Fleet Plan of the Day
Last night many of you received the first text message sent from the www.ssn-680.org website and the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) Association.
This feature works hand-in-hand with our Familygram newsletter emailing system, and creates a new way to stay connected with you, especially in the case where your email address or mailing address has not been updated.
What do I need to know, you ask?
First, we protect your privacy. You will not receive advertising or nuisance texts. The system can only be used by administrators of the website, and for now, that means me!
Second, all texts will come to you through this phone number: 269.234.1751. This is the text phone number for the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) Association, so create a contact on your phone with this number, and then you will see who the text is from immediately.
No comments
I know I keep ragging on you to keep your profiles on the website up-to-date, but there is method to my madness. Your profile is the mechanism by which the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) Association keeps you informed using the Familygram newsletter, and now, by text message.
We have just upgraded the website to allow us to send you periodic SMS text messages for notifications of major events or to track you down when your email no longer works.
Don’t expect many - it does cost us about 3/4 of a cent for each message that goes out, so don’t expect more than one or two a month.
Once everybody has a few days to update their profiles, I’ll send a couple of texts. One will allow you to opt out, if you desire to not be bothered, but I’d encourage you to stay with it and let me use texts to keep you in the loop. After that, they’ll be relatively infrequent, unless your Familygram bounces, and of course, your phone numbers, like your street address, are never revealed to anyone without your permission.
All this means that it is more important than ever to keep your profile information up-to-date. So get hot, or get dink, and watch your phone for text messages from the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) Association.
Amoeba Races! For those in the know, Amoeba Races are the grand-daddy of SSN-680 reunions. The first known Amoeba Race was held at Ocean Shores, WA, on August 29, 1998. Attended by crew members from the late 70’s (and Ted Mercure) the festivities of the day charted the course for USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) reunions to come.
For those of you that dream of simpler times, when a group of shipmates could gather and reminisce (OK, lie their way through dozens of sea stories) without much advance notice, cost, or effort, your time has come. For those of you that can’t wait to reconnect until June of next year and REGROUPEX 20, this may be just the thing.
Terry Stanley has thrown out the invitation to all of us to join him on his farm in Theodosia, Missouri, on September 21st of this year for another of the much-heralded Amoeba Races. He has offered to smoke 4 or 5 slabs of ribs, chickens, brats, hot dogs, etc., and whip up a batch of beans for anyone who wants to spend the day on the farm with all the similarly inclined shipmates willing to muster.
The Master Sailing List Research Project was started at the beginning of March last year with the intent of identifying all officers and enlisted that have been assigned to the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) and incorporating them into the Master Sailing List.
To do so, it would be necessary to obtain all of the boat’s muster official muster reports, known as Officer and Enlisted Personnel Diaries, from the National Archives and Records Administration. Using these documents, as well as Enlisted Distribution Verification Reports and Officer Control and Distribution Reports, it was anticipated that we would be able to verify all existing members and identify all personnel that had been assigned to the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) then incorporated them into our Master Sailing List.
At the time, I naively estimated the project could be completed by the end of 2018, but, as they say, little did I know!
It has been a busy few months, and I have been remiss in keeping you up to date on the news that comes our way. It's hard enough keeping up with the good news, let alone getting lost in thought about shipmates from a long time ago that have crossed the bar and are no longer with us. Every shipmate that rests his oar reminds each of us that our days our numbered, and, like getting underway, there’s not a moment to lose.
It is my duty to report the passing of CDR(SS) Kurt M. Trautman 1945 – 2018 and SDC(SS) Manuel (Manny) C. Chavez 1938 – 2018.
As I’m sure you have heard, or at least wondered about, privacy concerns and commercial use of personal data are becoming a big concern on Facebook. Some of us have known about the vulnerabilities for many years, which is one of the reasons that none of the ‘good stuff’ regarding the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) and her crew gets posted on Facebook.
While we are always alert to security and classified information issues that could compromise today’s submariners, (not today, ISIS!) not to mention the promises we made back in the day, there are lots of photos and stories that are best not made public for the sake of our spouses, family, and friends, not to mention our own personal and business reputations.
Veterans Day…
You called. You called for aid, for someone to stand in the gap. You called in war, because the enemy was at the gates. You called in peace, because the price of peace is eternal vigilance. You called because there was no alternative…
We answered. We all had our reasons, but we answered the call. We put on the uniform. We kissed our wives and sweethearts goodbye, and walked across the brow to take up life on a 5500 ton, 300 foot long, nuclear-powered submarine. Most of those days we had no idea when, or if, we would return. Often we didn’t know where we were going until the hatches were closed and sealed, the boat was submerged, and we were well underway into our next mission. But we answered.
