USS SPANGLER 2005 REUNION |
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 The 2005 Reunion for the USS Spangler was held in Laughlin, NV, at the Riverside Casino -- excellent setting with very good facilities. Twenty eight Spangler crew members plus guest attended for a total of 49 folks. See the list below. David and Elana Noris and Bob and Millie Ellis were the co-host and did a super job. In addition to arranging for hotel facilities and an all day every day hospitality room and large balcony that overlooked the Colorado River, they took on the task of setting up an excellent breakfast on the morning of the first full day and a wonderful banquet dinner the following evening. They also made certain we had all the snacks, drinks and goodies we could want as we wondered around in the hospitality room. The annual Silent Auction proved to be blast and a successful effort to support future reunion meetings. Bob Ellis will be furnishing a report to DESA within the next couple of weeks with detailed information on the reunion. Hopefully a copy will soon be available for publication here. During the mean time, and as a quick overview, I can report that the 2005 Reunion officially began with a breakfast at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 25th. Mostly this involved going over the schedule of events, hotel restrictions and introductions from the attendees. This was followed by an annual business meeting to review the success of the reunion in Albany, NY, on 21 may 2005 in which 13 Spanglermates, family and friends visited the USS Slater, and the planning for future reunions. "Wayne Dorough spoke a few minutes on his progress with the new Spangler webpage.
The reunion concluded, to a great extent, with the Banquet at 6:30 that evening. It was an excellent meal and the folks that set it up, including the Casino folks, deserve a pat on the back. The highlight of the evening came when several of the earlier Spangler members and some of those that continued on to become Chiefs spoke about their experiences. Clearly, though, the strongest impression on us younger folks came when Ken Nolan shared his experiences aboard the Spangler in 1943 through 1945. More thoughts on this later. The hospitality room remained available for folks to visit the following Friday morning until about 10 a.m.. The Riverside and adjacent casinos offered the guest a variety of choices during their visit. Definitely not everyone took advantage of the one-arm bandits, but other choices included evening shows, bowling, bingo, a nice historical auto museum, some fairly decent resturants and an excellent river walk along the Colorado River bordering the casinos. This makes the second time the reunion has been held at the Riverside Casino -- an obviously good choice. Interestingly, as you look over the list of shipmates present at the reunion, and the years in which they served aboard the Spangler, every year in the ship's life from 1943 through 1958 was represented. This includes two plank owners (Don Cooper and Ken Nolan), who served together in the 1943-1944, with Ken being aboard in 1945. Only a few were present that served in the years 1946 through 1948, but beginning in 1949 the distribution increases rapidly from six to nine in 1950, ten in 1951 and 12 in 1952. Then it decreases for the remainder of the the years with eleven in 1953, nine in 1955, six in both 1956 and 1957 and four Spanglermates in 1958. Use Your Browser's Backspace Button to Return
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The rest of the morning and afternoon offered an opportunity for folks to gather in the Hospitality Room and the large balcony area outside. This was a perfect setting in which to talk about old times and make new acquaintances. It also enabled a beautiful view of the Colorado River below and surrounding countryside as a relaxing backdrop. The annual silent auction began at 11:00 a.m. enabling folks to place items up for bid as well place bids on items already on display. Beer, pop, pretzels and nuts were in plentiful supply, thanks to the Spangler Reunion Association, or, more specifically, the Norris' and Ellis'. This definitely helped to make the whole affair extremely relaxing.
Thursday's affairs began with a light brunch in the Hospitality Room followed by final bidding later that afternoon on auction items. Winners were announced at 5:30. And for you folks that haven't had an opportunity yet to be a part of this, well you have some fun and laughs ahead of you! The variety of items available for auction are far too numerous to mention here, but several that stood out were the crocheted Bulldog Emblem (sorry, but I don't recall the lady that made it, but it was sure nice and drew a lot of interest), the Reunion Scrapbook by Bob Ellis, the hand carved painting of the USS Spangler by Larry Majeski, and an engraved ship's bell (again, I have to apologize for not recalling who made this beautiful item available). Merlin Carr is working on a fairly sizeable (very nice) painting of the Spangler and made it available for display during the auction. He's doing a wonderful job on it and prints will be available for auctioning at the upcoming reunion in Myrtle Beach in October 2006.
| What's it like attending a ship reunion for the first time? Well, if you're like me and have spoken with friends in the past following their return home from a reunion, I'm sure you've seen their excitement and joy over having seen old shipmates. But while they were talking you kept thinking: "Yeah, sure, they knew some of the folks before they went!" I don't know anybody! It's been way too many years! I don't know if I want to meet a bunch of strangers! I'm just not sure......." Okay! Now we turn the page: The 2005 Reunion in Laughlin, NV, is over!...We're back home...All those wonderful stories keep running through our minds! As do the new friends we've met! And the rekindling of friendships long forgotten! Wow! The honest truth (and I bet I can speak for everyone in attendance), now that we've been there and done it, we hated to see it come to an end and we can't wait until we get back together again next year. I suspect a lot of the new folks were like me as they stepped into the Hospitality Room for the first time: apprehensive about who was going to be there and what to say to those that were. And, as typically is the case, for the first few moments you don't see anyone you've ever seen before, then some guy walks up and says "Hey! I remember you!" And continues on to say, " Do you remember ........?" You shake you head "No!" Then smile and soon walk away feeling a little embarrassed over your pathetic lack of memory. So you walk around talking to a few other people, with the previous conversation tugging at your mind. Then..."bammmm!"... out of nowhere memories come flooding in as if you just took a step back in time. You realize, "Yes! I do remember! Gosh, how could I have forgotten that!" So you go rushing back over to the guy you were visiting earlier and excitedly say, "Hey, I do remember....!" And so begins a whole new chain of conversations and memories that link together to bring back more memories. Your apprehension is now replaced with fun and laughter! I came away from the Reunion with realization that "1957" was not the center of the universe in the life of the Spangler. Each tour of duty, whether 43 to 45 or 56 to 58, or all the intervening years in between is accompanied with unique stories and events that rivaled those in any other tour of duty. True, the 1957 Cruise was special, but then so was every year of the Spangler's life from 1943 to it's decommissioning in October 1958. Rekindling long forgotten friendships was really special, but so was visiting with older or younger shipmates and listening to their stories and realizing how much we have in common as "Spanglermates."
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