USS CASSIN YOUNG VOLUNTEERS NEWSLETTER MARCH, 2012

USS CASSIN
YOUNG
VOLUNTEERS
NEWSLETTER
MARCH, 2012
Volunteer Of The Year
Congratulations to Bruce
Mac Donald for receiving the
2011 Cassin Young Volunteer of
the Year Award. This award is
given to an outstanding
Volunteer by The Cassin Young
Association. The award was
presented to Bruce at the
Christmas Party held at the
Commandant’s House.
The meal was provided by Janet
O’Connell and the Cassin Young
Association. Thank you Janet
from all the Volunteers.
As many of you know a
documentary was made about the
Cassin Young and it’s Volunteers
by a very special Volunteer. Pin
Yu, aka Alice.
Journalism. The short video
required months of work
interviewing Volunteers,former
crew members and research that
took many hours. The video was
shown at the Christmas Party and
viewed by all, there was not a dry
eye in the place. The video was
seen by Superintendant Cash and
He suggested that it be sent to
Washington. It was posted on
YOU TUBE and went viral.
Congratulations Alice on
achieving an “A” on your project
and bringing to light a very
important piece of History as well
as the Volunteers that maintain
Her.
Yearly Dues
Mario would like to thank all of
you that have sent in your
contributions to the Sunshine
Fund. We have been slowly
building up this fund. The $84 is
greatly appreciated. There is still
time if you have forgotten.
Checks are payable to :
Mario Libardoni
107 Howie Road
This presentation was for Her
Masters Degree at BU in Photo
Braintree, Ma. 02181
Volunteers
It has been a while since our last
newsletter and much has
happened with the Volunteers
and their efforts to restore Cassin
Young.
We have some new Volunteers
and again today another showed
up. The Volunteers would like to
welcome Jim Walker, Jim Grant,
Bob Young and Jack Gelinas.
Jim Walker, Bob Young and Jim
Grant came up from the USS
Salem to give us a hand.
Bob Young
I hope to have photos of Jack
Gelinas and Jim Walker soon.
FLAG BEARERS
This great photo shows Mario
reparing our flags with a new
helper. Maggie caught on very
quickly, well, she has a great
teacher !
Jim Grant
Group Photo 2001
New Kiosk
Thanks to Bill Dyer and NPS we
will soon have larger kiosk to
display ALL Volunteers photos,
restoration work in progress, the
awards that have been given to
the Volunteers and the honor roll
of all the great Volunteers that
have passed on. We want the
Vistors to see more of the
Volunteers and the
accomplishments that we have
made. This new kiosk will be
constructed under the planning
and direction and the carpentry
skills of Bruce MacDonald and
Fabulos Phil Darling . We are
even discussing lighting for
better visiability.
Tall Ships Event
Although June/July is a few
months away we are already
discussing the Tall Ships in
Boston. The Navy Yard will be
buzzing with visitors that whole
week. The Volunteers have
discussed a few ideas to help
permote the true meaning of a
Navy Yard and the presence of a
NAVY SHIP. I have discussed the
idea with Bill Foley and need the
necessary permission from NPS
for the event. We thought that
the Volunteers could make it a
great event if we all dressed in
period navy uniforms. I keep
thinking about our great
christmas party on the ship a few
years back when we all dressed
the theme. I have to pick a day,
possibly Saturday June 30th.. We
have a lot of work to do. We may
need vintage military vehicles,
(Sandy Shepherd?) a vintage fire
truck,(Joe Eldrige ?) and some
help getting a meal together on
the ship.( any mess cooks want to
help plan?) It would be great if
the Radio Gang could open up
and operate Radio Central.
We could make announcements
on the 1MC,demonstrate a
General Quarters drill, have a
some volunteers dressed as yard
birds, we really could have a great
day by bringing the ship alive.
I/we need to get going on this
now and we are open to all the
help/suggestions you can give.
Maybe we should have a meeting
soon to discuss this. WE NEED
YOUR HELP with this event !
I may possibly be able to help
with chambray shirts but need to
know if you need a white hat,
anyone want to help with that a
uniform list ? Thanks in advance.
Hanky is due to have a knee
replacement on March 16th at
The Winchester Hospital. He will
be confined to quarters for a bit
after and would love to hear from
you.
I did not realize that the
newsletter was basicly the only
link many of our volunteers have
to the ship. I got a call a few
weeks back asking about the
newsletter and realized how
much you look forward to it.
The main topic for all of us is our
status and once again,almost a
year later, I have no news about
our fate. We are still in dry dock.
I can only hope as well as all of us
that the decision to repair Her is
made soon.
The volunteers over the past year
and a half have taken our appeal
everywhere we could.
