Date: 10-06-2009 05:20 AM
Subject:Greetings from Norfolk
Email: bmaurer789@aol.comt

From: Robert "Bud" Maurer... Operations Officer... Late 1956 to Early 1958

I am in Norfolk to attend my first reunion ever of my first navy ship... The USS Bryce Canyon (AD-36).... I served as DC Officer in 1954, first in Yokosuka, Japan, then back to the U.S. West Coast in Long Beach, San Fran, Tacoma and Vallejo.

One of the Pillsbury shipmates mentioned a ship's party in LeHavre. I REMEMBER IT WELL. CDR Bailey, our Executive Officer, asked me to organize it with the help of some of the crew members.

We found a hall in town and made the arrangements. The sky was the limit..You should remember it as the greatest ship's party ever thrown in the history of the U.S. Navy....

I won't go into details, for obvious reasons, but I am sure that anyone who attended the party will agree..

You also might remember that the trip was the only time in US Navy history that the crew got to vote on its destination. We had about nine days between Dew Line picket tours. Our skipper, Cdr. Harmon, let the crew vote on whether to go back to Newport for a week or to spend a week in England and France... with port stops at Northampton and LeHavre.

The crew overwhelmingly voted for the trip to Europe... most of the crew had never been there before.... It was a great trip, although there were a lot of angry wives, mothers, and girlfriends left back in Newport waiting for their sailor to come home....

To pick up on several previous suggestions.... YES.... we should have a Pillsbury reunion.... I have been to one for my tanker, the USS Aucilla (AO-56) and now one for my destroyer tender, the USS Bryce Canyon (AD-36). It would be great to have one for the old Pill.

I hope this note finds my old crewmates alive and well and aging gracefully.>

Robert "Bud" Maurer

Hi, Bud...er...Mr. Maurer (pardon the slip)!

The ship's party I remember well. My first time overseas, my first ship's party, (my first ship), my first, but far from last, champagne, tiny little pies, three cherries each. And the plan of the day following: "At the ships' party, the crew consumed the following; 134 bottles of champagne, 8 bottles of scotch, four glasses and two light bulbs." I always wondered about the light bulbs.

I have just returned from the fifth reuniion of another signifigant ship in my Navy career, USS Sterett DLG/CG 31, and was the third President of the Association. Yes, reunions are fun and worthwhile; Elmer Fredd organized one several years ago, aboard USS Slater, DE-?, which I could not make, but would have loved to.

Pillsbury was a small ship, with a small crew and brief second career, but she was special.There are not many of us left, but a reunion would be pretty darn nice.

I'm on the far West Coast, in the Northwest to boot, a long way from most. In 2003 I organized a reunion for Sterett here, in a small (150 room) hotel nearby, on the beach in Dyes Inlet, off Puget sound. It's a Navy area (Navy Base Kitsap.Bangor, PSNS, Naval Torpedo Station Keyport), and the hotel is familiar with, and bends over backwards to help ship reunions. Sterett reunion was a resounding success, and the town, Silverdale has been mentioned as a return site.

If this sounds like a pitch for a reunion out here, that's because it is, and I would be happy to make all the arrangements . While the image is of the rainy Northwest, (partially true) the summers are glorious, and packed with activity.

It would be great for us to get together again- it truly has been a long time.

Denis LaCrosse RD3/RD2

To: All Hands:

Regarding Bob Mueller's recall of a shark on board I too remember the incident. However it was before August 1958 because that's when I left the ship. As for a huge storm it seems to me there was more than one. Also, I was on board when we went to the Boston ship yard ( maybe it was there more than once). When we left Boston we went to Gitmo for a shake-down (that was 1958, just before Castro took over). I recall we were supposed to stop in Santiago but there was to much action going on. I think that’s when we stopped at Miami instead.

Jim Hatfield EM3