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December 8, 2002
Hi Folks,
We did not break any records on accomplishments toward the restoration of the ship this week but Dan Jackson, as usual, continued is efforts on getting all the electronics of the security systems in place. I think we should recognize Dan as our worker of the week for his undying devotion to the overall restoration of our ship. The very first thing to point out is that Dan works and lives in Houston Texas and drives about 115 miles most every Thursday, to attend our weekly meetings and then again on Saturdays to work aboard the ship. The unique part of this is, he was not a crew member on the USS Orleck, but was on the sister ship the USS Perkins DD 877. His expertise is not only in the field of electronics but in getting other folks from the USS Perkins to assist in the restoration of the Orleck also. The Perkins group has already adopted two fairly large spaces aboard our ship which are the IC Plot and Gyro Room and the
Supply Office and the Disbursement Office. The latter of the two is 99% complete. In addition to the adopted spaces, he has the 1MC operational and is repairing all the speaker systems aboard the ship. He is constantly buying many of his replacement equipment parts out of his own pocket and donating the cost to the project. I consider him as an excellent role model for any person that wants to know what they can do to help the restoration project. In addition to his steady working progress, he is certainly a role model and example to all who recognizes his laid back and positive attitude toward all other members. I believe him to be the type person all of us could use as example for accepting others and accentuating their positives rather than their negatives. He is a joy to be around at all times. We had an entry in the Friday night Orange Jaycees Annual Christmas Parade again this year. The U S Naval Reserve Center loaned us their vintage "Six By" and one of their folks, Pat Gross, graciously agreed to drive it for us. When we say Pat "graciously agreed to drive the Six By for us," I think each person should recognize just what that chore entails; First of all, the truck is a standard shift; Secondly, there is a tremendous amount of stopping and starting, coupled with "riding the clutch" on the truck; And thirdly, it has a 200# pressure plate spring which requires a tremendous amount of energy to depress the clutch. Although Pat is in excellent physical condition, surely you can recognized how his left leg must have felt after the two hours of driving a vehicle of this magnitude. Our thanks to Linda Hanks and her crew who worked in the December cold to get the Six By decorated to honor all veterans at Christmas time. Margie Helton made sure we had folks in their full dress uniforms from all service branches that rode on the truck. I guess the most enjoyable thing about the entire parade was the applause and the youngsters salutes as our vehicle drove past. Just the realization that youngsters have the willingness to salute the veterans as they pass, is reward enough for me. We have in hand, the preliminary dry-docking scope of work requirements and will be reviewing it with those folks we feel most qualified to help us make sure of our intentions. I have asked Penn Johnson, Mike Jordan and Don Covington to have a look at the preliminary scope to determine if we are overlooking anything or if there are alternate ways of accomplishing that which they feel must be considered. We have only a vague idea of the cost of this work and know full well we do not have the money to do it at the present. We do realize the magnitude of the job is such that grant money from several sources will be necessary before we can proceed. The EPIC Foundation is currently trying to collect funds for this part of the restoration and we here at SETWM&HF, must first retire our obligation on the towing loan before we can venture into the expense of dry-docking. Last weeks trivia: Where did the phrase "Took the wind out of his sails", what does it mean in a meeting?
Answer: Often we use "took the wind out of his sails" to describe beating an opponent in an argument. It simply means that one noble adversary presented such a sound argument that his worthy opponent was unable to continue the verbal fighting. Originally, the term described a battle maneuver of sailing vessels. One ship would pass close to the windward, usually ahead of another, and thereby blanket or rob the breeze from the enemy's canvas, causing him to loose headway. This weeks trivia comes from Terry Miller of TCS: Sailors and many others have several terms indicating stopping off for a drink after work. Some of them are: "Lets knock back a few after work" or "Lets pop a top after work" and I'm sure you can think of many more. But do you know the term has a nautical origination? Can you tell from whence it came?
Tom Depwe |