By PETER ATKINSON, Deputy Editor
The Navy League’s newest council has quickly become one of its busiest. The Thailand Eastern Seaboard Council, which was chartered in August 2005, hosted a series of community relations (COMREL) projects with three visiting Navy ships in February, and in May spent a week doing similar work with groups of Marines, according to President John Mullahy.
The Marines were in Thailand taking part in the annual U.S./Thai Exercise Cobra Gold 2006, a combined joint training exercise aimed at developing interoperability, strengthening relationships between services and developing cross-cultural understanding among participating nations.
After taking Marines from the III Marine Expeditionary Force’s Force Protection Group around the city of Pattaya, the council worked with Marines to complete seven COMREL projects in six days around the area. According to Mullahy, the projects included:
- The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit Special Operations Capable (SOC) handed out food to people at Mercy Ministries Church;
- 15 Marines from 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (SOC) painted hallways and spent the afternoon interacting with the children at Mercy Ministries Orphanage;
- 30 Marines from 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (SOC) painted the inside perimeter wall, made a fire break and spent the afternoon interacting with the children at the Pattaya Orphanage (Father Ray’s);
- 15 Marines from 2nd Battalion 5th Regiment (embarked aboard the amphibious transport dock ship USS Juneau) performed general clean up and interacted with children from Deaf Childrens’ Orphanage;
- 30 Marines From 2nd Battalion 5th Regiment (embarked aboard the dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry) painted hand rails in stairwells, did clean-up work, and then ate lunch and sang songs with children at the Blind Childrens’ Home;
- 30 Marines from 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (SOC) painted hallways and interacted with residents at the Pattaya Old Folks Home;
- 30 Marines from 2nd Battalion 5th Regiment (embarked aboard USS Harpers Ferry) set up a walkway, and had a hot dog barbecue and played soccer, basketball and other games with the 165 children from the Street Kids Redemption House.
“This was the best COMREL I have ever done,” said Mullahy. “Great group. Children cried when the Marines left.”
French Riviera/Monaco Council Hosts Visiting U.S. Ships
The French Riviera/Monaco Council played host recently to three visiting U.S. Navy ships. The first ship, the cruiser USS San Jacinto, moored in Toulon. A group of 20 Navy Leaguers and 20 officers and crew from the ship, including Cmdr. C.J. Neary, attended a dinner in the ship’s honor in Cannes, according to council President Avery Glize-Kane, a Navy League national director.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter was next in port, this time mooring in Cannes. The Navy League hosted a dinner there for the ship that was attended by nearly 30 members and a 20-member contingent of Porter’s crew led by Cmdr. Doug Nashold.
In mid-April, the amphibious transport dock ship USS Austin pulled into Villefrache during its trip home from a deployment to Iraq. Indeed, some jeeps displayed on the ship’s deck were still covered with desert sand, according to Glize-Kane. A reception hosted by Capt. Kevin Flanagan was held aboard the ship for a group of 30 Navy Leaguers who were able to get an up close look at the heavy equipment Marines have been using in Iraq.
Indianapolis Survivor Tells Tale of Terror at Sea to Chattanooga Council
The Greater Chattanooga, Tenn., Council members and guests were given a vivid description by former Marine Cpl. Edgar Harrell of the USS Indianapolis crew’s struggle to survive following its sinking in the closing days of World War II. Harrell was guest speaker at the council’s quarterly dinner at the Signal Mountain Country Club.
Harrell is one of few remaining survivors of the tragic episode and speaks extensively around the United States about his experiences at sea. He and his son, David Harrell, collaborated on the book, Out of the Depths: A Survivor’s Story of the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis, which is his personal account of the event. Proceeds from book sales go to the Indianapolis Foundation.
Before and after his talk, Harrell spoke with attendees and signed copies of the book, according to council Secretary John Lynch. During his talk, Harrell recounted the five harrowing days survivors of the Indianapolis’ torpedoing by a Japanese submarine July 30, 1945, spent battling the terror of shark attacks, hypothermia, severe dehydration and salt-water hallucinations before finally being spotted and rescued.
Of the roughly 900 crew members, many of them badly injured, who entered the water in the 12 minutes it took Indianapolis to sink, only 317 men were rescued. About 300 crew members also went down with the ship.
Harrell also spoke of the blunders that led up to the disaster, such as the ship being allowed to sail unescorted into waters where enemy subs were known to be operating, and the controversy that followed, including the court martial of the ship’s captain, Charles Butler McVay III. McVay was largely exonerated in 2001.
Harrell was with the Marine Detachment that was aboard Indianapolis, which was headed to the Philippines when it was sunk after completing its secret mission to Tinian Island to deliver the components for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Out of the Depths was published in 2005.
