Monday, December 12, 2005

NOVEMBER 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Here is your monthly report for November 2005.

SHIPMATES: Please welcome aboard:
Jim McWilliams, BM3, 1967-1968 residing in Castell, Texas
Allan Kessler, SK2, 1966-1969 from Philadelphia, PA.

FINANCIAL: No income, no expenses, no nut'in. This leaves the previous balance of $842.07 with the "special fund" remaining the same.

ALTAIR HISTORY: I am still looking for ANY information that can be used in the Altair history books.....paperwork, photos, etc.

PHOTOS: I put up a few more pics on the Altair Photo's page 2 including a pic of the Altair plaque.

All for now (sure wasn't much). Please contact me with questions or comments.

Best Regards To All:

Charles Brecheisen
248 Drifting Cloud
Holly Lake Ranch, TX 75765-6321
Tel/Fax 903-769-5325

OCTOBER 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Here is your monthly report for October 2005.

ON A SAD NOTE.....John McDaniel reports that Billy Jordan, Norfolk, VA passed away in October. Billy served twice aboard the Altair, 1956-1958 and 1966-1968 and was a SK1. Our condolances to the Jordan family.

FINANCIAL.....The beginning October balance was $914.37 with no income and expenses of $72.30 leaving a balance of $842.07. Postage, plastic photo sheets and an Altair plaque were the expenses. I bought the Altair plaque on ebay and it came from a base bowling alley storage closet at the Mayport Naval Station Florida. The Altair "special fund" remains the same.

SHIPMATES.....Please welcome aboard Joe T. Reeves. Joe was a LT and a co-pilot on the Altair's chopper in 1964. Joe lives in Mississippi and you can visit his website at http://www.joesue.com

All for now. Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Best Regards To All......Charles

Awards for USS ALTAIR by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Many thanks to all that responded to the question of getting service awards while aboard the Altair.

Chief Smith suggests going to http://www.USSHorne.net and scrolling down and clicking on "Awards" and clicking on "OPNAV Note 1650" and there you will find a list of ALL awards. And, it's a LONG list too! Plus, you can write the National Personnel Records Center.

Paul LeClair sent the following information:

"UNIT AWARDS FOR ALTAIR AKS32; 1 Unit Award was found.......for furthur information, please send an email to NavyAwards@Navy.Mil

You may request a copy of your service record by submitting a written request to:

National Personnel Records Center
9700 Page Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63132-5100

It must contain the following information:

Full Name
Service Number or SSN
Dates of service (start and finish)
Daytime telephone number.

.....Obtaining information on Navy Awards and Medals Veterans are entitles to one set of medals and awards. To request his medals, a veteran should send in a separate completed Standard Form (SF) 180 to the:

Bureau of Naval Personnel (Code 312D2)
Naval Liaison Office, Room 5409
9700 Page Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63132-5100
Mark on envelope "DO NOT OPEN IN MAILROOM""

I have used this information procedure in getting the service record of an uncle that served in WW2.........and it worked! It also worked for Lou Cour as he also got his medals; and very quickly. But, he had some political influence working for him. ha.

Best Regards to All..........Charles

SEPTEMBER 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Here is your monthly report for September 2005.

WIRELESS INTERNET: Boy, oh boy, I am now on a wireless Internet system; and,it's great! No more dial-up! It's not quite as fast as DSL but at least 20 times faster than dial-up.

SHIPMATES: We picked up one new shipmate, Ben Feyl, SK3, 1962-1965 who lives in Bridgeville, DE.

FINANCIAL: We started with a balance of $894.37 and had no expenses and income of $20 leaving a balance of $914.37. The "special fund" remains the same.

LOCAL REUNIONS: Tom Planes, MM2, 1960-1963, has expressed interest in having a "local reunion" as have others. Tom lives in Georgia, and if you are interested, please contact Tom at tomplanes@alltel.net I sure would be interested. Ya know, there will never be new Altair shipmates; and, we are losing a shipmate to darn frequently. Other "local" groups could have a "get together." I think it's a great idea.

PHOTOGRAPHS: I put up a few new pics on our web site on "page 2" of the photos page. Thanks to all that send me photos! Keep 'em coming!

SUGGESTIONS: My two best "buds" in the radio shack were "Trigger" Burke and Vincent Burling. I have sent them emails, phoned, sent them photographs, etc., but I can get absolutely no response from either of them. Any suggestions on how to get them on board? I am sure that there are shipmates that think the Navy, or the Altair was a bad experience and want nothing to do with the Altair crew. I guess I will review the letters I have sent with a cutoff of 3-4 and sometimes 5 guys with the same name and send out more. Suggestions? Anyone with a WATS line that could make phone calls? It's only money.

