Newport Dealeys
Chairman’s Message
September 27, 2004

Dear Shipmates
I’m delighted to report that our 2004 reunion in Warwick RI was an overwhelming success. With an attendance of 176 shipmates and guests at the Crown Plaza Hotel, a five star reunion facility, our Newport Dealeys sixth annual reunion was the best ever. We had tours to the Newport area including the mansions and a viewing of our former home, Newport base piers 1 and 2, which now berth the aircraft carriers Forrestal and Saratoga. Despite the rain on Saturday, the tour to the Battleship cove in Fall River was still enjoyed with enthusiasm.
Friday evening I presented the conclusion to our Search for the Hartley project and was pleased to announce mission complete. This past year, we had made contact with a former Colombian naval officer LTJG Luis Castro, who served on the ARC Boyaca (the former USS Hartley). In May 2004, Luis traveled on our behalf to its final resting place (an abandoned museum project) in hills of Guatape, Colombia. He photographed and video taped the remains and returned to us a few artifacts for display at the reunion. Luis also sent us an ARC Boyaca ships plaque for presentation to the Newport Dealeys in his name.
We had a photo display of Tony Arnold’s USS Courtney model he is in the process of building. It’s a large scale model and he hopes to have it ready for display at our 2005 reunion in Jacksonville.
I’m happy to report that we now have a Newport Dealeys insignia. Jerry Skorch of the USS Joseph K Taussig took the majority of the votes with his preliminary design. As you know we had a contest open this past year to all our shipmates to submit a design which would encompass the Newport Dealeys of the past and present. I would like to thank the originators of the 14 entries we had to choose from. I know that it took dedicated thought and effort to arrive at a design but it gave us a challenge to select a winner from some excellent submissions. Jerry will now rework the design using suggestions from the floor and have it available before the next reunion for our review.
Our Saturday night banquet was a very entertaining and enlightening evening. First with the colors presentation by the North Providence High School Color Guard, then a short talk by Chief Ernie Pina on the origin of the Newport Dealeys. He was followed by Captain Rodgard who spoke on the Cortron 8 exploits in the Med 1970-73 and then LTJG Bill OKeefe, who kept us in laughter with his stories of DE races and German language interpretations. Captain Maury Werth also entertained us with Navy stories and anecdotes.
Our Newport Dealeys plaque collection project is moving forward. We now have plaques from the Hartley, Van Voorhis, Cromwell, Dealey and the Courtney. They have been refinished and will continue to be on display at our future reunions. If you have a plaque that has been put in storage years ago and would like to donate it to our collection, please contact me. The condition is not important since we can repaint it during the long New England winter. We also started a ship’s patch collection display this year which now has a Hartley and Lester along with patch photos of the remaining ships. If you have an original patch that you would like to donate to the display project, again contact me. I have several cruise books that have been donated and will be available for future reunion viewing.
Our next reunion will be in Jacksonville FL on the 20 to 23 Oct 2005 at the Holiday Inn Airport with Charlie (Shoe) Holzschuh as Chairman.
The shipmates voted to have the 2006 reunion in Baltimore MD, on a date to be determined.

Sincerely
Marc Arsenault
Newport Dealeys Reunion 2004 Chairman
98 Oxbow Rd.
Charlton MA 01507
508 248 5072
www.newportdealeys.com
www.newportdealeys.org