NAVY NUCLEAR WEAPONS ASSOCIATION “KEEPERS of the DRAGON”ÓÔ www.navynucweps.com NNWA BULLETIN   June 2008                                       SUMMER 2008

ÓÔCopyright 2000-2008 and Trademark of the Navy Nuclear Weapons Association.  All rights reserved worldwide.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Navy Nuclear Weapons Bulletin is produced by the Association’s Board of Directors and is distributed free to NNWA members.  Edited by: Dave Cobb

 

The Presidents Message

 

Shipmates and Ladies,

 

We are fast approaching our next Reunion in Bremerton, WA. The membership has been asking for a reunion in the Seattle area for sometime and now it looks like we will be getting there. John and Beth Gray have been working hard putting together a Reunion for us. You will find all the information about the reunion in this Bulletin. Look it over and make your selections and send in your reservation form. Don't forget to make your hotel reservation.

 

As required by our By-Laws there will be five positions open on the Board this year. I encourage any member in good standing who would like to run for one of the Board openings to let their desires known to Larry Sneide our Vice-President who is the Chairman of the Nominations and Elections Committee or any other Board member.

 

I want to announce at this time that I will not be running for reelection this year. It has been very rewarding for me to be your President for the past seven years and I want to thank all the members for letting me serve for so many years. I especially want to thank all the Board members present and pass that worked with me to accomplish all that we have during my Presidency. They all deserve a big Bravo Zulu.

 

I hope to see everyone in Bremerton.

 

Jim Hambley

 

From the Desk of the NNWA Vice President

 

2008 Board of Directors Nominations Notice

 

The NNWA Bylaws require that half of our Board of Directors positions must stand for Election each year. This year there are five positions up for election.

• President   (incumbent not standing for re-election)

• Service Officer   (incumbent not standing for re-election)

• Chaplain  

• Master at Arms

• Storekeeper (incumbent not standing for re-election)

If you wish to nominate someone for The Board, please submit the nomination to me by email at LDO616@aol.com or mail and I will contact the individual to confirm their acceptance of the nomination.  Additionally you may self nominate(volunteer) and become part of the decision making process of you organization.

 

Nominations will again be opened at the annual business meeting and additional Nominations may be made from the floor then.  All nominees will need to be present at the meeting OR they may submit a letter in advance to the Board stating that they are willing to accept the nomination for a position on the Board if they are unable to attend the meeting.  Voting will occur under new business at the business meeting.  Following the business meeting, the Board then meets to elect its open officer positions.

 

I have contacted our current Board members regarding their interest in remaining on the Board.  The Board may make nominations for continuance at the annual business meeting.

 

There are conditions precedents to being elected to the Board of Directors:

1. the nominee must be a regular member in good standing with currently paid dues, and

2. the nominee must have email capability (due to electronic voting requirements of our incorporating State).

Again, the strength of our association lies in the strength of our members who are willing to volunteer their time to further our association’s goals.  If you are personally willing  (or know another member who may be willing) to serve our association, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

For planning purposes, I will need to receive this contact by the end of August.

 

Larry J. Sneide

Chairman, Nominations & Elections

 

 

Spalling and Exudate

The NNWA Historians Report of July 2008

 

I've received a number of photos, documents, orders, lists and a few pieces of hardware since January.  All of it very welcome.  Primary among the receipts are copies of cruise book pages with pictures and names of W Division crewmembers along with Navy group photos taken on the lawns in front of barracks and shops.  I peruse each of them looking for names and faces I recognize and have been rewarded almost every time.  Unfortunately, some photos arrive with no identifying marks and scars.  Several of the photo submissions received had no lists of personnel, no dates and no identification of the place where they were taken, simply the picture.  While these are interesting, they provide little in the way of documentable history.  I ask that you continue to send these artifacts of time-and-places-gone-by, but please make an attempt to provide locations, names and a date with each photo.  This will go a long way in enriching the history of the Navy Nuclear Weapons Program.

 

This period we received contributions from the following Keepers of the Dragon. 

Richard Lowe, Pat Doherty, David McCLure, Herb Harfst, Mike Seitz, Jim Zielsdorf, Harold Wingate and Paul Hinkle.  