All for now. Please contact me with suggestions or comments.

Best Wishes To All...........Charles

New email address for Charles and SPAM beating idea from Chief Smitty

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Well, even living in the bookdocks, I now have access to a fast wireless Internet system; and have been connected; and, it works great. I will be dropping the dial-up Netzero service in about a week.

Please start using cmbaltairaks32@fastmail.us

I have been using Fastmail for about a week and it seems to be a great email service.

Chief Smith (Smitty) has a great idea for beating the SPAMers address gathering software. He mentions another Navy site (usshorne.net) that adds "OXOX" at the end of the email prefix. (i.e. anynameOXOX@yourisp.com) This would prevent the SPAM software from getting your correct email address. Of course, everyone would know to eliminate the "OXOX" when sending an email to another shipmate. Any comments? Or, just leave it alone? This would only be done on the Altair web site. I still get 5-10 SPAMs daily at this email address; but, not one so far on the Fastmail address.

We are preparing for "Rita" here in E.TX and have stocked up with water and canned goods. We need the rain, but............

Best Regards To All......Charles

Shipmate Passing by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates.

I received the following email yesterday: "My husband, Gerald J. Creed, who served on the Altair in the late 70s (sic) has passed away on August 13, 2005." (Mrs. Creed meant the late 60s)

Shipmate Creed was a BM3 and served aboard the Altair 1968 to 1969 and helped decommission the ship.

Mrs. Creed can be reached at:

Mrs. Gerald J. Creed
136 Madison Avenue
Rahway, NJ 07065-2204
732-382-3841
Creedjerry4@netzero.net

AUGUST 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Here is your monthly report for August 2005.

SHIPMATES: No new shipmates came on board in August.

FINANCIAL: The beginning August balance was $893.27 with expenses of $73.90 and dues income of $75.00 leaving a balance of $894.37. I renewed our Altair website name for the next 3 years. The "special fund" balance remains the same.

COMMENTS: I received a rather strongly worded complaining email from a shipmate that he got some SPAM that he didn't like (Political); and, wanted his email address deleted from everything. I do realize that our email listings can and probably does result in getting SPAM. The only reason that I list email addresses is that I want shipmates to be able to contact other shipmates with a minimum amount of trouble. If any shipmate wants his email address deleted from the website, please send me an email and I will take it off the list. Or, I could delete ALL email addresses on the shipmate list and if you want any info, just send me an email and I will give you all the info. What do you think? Please do not reply to this email but to cmbaltairaks32@fastmail.us

Very soon, I will hopefully be connected to a Internet wireless system and will not be using the phone lines to connect. This means I will have a new email address, but will keep the Netzero address for a couple of months to make sure the new system works OK. I will still use the "cmbaltairaks32" prefix so you will know where the email is coming from.

Please contact me with any questions or comments at cmbaltairaks32@netzero.net

Best Regards To All.....Charles Brecheisen RM2 1959-1961

JULY 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Here is your monthly report for July 2005.

Boo! The 1/2 inch rain we got in June is the only rain since last May. Here at Holly Lake we are under very severe water restrictions and a burn ban. The dog days of August arrived on July 1st.

By not replying to this email has solved lots of problems -- except for the SPAM. Please continue replying to cmbaltairaks32@netzero.net

SHIPMATES: No new shipmates came on board in July; so, we continue to hold at 396.

NEWSLETTER: Of the 396 newsletters mailed, 12 were returned due to bad addresses. I was able to forward 4 of them to new addresses and had to delete the remaining 8 addresses from the shipmate mailing list. Thanks to all the shipmates that keep me up to date with new home and email changes. I am also looking for interesting items and articles to include in our next newsletter.

FINANCIAL: The beginning balance was $770.12 with income to $175.00 and expenses of $51.85 leaving a balance of $893.27. Thanks to all that paid dues!

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Best Regards To All........Charles Brecheisen RM2 1959-1961

JUNE 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Here is your monthly report for June 2005.

Yea! We just got 1/2 inch of rain. Here in E. TX we had zero rain in June!

Again, please do not reply to this email but use cmbaltairaks32@netzero.net

SHIPMATES: No new shipmates came on board on June. We have 396 shipmates on board.

