Flamin Caiman News
Feb 17, 2008
2008 Reunion - May 19-22, 2008
Branson, Missouri
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.
2008 Reunion Registration is OPEN!
It's time to register for the 2008 Reunion! This is going to be the best reunion yet. Smitty and Yeo have been on port and starboard watches for the past two years to set this up. You will be receiving a package in the snail mail soon with the registration form or you can get a copy of it and all the details on our Reunion page here on the web site.
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.
One of Own Receives an Award
Bob Walters was recently presented the Oregon Museum of Science oand Industry Historical Naval Ships Association's Ship Maintenance Preservation & Exhibition Award for his outstanding and dedicated work on the USS Blueback. The Blueback is the Submarine Museum at Portland, OR. The museum get the award for the longest title for an award.
Holland Club
Congratulations to Conrad Barrett,Gordon Burdick, William Dumbauld, Charles Harvey, Ronald Hnatovic, Gerald Zeman for their recent induction into the Holland Club. We have over 50 Caiman Shipmates in the Holland Club. To be inducted into the Holland Club you have to be a USSVI member and qualified in submarines for at least 50 years. If you are approaching your 50 years, let us know. We would like to make sure you get the recognition you deserve. Here is a list or the USS Caiman Association Holland Club Members.
Our 2006 Reunion was FANTASTIC!!
(See the pictures from the Reunion in the Gallery section of the web site)
The second USS Caiman Association Reunion was a smashing success. We had 124 shipmates, 1 Caiman Shipmate's widow and 92 guests aboard for a total of 217 in attendance. We had 33 more than at our first reunion. We must have had a good time as we went through 5 kegs of beer, 6 cases of O'Douls and 16 cases of soda. With all that liquid the sea stories were flowing fast and furious.
After our luncheon on Tuesday at our business meeting we took care of a few things. We made a few changes to the by-laws and Chris Field was voted in to continue as the Vice Commander. It was a land slide election. It was also announced that Chris and Carol tied the knot a few days before. Carol was presented with a bouquet of flowers from the board and Chris received a free prescription. He is still trying to figure out how to use the popsicle stick and rubber band.
The weather was perfect for our trip to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday. We filled up 3 buses and had a good time looking into the big ditch, doing a little shopping, having lunch and topping it off with an IMAX movie. As we were leaving, it was strangly reminiscent of a few times in our past as one of our own almost missed movement. We waited with the bus idling and #1 line taut as we went searching for our shipmate. We never leave our own behind.
The banquet on Thursday was especially fun. We heard some great stories and good words from five Caiman Skippers and many others. The raffle was a huge success as we gave out some 25 prizes. George Taney won the grand prize. A vote was taken on the location of the next reunion and Branson, Missouri won by a large majority. I'm also glad to report that the tradition of closing the bar, the hospitality room and the lobby was carried out by your hard core representatives until the wee hours with several renditions of the hymm (him that is). The night manager was a victim witness to this. We even had piano accompaniment thanks to Sam Amato.
The 2006 Reunion was a lot of fun. There are always ways to do it better so if you have any ideas for the Branson reunion, click here and give us some feedback.
USS Caiman Association Membership
The USS Caiman Association is now over 230. 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 1000 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: 1120
- Live Souls: 544
- Association Members: 243
- Lost List: 292
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 264 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 now officially 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 200 photos from our 2006 Reunion in Flagstaff, Arizona. 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 110 pictures added right before our 2006 Reunion. Thanks to the 11 shipmates that contributed these great pictures. A special THANK YOU goes out to Bob Bowlin, who made copies of a lot of material from the museum in New London. We now have a picture of the keel being laid and the christening.
Now I am going to start on the 10lb box of pictures and photo albums that I picked up at the Reunion in May. Don't worry I still have it all and I have labeled each picture or group of pictures and will get them all back to the proper owners.
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!
Another thing we are looking for is a Caiman Battle Flag. If anyone has one or a picture of one, please contact me.
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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