This is not the end of our
endeavor to save Her and quite
possibly we will come up with
another plan on our own to get
Her repaired. You may be
hearing from us very soon. We
need to act now.
New NPS Personel
The NPS has added some new
talent to help out their staff. We
welcome Steven Duffy, plumber,
Brandon Sexton, Curitorial and
Steve Bishler who will be
assisiting Ed Locke on the ship.
We have received some great
help from NPS maintaince with
many pressing issues. All our
requests have been taken care of
with an item(s) or a answer. The
best news is our new christmas
lights will be ordered soon. The
old lights that had been put up
for many years were deemed a
safety hazard. We will not be
going LED but stick to the
traditional bulbs.
We have been asked by the NPS
to help them with a new program
that will benefit everyone. Basicly
it is a program to account for
time, projects,materials needed
and a preventative maintence
plan for the ship. This is a
computer driven program which
they have supplied us with a new
computer. Thanks to Ed
Locke,Bill Dyer,Dan McMunn
and Tim Croteau.
Special thanks to Jim Hewitt for
his CAN DO attitude in his quest
to inventory,catalog and test
4,568 vacumn tubes, plus every
spare part from a 3/8ths
bolt,light fixtures, a thousand
other items and neatly place
them in storage so Steve Braind
can go and mess everything up.
Jim’s work on the 1MC/General
Quarters/Chemical/Collision
Alarms along with Jim Walker
and Bob Johnson has payed off,
the system is now restored.
Chris Bradford has taken on a
new career that unfortunately
keeps Him away from the ship for
weeks at a time. We all miss you
Chris.
CAPTAIN Tim Gover
This will probably be the last
photo of Captain Tim on the Fire
Boat. Tim is retireing next month
and devoting his efforts to The
Revolution which incidently has
been recently painted “ HAZE
GRAY” and will be underway very
soon. We are planning a
Volunteers cruise on this great
old YP, admission is by period
dress only, get your uniforms out
!
I am trying to squeeze in a road
trip in April/May to the WW2
Museum and Antique Boat
Museum in New Hampshire. I will
let you know when I work it out.
Bruce MacDonald will hold the
Volunteers Clambake this year on
July 20th at Tuck’s Point.
Captain Gover has a new shallow
draft boat. TIM, can you help us
out with transpotation ? Of
course we can travel the
traditional way. Last year it was
such a great time and a perfect
setting as well. Hank loved the
lobster !
Lightship Nantucket
The Lightship Nantucet is seen
here making Her way back to
East Boston after some much
needed hull work at the
Fitzgerald Ship Yard in Chelsea.
The cost was no where near what
our estimated cost for repair is. It
sure would be nice if Fitzgerald
ShipYard could assist the Cassin
Young with some sort of alternate
repair plan.
.
Having read the USS Slaters
Newsletter, spoken to Rich
Angelini at Battleship Cove and
Jason Hall on the New Jersey the
economic outlook for museum
ships is pretty bleak. It really is
up to all of to stay focused and be
positive. WE CAN DO this.
Thanks to Terry Miller of the Tin
Can Sailors Magazine for
publishing our article. The
exposure was great. We owe
Terry a little favor, next time He
is up to the TCS office He needs
our help sorting through some
manuals.
Crew’s Mess
Thanks to Bob Harris and
Curitorial, the Historical Ships
Furnishings Report is being used
as a guide to place
food,games,coffee cups and diner
plates in the Chief’s and crew’s
mess. If you have any of this style
dinner ware at home and want to
donate it it would be appreciated
and displayed on the ship.
We need a coke machine to
finish off crews mess. Do you have
one in the basement, 50’s vintage
? We still need hardcover books
for book shelves etc.
Crew’s Mess
Chief’s Mess
Crew’s Mess
Bedding
With Bob Harris’s continuing
project of outfitting crews
berthing, it realy is taking shape.
There is still some more
restoration work needed and the
placement of uniforms,bedding
blankets etc. Many of the foam
mattresses have deteriorated.
Curitorial has shown some
willingness to remedy the
problem with the old foam
mattresses. Bob Johnson did
some extensive research trying to
find replacements. He used the
material tags from the old ones
to contact the vendors. No luck.
The plan is to remove the old
foam mattress cores, gather up
the covers,about 265 of them,
have them cleaned. We can then
install new foam cores .
NPS I D’s
Please check your ID to see if you
have expired, if so call the ship
and talk to Ed Locke 617 242
5604 . Ed has asked to have a
new card filled out with your
name,address,emergency contacts
etc. Can’t come down, call Ed!
Thanks to Frank Lawton for His
inspiration on getting Me moving
with this newsletter. I realize how
important a link this is to you
and all the other great volunteers
that are on assignment !