Fleet Plan of the Day
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- Brad Williamson
- POD - SSN 680
Veterans Day has come and gone.
The “Thank you for your service” handshakes, prompted by an SSN-680 ball cap, have ebbed to a trickle, and the offers of free meals at local restaurants are yesterday's news.
Today, on the sidewalk and in the grocery store, I’m just a gray-bearded old guy in a Navy blue baseball cap, not that I really ever expected to be anything else.
Don’t get me wrong. I really do appreciate a heart-felt thank you, and I suppose the free meals are in the same class, though they seem to lack the sincerity of a thank-you and a hand shake and I admit I’ve never taken advantage of one. I never felt I was owed anything, even a thank you let alone a meal, but I have taught my kids that accepting the gift honors the giver, so maybe one day I’ll let someone treat me to a nice dinner.
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- Brad Williamson
- POD - SSN 680
One of the most difficult responsibilities that burdens me in the management of the ssn-680.org website is the maintenance of the Eternal Patrol page.
I’m one of the first to be notified when one of you discovers the passing of a shipmate, so I’m tasked with updating the site and then notifying all of the ssn-680.org members that one of us has crossed the bar. Converting their user account to Eternal Patrol is emotionally difficult enough, and even more so if it was someone I knew and served with. But for me, the hard work really begins when I sit down to compose an Honors Page for our lost shipmate, and try to put into words a post that will make sense to each of you, and communicate the loss to our community. Reflection on their life and realizing that it’s only a matter of time for all of us is an emotionally draining experience that happens all too frequently.
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- Brad Williamson
- POD - SSN 680
Remember the Ship’s Store on the Bates? In my day it was a roughly two foot square metal cabinet about 6 inches thick, with a plexiglass door, bolted to the forward bulkhead in the Crew’s Mess. The padlock made it clear that items of great value were available there and only with the express permission of the ‘Rodfather’, then MS Chief Mike Rodriguez, were you going to get your grubby little zipper-grabbers on any of the sweet trinkets inside. As the naval equivalent to Mary Poppins’ bottomless satchel, the Bates Store held treasures ranging from ball caps, patches, cigarette lighters, to a wide variety of T-shirts and almost everything else under the waves in between, as long as it had a Bates logo!
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- Brad Williamson
- POD - SSN 680
Hard to believe it was two weeks ago tonight that we had organized the Hospitality Suite at the Rosen Shingle Creek, and were welcoming shipmates that we hadn’t seen in years. It’s Friday, exactly 14 days later, to the hour, and I’ve promised I’d write. This is it.
Sitting in my hotel room the night before, I composed my most recent post, REGROUPEX EVE. I had envisioned that the next day, much like REGROUPEX 09 eight years ago, that I would be sitting around the Hospitality Suite, and in the occasional relaxing and quiet moment, post about the activities taking place around me. I couldn’t have been more wrong!
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- Brad Williamson
- POD - SSN 680
On the eve of REGROUPEX 17, I regret to inform you of the passing of the first Commanding Officer of the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680), Captain Glenn Neal Arthur, Jr., on the 26th of August, 2017.
Tom Olson alerted me and directed me to Cap’n Arthur’s obituary, reproduced here.
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- Brad Williamson
- REGROUPEX 17 - 680
White clouds boil into the sky. A distant freight train of thunder arrives. Evening falls. The sky darkens over Orlando.
Ensconced in my third floor room, I’m finally drawing the breath of a pardoned man. All the work of the last year comes together in 20 hours in a Hospitality Suite at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort as REGROUPEX 17 gets underway.
It was almost a year ago, the 16th of September, 2016, when we had the first inklings that a reunion might be overdue. By the 7th of December, we had enough interest, and REGROUPEX 17 made the transition from imagination to planning.
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- Brad Williamson
- POD - SSN 680
It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of the passing of Julie, wife of Sean Gawne.
Sean was an ELT on board the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) between October of 1981 and September of 1985.
Julie was the mother of three (Joanne, Sean Jr., and Sarah) that fully supported Sean’s Navy career. She was proud that Sean served in submarines, and her devotion and hard work made it possible for him to serve on the USS Chicago (SSN 721) as well.
From her obituary…