Ed Rice, I still need your address to mail you the newsletter.

SHIPMATE PASSING: A. Evans Silk passed away September 4, 2004. Shipmate Evans was from Millington, TN, a SK3 and aboard the Altair 1953-1954. Our condolences to the Silk Family.

EXPENSES: The beginning June balance was $1073.11 with income of $25.00 and expenses of $327.99 leaving a balance of $770.12. Expenses included labels, postage and printing of the newsletter. The "special fund" balance remains the same.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE ALTAIR BLOG SITE! http://aks32.blogspot.com

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Best Regards To ALL.........Charles Brecheisen, RM2, 1959-1961

Friday, June 03, 2005

MAY 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Here is your monthly report for May 2005.

By not replying to this email seems to work as I have had no problems in May. Well, one day I had 21 Spams on this email address, but that seems to have tailed off.

SHIPMATES: We gained 2 new shipmates in May, bringing the total to 398. The new shipmates are:

Martin Summann, RM1, 1966-1967, Virginia Beach, VA

Edward J. Rice, Jr., RM3, 1961-1963 (I need your address Ed)

WELCOME ABOARD!

FINANCIAL REPORT: The beginning May balance was $1110.11 with no income and expenses (postage) of $37.00 leaving a balance of $1073.11. The "special fund" balance remains the same.

ALTAIR NEWSLETTER: The newsletter is about 75% complete and I hope to have it in the mail in the next couple of weeks.

ALTAIR BLOG SITE: Don't forget to check out the Altair blog site. It's really a neat site and shipmate Dick Braun has done a super job getting it up and running. The site can be found at http://aks32.blogspot.com

ALTAIR HISTORY: Pat Malato sent me a terrific Altair history book that he was given while aboard. The book is titled "USS Altair [AKS32], Home Port, Naples Italy, 1963-1965" and lists information on the various ports the Altair would visit. Included was the "Change of Command" program and a formal invitation; plus Pat's "Armed Forces Liberty Pass." Loads of information. Many thanks Pat!

All for now. Please contact me at cmbaltairaks32@netzero.net with any questions or comments.

Charles Brecheisen
248 Drifting Cloud
Holly Lake Ranch, TX 75755-6321
Tel/Fax 903-769-5325

Monday, May 02, 2005

APRIL 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair Shipmates. Here is your monthly report for April 2005.

Please do not use the "altaircrew" mailing list as it causes me 2-3 weeks of cleaning up afterwards. Hopefully, this will solve my email problems.

SHIPMATES: We gained one new shipmate in April bringing the total to 396. I have been mailing to names where there are 4-5-6 possibilities of finding a shipmate; but, no luck so far.

Our one new shipate is:

Neal Johnson, SK2, 1960-1962; South Windsor, CT

Welcome aboard Neal!

FINANCIAL REPORT: The beginning April balance was $1097.11 with receipts of $50.00 and expenses of $37.00 leaving a balance of $1110.11. The "special fund" remains as $868.61.

ALTAIR BLOG SITE: Shipmate Richard "Dick" Braun has put up a "blog" site for the Altair. A blog site is similar to a message board as you can upload comments; and, other shipmates can reply. It is a simple matter to register, upload your photograph and bio and start adding comments. It's a great way to communicate! Try it; you'll like it! The site is at http://aks32.blogspot.com
Thanks Dick!

All for now. Please contact me with any comments or questions.

Charles Brecheisen
248 Drifting Cloud
Holly Lake Ranch, TX 75755-6321
Tel/fax 903-769-5325

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

REUNION SURVEY RESULTS

As a follow-up to the inaugural USS Altair reunion on May 13th thru May 15th 2004 at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Norfolk, VA, in early 2005, Charles Brecheisen sent out a mailing to all shipmates. Included in that mailing was a survey that he asked you to complete and return. If you were one of the 57 shipmates (14%) that completed the survey, we all thank you!!! Without your opinions, the reunion committee would be making assumptions. Please feel free to add additional comments and if you haven’t voted, do so now at the "comments" link at the end of this article!

The following locations were suggested by the responses for our next reunion:

Anywhere/No Opinion, Atlanta, Baltimore Cruise, Barcelona, Baton Rouge LA, Bermuda, Boston, Bronson MO, Buffalo NY, Charleston, Chicago, Cleveland, Erie PA, FL Cruise, Florida, Ft Lauderdale FL, Jacksonville, Key West FL, Las Vegas, Midwest, Mobile Cruise, NO. LA, Naples, Nashville, New York, Newport RI, Norfolk, Ohio, Orlando FL, Pearl Harbor, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pigeon Forge TN, San Diego, Savannah, Springfield MO, Texas, and Washington, DC.