Atlanta Council Presents Annual Youth Awards
The Atlanta Metropolitan Council held its 13th Annual Youth Awards Banquet May 11 and named Cadet Ensign Ashley Montgomery, Acworth, Ga., the 2006 winner of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Award. Montgomery was selected from 37 nominees. She attends Kennesaw Mountain High School, Kennesaw, Ga. The event was held at the Holiday Inn Select in Atlanta.
The council also named U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps (NSCC) Chief Petty Officer Bradford Lockridge, Atlanta, and NSCC Senior Chief Petty Officer Tyler Phillips, Covington, Ga., as the top Sea Cadets. It was the first time since the award’s inception six years ago that there has been a tie for first place, according to council member Larry Hamilton.
Lockridge is a student at North Springs High School and a member of the NSCC 233rd Seabee Battalion. Phillips is a student at New Creation Center/home school and a member of the NSCC USS Warrior Division.
Montgomery was given a $400 U.S. Savings Bond as part of her award. Lockridge and Phillips each received $300 U.S. Savings Bonds. All three winners received a commissioning picture of the attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter signed by President Jimmy Carter.
The JROTC award was presented by Council Treasurer H. Robert Wise Jr. The Sea Cadet William T. Schwendler Award for Excellence was presented by Wise and William T. Schwendler Jr. The award is named in honor of the late William T. Schwendler, an early aviation designer who made major contributions to the aerospace industry.
R. Lee Rhyant, executive vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems, was the award dinner’s keynote speaker. Rhyant leads the company’s Marietta, Ga., facility.
Marine Cadet Capt. Eric M. Arnold, Sharpsburg, Ga., a student at East Coweta High School, received a $250 U.S. Savings Bond for second place in the JROTC competition. Three cadets received $75 Savings Bonds for Honorable Mention: Cadet Lt. Cmdr. Avik Saha, Atlanta, Cross Keys High School; Cadet Lt. Victoria T. Kostecti, Powder Springs, Ga., McEachern High School; and Marine Cadet Capt. Amy King, Oxford, Ga., Newton High School.
NSCC Chief Petty Officer J. Tyler Phillips, Kennesaw, Ga., from the NARS B-1 Squadron, received a $100 Savings Bond for second place in the Sea Cadet competition. He attends Kennesaw Mountain High School.
Also at the Youth Awards Banquet, the Metropolitan Atlanta Council honored Past President, Board Member and Youth Awards Banquet Chairman Bobby L. Green and Awards Director and Board Member Hank Mahoney for their many years of service to the council and its youth program efforts.
Green and retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Frank Campbell, the senior naval science instructor at Kennesaw Mountain High School, came up with the idea to honor the top Navy/Marine Corps JROTC Cadets in 1991. Two years later, the first Awards Banquet was held.
Mahoney coordinated the design and production of all of the Metropolitan Atlanta Council’s awards presented to area Navy and Marine Corps JROTC units, Sea Cadet units, and the NROTC units at Georgia Tech and Morehouse College. He has also produced quarterly and annual awards for sailors at the Naval Air Station Atlanta; the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center Atlanta; the Navy Supply School in Athens, Ga.; the Navy Recruiting District of Atlanta; and the council’s sponsored ships, USS Jimmy Carter and USS Georgia.
Cadet of the Year Testifies Before Senate Committee
NSCC Cadet of the Year Jessica Vance, a petty officer 1st class with the Spruance Division in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., testified on behalf the Sea Cadet budget request May 23 before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee during the panel’s annual defense budget appropriation hearings.
Panel Chairman Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and ranking member Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, convened the session for public witnesses to offer input on the 2007 defense budget. Vance sought support of a $2 million request by the NSCC to help Sea Cadets offset out-of-pocket costs for summer training.
During her four-minute presentation, she gave a brief overview of the NSCC program, and her personal experiences from more than five years with program, which included traveling to Russia as part of the NSCC International Exchange Program in 2005.
Vance was accompanied at the hearing by the NSCC National Headquarters Liaison Officer Robert Hurd.
The testimony was part of a busy week for Vance that began with a visit to Navy League/Sea Cadet headquarters and concluded with her high school graduation from Pine Crest School.
While on Capitol Hill, she had a chance meeting with a contingent from NASA that was promoting the next Space Shuttle mission, which is being planned for July.
Vance was able to spend about 20 minutes talking with Navy Capt. Kent V. Rominger, chief of the Astronaut Corps, and received an autographed photo as well as an astronaut pin and patches for the mission, according to Hurd.
She later met with members of her district’s congressional delegation, including Sen. Mel Martinez, U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Martinez nominated Vance for the U.S. Naval Academy, which she will be attending in the fall.
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Peter Atkinson, Deputy Editor
Seapower/Navy League News
2300 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22201-3308
E-mail: patkinson@navyleague.org