 

The picture below is a decolorized copy of one from Paul Hinkle I thought you might find interesting.

 

 

The photo is captioned, "The last B101 goes into retirement; SWD, NWS,Yorktown, VA Jan. 1972".  Identified, left to right, the men are Lt. Nealley, GMTC Taylor, GMT1 Hinkle, GMT2 Dziedzicki, GMT2 Jones, GMT2 Burdell, GMTSN Thrasher, GMT2  Holcomb, GMT3 Rose, GMTSN Sickmeier, Gunner Beigel, Lt(jg) Crawley.  What's remarkable to me is the date of this photo.  Paul Hinkle, Si Beigel, myself, and others disassembled and demilitarized a whole grunch of B101's at NAD Waikele as early as 1965.  Obviously it took a long time to run through that program.

 

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first photo to appear in an NNWA bulletin.  If it works, we'll selectively include more in future bulletins, space allowing.

 

That's all the new stuff.  Now to my three traditional appeals. 

1.  Please continue to send copies of cruise book photos, lists of men you knew at various commands, copies of group orders, group photos and any other device you might conceive of to record the names of as many members of the Navy Nuclear Weapons Program as possible. 

2. I urge you to spend some time alone and get your histories and experiences on paper or on the computer.  Do it for yourselves, for your family, and for the NNWA historical records.  The things you did and the things you know are unique and irretrievable by any other means.  When you get underway for the final time, all that history will be lost forever, and that would be a shame.

3.  The NNWA will accept any and all bits and pieces of memorabilia, documentation, books, photos, records, and other items you consider significant and care to contribute.  If you should send us a part of something, please tell us what it is and why it is important.  And don't forget to include your name.  As much as possible, we're trying to provide attribution to everything in our collection. 

 I intend to set up the NNWA memorabilia display in Bremerton this September and wish all of you would look through the material.  Have a safe and enjoyable trip.  Jean and I hope to see all of you there.

 

And here's the commercial.

 

 Mike Snyder, NNWA Historian / Memorabilia Custodian

58 West Crescent Drive

San Rafael, CA 94901

Waterdog9@comcast.net

415-456-2876

 

 

Navy Nuclear Weapons Association

Service Officer’s Report June 2008

 

1. The 2009 National Defense Authorization Act  is in the mill.  Congress hopes to have a coordinated bill to send to the President for signature before the required start date of 1 Oct 2008.  So far, the House has passed H.R.5658, which among other things, raises the Tricare fees for all users of the system.  The Senate version, S.3001, is still in committee and is not expected to go to the joint house conference committee until after the Fourth of July holiday.

2. Effective 1 Jul 2008 Medicare reimbursement rates for physicians will be reduced by 10%.  The expected impact of this reduction will be that fewer MDs will be willing to participate in Medicare (also affects Tricare for Life patients) or will not take on new patients under those coverages.  On June 12^th a Senate vote failed to correct this situation.  Interestingly, Senators McCain, Clinton and Obama all failed to make the vote!

3. Medicare fraud is on the increase.  Over the past four years, one woman successfully filed over 140,000 false claims for Medicare reimbursements.  (She got 10 years in jail.)  Many doctors have been prosecuted for filing false claims.  The result – we all get less service and pay more taxes because of these frauds.

4. Home mortgage failures have been very much in the news recently.  If you sit back and think that this doesn’t affect you, consider the following:  only 18.4% of home mortgages are issued by banks and other commercial lenders.  Surprised?  The remaining

5. 81.6% are issued by the VA, FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc. – all are government or quasi-government lenders supported by your tax dollar.  So it impacts us all.

6. Social Security is moving toward a totally electronic payment system.  Those without bank accounts for automatic payments were still receiving paper checks.  Last year the SSA started secretly issuing Debit Cards instead of checks to those people in a test program.  It was so successful that the SSA is now offering the debit cards to anyone desiring one for payment of their benefits.  To enroll go to:  www.usdirectexpress.com.

7. Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans have had an unexpected set-back in the US Court of Appeals.  The VA policy regarding their illnesses claimed to be caused by exposure to Agent Orange has prevailed in the courts.  This reverses the previous “Haas Decision” in the Veteran Court of Appeals.  As a result, BWNVVs must prove their condition (most often diabetes) was caused by AO exposure.  It will no longer be conceded by virtue of their service.  This gross inequity to over 70,000 veterans is expected to be appealed by many veteran organizations.  Stay tuned.

