Flamin Caiman News
January 13, 2012
This is where you can read the latest news and goings on with the USS Caiman Association and it's members and other topics of interest.
Patrol Reports
There are three new CAIMAN Patrol Reports and one Operational Report in the history section. These are reports from 1947 through 1954. Very interesting reading. Check them out.
Gallery
The Photo Gallery went down mid May 2010 because our web host provider moved the site to a new server. I have been working on it and as of June 27th, have the photo gallery back up. It looks different, but you can see the pics. I will be tweaking it for awhile to get it back in shape. The video gallery is also down. I am troubleshooting that problem and hope to have a solution soon. Meanwhile, I will be posting pics from the Reno reunion over the next few weeks now that the gallery is sort of working. Stay tuned.
2010 Reunion
The 2010 USS Caiman Association Reunion was a HUGE first-class fabulous affair. Smitty and the Yeo did it again. They just get better and better every time. The folks at Circus Circus really took care of us. Once we figured out the magic phone number to call for help we were able to take care of things almost instantly. (The magic number was 0 on any hotel phone) Reno is a great location for veteran's reunions.
We set a new attendance record in Reno. We had 120 shipmates, three CAIMAN widows, one CAIMAN daughter plus 116 guests for a total of 240.
THANK YOU!! to everyone that pitched in and helped make this such a great time. THANKS to the many of you that came early on Sunday to help us get things set up for registration and get the storeroom ready. THANKS to those that took the watch as storekeeper and at the registration desk. We could not have done it without your help. And if you took pictures while at the reunion to add to our web site gallery, THANK YOU!
A special THANK YOU to those of you that contributed items for our raffle. We had 46 drawing prizes that were given away at the
final dinner. A very special THANKS to Chris and Carol Field and Carol's brother for donating the hand made submarine birdhouse.
We also had donations from shipmates that helped make this one of our best Reunions. A very very special huge THANK YOU to Bill Bales (69-71) and the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company for providing us with the many flavors of happy nectar especially the Torpedo. WOW!! And a very very very special THANK YOU to Robert Walters who donated Caiman-Caiman Circus-Circus tee shirts to everyone that attended the reunion.
Once again the biggest THANK YOU goes to Smitty (Doug Smith) and the Yeo (John Fagereng) for their continued dedication and deligence for putting these reunions together. They take every bit of the two years in between making sure that everything is all lined up. It's all about the details.
Holland Club
We now have a Holland Club list of USS Caiman shipmates that have made it into this exclusive club. As more members are inducted into the club we will update the list.
The Holland Club was established in May 1964 and was adopted as part of the Constitution and bylaws of the US SubVets Association.
The Holland Club was established to recognize USSVI members who had been qualified in Submarines 50 or more years.
CONGRATULATIONS to all of our members for achieving this major milestone!
2008 Reunion
What a great time we all had in Branson! Branson is a great location for reunions. The hotel did a great job in taking care of us too. We had over 200 in attendance.
Take a look at the pictures and videos in the gallery and you will see some of what went on. You can also view some of the videos on YouTube. To find the videos on YouTube either use this link, or search YouTube for "flamincaiman". Come back once in awhile as more pictures and videos will be added from time to time.
Some of the highlights of the reunion included: Bent Christiansen gave us an update on how he is doing in recovering from Katrina and how he appreciates the support of the USS Caiman Association in helping him get back on his feet; Ken "Goat" Sanderlin was roasted at the luncheon; We made some changes to our bylaws at our business meeting and we voted to have the next reunion in Reno in 2010; We cruised the lake on the Branson Belle paddle wheeler and saw a great show including a magic show that a few of our own were involved in; We topped off the three days with a great time at the banquet - the food was great too! We were blessed with super weather once again.
The 2008 Reunion was a lot of fun. There are always ways to do it better so if you have any ideas for the Reno reunion, click here and give us some feedback.
Gallery Update
Have you visited the Gallery lately? There's a whole lot of new pictures there and a whole new Video section. Check it out.
USS Caiman Association Membership
The USS Caiman Association is now over 300. A BIG THANK YOU to all the shipmates that have joined our ranks! Joining the Association is completly voluntary. Membership dues goes 100% towards our on going expenses for newsletter printing, postage, hosting of this web site and planning for reunions. For more information on our USS Caiman Association just go to our Join page. If you would like to join, print out the form and mail it in.
Smitty (Doug Smith, the Association Secretary) continues to look high and low for more USS Caiman shipmates. He has made his goal of 1250 by our next reunion. Now, it's getting real difficult, so if you have any clues or have some time to help us look, please get hold of Smitty. Here's the scoreboard:
- Sailing List: 1251
- Live Souls: 564
- Association Members: 320
- Lost List: 178
At the reunion in 2006, Bob Mehrling and Bob Hyde each graciously donated $500 to fund the cost of a records search by the Naval Personnel Command Manpower Center for 290 USS Caiman shipmates. The list was comprised of all the names on our lost list that were E-5 or above when they were on the Caiman. The results are in. Of the 290 names 33 are on Eternal Patrol and 49 names were found and letters were sent. There were 208 not found. This means the Navy does not have a current record on them. The records only go back 20 years. If one of these shipmates went on Eternal Patrol before that time the Navy will not have a record of them. Thus far we have heard from 3 of those that received letters. The hunt continues.
In late 2004 the Association purchased all the microfilm records from the Navy that shows when people reported aboard, transferred off and other info. Smitty, Yeo and Whit have spent hours going through all of them. The microfilm turned out to be a gold mine of information to help find our shipmates. All shipmates that we have located are on the sailing list. The lost list contains all the names of shipmates we are still looking for.
We have 285 on our email list. If you want to be on our email list you have to put yourself on it! Click here to subscribe. If your email address changes go here.
Are you Lost?
If you served on the USS Caiman and just found our web site, WELCOME HOME! Please fill out our Contact Information form and we will get right back to you.
Old Newsletters
Every so often we send out a newsletter to our members via snail mail. Just in case you can't find one of them, you'll find them right here:
Non-Profit
The USS Caiman Association is a Non-Profit organization thanks to the efforts of Mr C. (Randy Christison). Effective August 12, 2004 we are exempt from Federal Income Tax under section 501(c)(19) of the Internal Revenue Code. See our Join page for further details.
Who Are You?
If you were you on Caiman in the mid 50's you might be able to help us identify this shipmate. Charlie Cloud wants to buy him a drink or two. Anybody?
Gallery Update
The Photo Gallery has over 130 photos from our 2008 Reunion in Branson. If you have some pics from the reunion or from your time on the Caiman, please send me an email, or snail mail me or phone me. You do remember the phone don't you. No, no it's doesn't have a crank on it.
By the way, if you haven't taken a look at the Gallery for awhile, you might want to take a peek as there were about 200 pictures added early in 2008. Thanks to the many shipmates that contributed these great pictures.
I collected a lot more pictures at the 2008 reunion and will be going through it all and adding more photos to the Gallery over the coming months.
I'm looking for an original 1957 edition of The Periscope so I can get a good scan of an article of Caiman's visit to Australia and a picture of four of our Caiman shipmates. If you have it, please send it to me and I will get it back to you asap. Thanks!
Topside Watch Log
Remember the tattered green watch logs we used to scribble in when we were on watch? Well, we've got one for you here on our web site so you can say whatever is on your mind. Just click on the green book with the FlaminCaiman and you'll be there. Look at the bottom of this and most pages on the web site and you'll find the book.
Please complete our Contact Information Form to get on our Master Sailing List Click here.
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