P.O.D.

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!

coin r17 400

The www.ssn-680.org website has long had an Amazon store, where all manner of submarine books, videos, apparel, and Bates merchandise could be found, and the Association gets a small commission from every sale that is made through the website.

But as of today, the Bates website finally has it’s own ship’s store. While only three products are currently available (REGROUPEX 17 Challenge Coins and Ball Cap, both silver and gold dolphins), ALL proceeds from Ship’s Stores go back into the Association’s account, supporting the Rec Fund, website development and maintenance, and acquisition of Bates related artifacts like sailing lists and Deck Logs! That’s right, every penny above the product costs goes to support the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) Association.

ballcap r17 silver 400

So hustle on over to visit the Ship’s Store. You can find it in the CREWS MESS >> SHIP’S STORE. You don’t even have to log in, making this available to the general public as well as registered users of the website.

REGROUPEX 17 Challenge Coins, and ball caps with either silver or gold dolphins are available for as long as we have stock.

ballcap r17 gold 400

You can pay by credit card or your Paypal account through the Paypal link, or have your order shipped to you as soon as we receive your check or EFT.

You will be required to create a shopping cart account when you check out. This is not your ssn-680.org account. It is only used for the shopping cart and shipping information.

Please contact me if you have trouble using the shopping cart. Your satisfaction, unlike WestPac liberty ports, is guaranteed, and remember that every dollar spent supports the Association and helps preserve the stories of a Cold War submarine we called home!

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