8. Many veterans live in rural areas which are very far from VA health care facilities.  The SECVA has appointed 13 members to a VA Rural Healthcare Committee to advise on how to improve VA healthcare to these veterans.

9. You are all probably aware of your Federal Veteran Benefits – but don’t overlook State Veteran Benefits.  For example:  Iowa Veteran Grants for financial gaps in federal benefits; recent Pennsylvania and Minnesota property tax exclusions for disabled veterans; the new Wisconsin GI Bill; new Connecticut Veteran Educational benefits; Pennsylvania Veteran Bonuses and many more.  Check with you local County Service Officers for particular benefits from your home State.

10. Alzheimer’s Disease is an insidious and elusive condition affecting someone in one in every three American families.  As we age we should check with our doctors about the symptoms and seven stages of this debilitation.  For more information, visit this website: http://alzheimers.about.com/od/symptomsofalzheimers/a/symptoms.htm

11.  The USS Arizona Memorial and other historic WWII Pacific sites will be considered for designation as National Monuments under a recent order from President Bush.  About time don’tcha think?

12. The Senate has approved S.1315 which reverses a 2003 regulation prohibiting Priority Group 8 veterans from using the VA healthcare system.  Pri 8 vets are those without service connected disabilities whose annual incomes are above a minimum level.  That level varies by location, but can be as low as $27,790.  As a result, 260,000 veterans who were previously turned away are now eligible at the VA.

13. DOD ID cards will soon stop using Social Security numbers printed on the cards.  This is to help fight identity theft.  In 2009-10 cards will only show the last four digits.  Cards will be replaced as they expire.  For retirees with no card expiration date, DOD will notify them when the new cards are available.

14. There continue to be many computer security frauds and data leaks.  As always, I continue to recommend to you to frequently check your credit report to make sure that you are not a victim of these.

15. Also, I have frequently recommended that you contact your government representatives to voice your opinion on legislation that will affect you.  One convenient way to do that is to enroll at the website – www.usdr.org.  Run by the Uniformed Services Disabled Retirees organization, don’t let the name fool you.  Once enrolled they will occasionally send you emails regarding all pending legislations affecting active duty military, veterans, retirees, social security, etc.  They may ask for a donation, but it is NOT required in order to participate.  With each email you get an opportunity use the CAPWIZ feature to contact you government representatives free of charge.  This is a worthwhile opportunity.

That’s all folks – there is not much more to share with you this time.  I regret to inform you that this will be my last report to you as NNWA Service Officer.  After ten years as your SO and eight years as a director, I will be stepping down.  I’ve always believed in term limits, so its time to go and get in some new blood.  Best to you all.

 

Yours in service,

 

Chuck Weber

Registered Veterans Service Officer

NNWASO@ptd.net

 

 

Navy Nuclear Weapons Association

Webmaster Report

 

I have been away from home for almost the last month and need to do some catch up on the website – so if you had a change to your profile or are a new member (Welcome if you are), I will be getting your information on the web site.

 

The biggest news about the website is the new Guest Book.  The old one started to be hit by spam entries again and I just couldn’t keep up.  On May 4^th, with about 120 valid entries in the old guest book, I set up the new Guest Book.  I copied the old entries and made them available as the Archived Guest book.

 

Since May 4^th, the number of entries has gone from 120 to almost 6,000 with all of the increase consisting of the spam entries.

 

Good news is that the new guest book is the same cost as the old one – FREE.

 

Just a reminder, we e-mail notice of newsletter publication and other information to our members who have an e-mail address.  If your e-mail isn’t valid, we try to get the correct e-mail address but don’t always succeed.  So, if your e-mail has changed or if you have stopped receiving e-mail let us know.  For those members without e-mail addresses, our erstwhile Secretary sends snail mail.

 

Look forward to seeing you in Bremerton.

 

Ray C. Margeson

NNWA Webmaster Newsletter Message

 

Navy Nuclear Weapons Association

Storekeeper Report