As you can see it is quite a list of locations!

The ballets are tallied and the first four selections in each choice are as follows:

1st Choice: Florida Cruise 14, Norfolk 7, Barcelona 6, Charleston 5
2nd Choice: San Diego 7, Charleston 5, Norfolk 4, Naples 3
3rd Choice: Norfolk 6, Las Vegas 4, NO LA 4, Charleston 3

From all categories the total per location is: Norfolk 17, Florida Cruise 14, Charleston 13, San Diego 7, Barcelona 6, Las Vegas 4, NO LA 4, and Naples 3.

Florida (various locations) had 24 votes from all categories while Anywhere/No Opinion had: 1st Choice 4, 2nd Choice 15, and 3rd Choice 22.

Charles also reports that there were 18 volunteers (32%) to assist in the planning, organization, and various event tasks! Wow, what a great group!

For the second reunion the committee is seriously considering Tampa ‘Ø7 in the springtime. Either trying to get a cruise or at the lease a tour of the American Victory.

Any additional comments, thoughts or votes? Let us hear from you!!!

Thursday, April 21, 2005

How to create an article

Did you know that you can create an article that will appear on this site simply by clicking on the "BlogThis!" button in the tan colored border at the top of this screen? Once that is done Change the title and erase the stuff in the white box and start typing your article. Simple as that!

At any time while you are creating your article you can spell check it, link to other sites, Bold, Italic, Save as a Draft, or Publish it by using the buttons at the top of the BlogThis box.

To leave a comment on an existing article, click on the word "COMMENTS" following the article that you wish to comment on. A screen will open and you can add your comment to that article. Then publish your comment and voila, your comment appears with the article!

Sunday, April 03, 2005

March 2005 REPORT by Charles Brecheisen

Greetings Altair shipmates. Here is your monthly report for March 2005.

SHIPMATES: We are now up to 395 shipmates gaining 3 in March. It has been suggested that I list the new shipmates......and, I think that's a good idea.

Here are some of the latest Altair shipmates:

Donald L. Myers, EM3, 1965-1968
Muneer Zaineldeen, SN, 1955-1957
Jim DeSantis, SK3, 1967-1968
Juan Phillips, SN, 1963-1964
Richard M. Braun, SN, 1962-1963
John B. Thomas, Jr., FN, 1959-1962

FINANCIAL REPORT: The beginning March balance was $959.11 with receipts of $175.00 and expenses of $37.00 leaving a balance of $1097.11. The "special fund" remains the same $868.61 Thank you!

ALTAIR TEE SHIRTS: Randy Higgins, son of Frank Higgins (FN 1953-1956) is now in the tee shirt business; and, is looking for a distributor for Altair tee shirts. Randy can be contacted at Randy@HigginsCT.com or at his web site http://www.HigginsCT.com If you are interested please contact Randy direct.

CLASSMATES.COM: If any shipmates has the "gold membership" at Classmates.com please send emails to the following shipmates and get them on board: Danny Adams, Michael Broad, Bruce Davis, John DeMoss, Carlton Glover, Robert Gottschalk, Rick Mann, Ray Marchant, Timothy O'Toole, Eugene Reohr, Frank Spalding, Sidney Steingart, Donald Taylor, George Thomas and Dan Thrasher. I do not have a "gold membership" and they will not allow me to send them an email.

EMAIL: I am very unhappy with the current email system that I am using to mail the Altair shipmates; and, hopefully will have a new service soon. Netzero will only allow me to have 30 names on a list in the address book. The current system I am using creates many problems for me; and, any replies to me should be sent to cmbaltairaks32@netzero.net

All for now. Please contact me with any questions or comments.

Charles Brecheisen
248 Drifting Cloud
Holly Lake Ranch, TX 75755-6321
Tel/Fax 903-769-5325
cmbaltairaks32@netzero.net

Thursday, March 31, 2005

T-shirts

T-shirts There has been a lot of emails recently expressing interest in t-shirts that have been screen printed or embriodered with some type of logo.

Does anyone have a picture of the shirt that we could post along with the cost/price and availability?

Monday, March 28, 2005

USS Altair AKS 32

This page is a test for tha Altair blog.