, Second Fleet; Vice Adm. James M. Zortman, commander, Naval Air Forces, was guest speaker at the Coronado, Calif., birthday dinner meeting; Daytona Beach, Fla., hosted Capt. Martin P. Smith, Naval Forces Southern Command; and Cape Canaveral, Fla., hosted Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, Commander, Military Sealift Command. Hollywood also was represented as Academy Award-winning actor and Navy veteran Ernest Borgnine served as guest narrator for the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation’s Navy Birthday Concert, and in Las Vegas, actor, World War II veteran and council member Tony Curtis was guest speaker at the Las Vegas Council’s Navy birthday event.

Newport Council Welcomes International Students, Honors Sailor

The Newport County, R.I., Council hosted a welcome aboard luncheon in October for the 49 international students at the Naval War College’s Naval Command College, the largest international class yet at the college, according to National Director Tony Cercena.

Naval Command College is for senior international naval officers who spend a year together studying professional subjects at the Naval War College. The Newport County, R.I., Council sponsors the Naval War College Class of 2005. More than 120 Navy Leaguers and guests attended the event. U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., also was on hand to welcome the students. It is the first time a U.S. senator had attended a function such as this in Rhode Island, Cercena said.

In September, the council hosted a testimonial dinner to recognize Newport Naval Station chief engineman (surface warfare) Jeremiah Cooper as its “Senior Enlisted Service Member of the Year.”

Cooper was honored for his work mentoring area Sea Cadets. The event was co-hosted by the Newport Kiwanis Club and attended by nearly 80 guests and family members. While stationed at the Surface Warfare Officers School, Cooper was executive officer of the Navy Sea Cadet Corps’ NETC Division where he devoted many hours of volunteer work, according to Cercena. The council sponsors the NETC Division, which showed its appreciation by attending the ceremony along with Commanding Officer Lt. j.g. Diane Incze, NSCC.

Short Bursts

A group of about 60 Navy Leaguers and guests from councils around Lake Erie took part in the sixth annual Navy League Commemoration of the Battle of Lake Erie in early September. Members from the Akron-Canton, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo-Erie Islands councils laid a wreath on the site of Adm. Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory in the Sept. 10, 1813, “Battle of Lake Erie,” off Put-In-Bay, Ohio. The group was ferried to the site aboard the USCGC Neah Bay, an icebreaking tug homeported in Cleveland. The event, which was attended by Ohio Area President Jim Grever, featured a retelling of the battle by historian Gerry Althoff and a stop at Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial, where Althoff is head park service ranger, according to Lake Erie-Toledo newsletter editor William A. Kopper.

Send items for “Council Digest” to:

Peter Atkinson, Deputy Editor
Seapower/Navy League News
2300 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201-3308
E-mail: patkinson@navyleague.org