Charleston, SC 1989
The first truly formal, planned reunion of USS WHITMAN (DE-24) took place in 1989 at Charleston, SC. Doc Hine, Bob Corbin
and Tony Polozzolo worked an old roster and managed to contact more than 50 former crewmen and 30 turned out. We had a total gathering of about
60 including wives and some other guests.
Our ship's dinner that year was held at the base's Officer's Club. Shown are those who attended what has become a regular ritual of our reunions:
Row 1: Doc Hine, Bill Albrecht, Tony Rutkowski, Arnold Fondren, Bob Corbin.
Row 2: Bob Heacock (deceased), Bob Holmes, Buzz Keefe, Charles Lappe, Admiral Bull (first skipper, now deceased), A.M. (Mac) Rucker (deceased),
Roland Kolar, John Martin, Roland Gerber (deceased), Roy Watson (deceased), Charles Banks.
Row 3: George Jaeger, Joe Saeli, Alex Andersen (second XO), Bob McGrath (deceased), Tony Polozzolo.
Row 4: Dan Irvin, Eddie O'Leary, Jack Baker, Ken Boggess, Pete McLinden (deceased) and Paul Foley.
Crewmen held what turned out to be their first reunion at Norfolk in 1982, totally
unplanned but five of us happened to show up: Corbin, Irvin, Polozzolo, Saeli and Lu Jeglinski.
The following year Polozzolo and Saeli went to Long Beach where our first skipper, RearAdm Carl Bull, also attended and was,
in fact, a speaker at the affair held about the Queen Mary.
Aside from chance meetings of crewmen at DESA's gatherings, nothing organized took place until 1988 when about 10 showed up in St. Louis and Hine
suggested a concerted effort to reach all former crewmen. That led to our big turnout at Charleston.
Baltimore, MD 1990
Among the 25 or so we had at Baltimore were, seated: Jimmy Matthews, Keefe, Polozzolo and Standing: McGrath, Watson and O'Leary.
Nashville, TN 1993
We had small groups at Las Vegas in 1991 and Buffalo in 1992, but the
turnout improved for 1993 at Nashville with 17 shipmates attending. Seated are:
Lappe, Watson, Holmes, Bull, Andersen, Hine, Powell and Fondren. Standing are: McGrath, McLinden, Quicke, Saeli, Polozzolo, O'Leary, John Napier, Robb and Corbin.
Five of our group appear to have taken to the links at the Nashville reunion:
From left Fondren, Jimmy Powell, McLinden, O'Leary and McGrath. Truthfully
only the real golfers, Powell, O'Leary and McGrath actually struck a ball in anger.
Kansas City, MO 1994
Our group photo for Kansas City in 1994 shows handsome bachelors Saeli (at far left) and Keefe (far right). The couples are, from left, Quickes,
O'Learys, Bulls, Matthews , Polozzolos, Robbs, Hines, Powells, Jaegers, Corbins, Watsons and Andersens.
The next reunions were in Louisville and Reno, 1995 and 1996.
Hampton, VA 1997
The photo shows some of those in attendance at Hampton. Front row: McLinden, Foley, Hine,
Andersen, Keefe and Corbin. Back row: Quicke, Matthews, O'Leary, Fondren, Polozzolo and Robb.
Groups of various size met at Springfield (1998), Orlando (1999), Albany (2000), Omaha (2001), Myrtle Beach (2002)
and Denver (2003).
2004
This reunion was held in conjunction with the annual DESA convention in Fort Mitchell, KY., September 26-30, 2004.
2005
Lake Buena
Vista, FL was the site of this year's convention, held in conjunction with
the DESA annual convention. Unfortunately, only 2 crewmembers were in
attendance.
2006
No reunion
was held during the DESA annual convention in Dearborn, MI.
2007
For more
information contact: Tony Polozzolo, 6328 Alberta St., Springfield,
VA 22152
