This was the culmination of a lot of work begun by Dan Cooley. He contacted me sometime in 1995 and we started to work up a list of men that we could remember and I would try to find them via the computer. We then saw Tom Gruber's name in the DESA news. After contacting him we found out that they pronounced the ship's name to rhyme with brow whereas we always rhymed it with bruff. To make a long story short Tom got the ball rolling even further with letters to men that we had found and some that he knew. With the DESA convention to be held in Virginia we felt that would be a good start.

     On September of 1997 we had a get together of about 27 men and most had spouses with them. Of that number there were 12 original crew members and the rest from the newer group. It was a treat to see men that had not seen one another since 1945, for the most part. To say that a good time was had by all would be a mistatement.

     I could go on for quite a bit more but this was the beginning of what was to be a great reunion group. We decided that we would meet again when the DESA met in Springfield, Mass. Hopefully, we would have even more men attend. But it does get very difficult to find men when you have just a name and not geographic locations. Thanks for letting me bend your ear a little.

Rod Blue

BACK