On or
about September 24, 2009, (Thursday), the crewmembers of the USS
Pursuit from 1942 till 1960 started arriving in San Francisco for
their 2009 annual reunion. San Francisco was having very good
weather (sunny and clear and about 70 degrees temp). The hotel
was in an absolute perfect location with all the waterfront tourist
activities only one block away. We were about 100 yards from
the famous Pier 39, all the seafood waterfront restaurants, the
famous Gheradelli Chocolate factory and much more. Some of our
crewmembers got right to it and started enjoying the waterfront
activities right away. Some of our more focused members
discovered that San Francisco is full of famous museums and parks
and developed an itinerary to visit many of them during their free
hours. Our Hospitality room was available immediately and was
stocked very well by our hosts, George and Martha. Thanks to
Malcolm and Mary, (our Historians), our Hospitality room was filled
with the Pursuit historical data and artifacts, plus many pictures
of the adventures of the crew. We had a number of first timers, Murphy Smiley and Georgette (AM108), Robert Thomas (AGS17) and
Paul Lucas (AM108) ). A special mention must be made about out
hotel staff. The staff was extremely helpful in all respects;
they appeared to be proud to host a group of Navy veterans and went
out of their way to please us. One thing George did not tell
us about until we got there, and that was that the hotel had a FREE
wine party in the lobby for all guests every day from 5:00 pm till
6:00 pm. The lobby was another hospitality room every day from
5 to 6.
Friday
was scheduled to be our “Alcatraz Tour”. We were able to walk
the few blocks to the waterfront pier where we embarked aboard the
boat that took us to the island. Although we all went on the
same boat to the island (George didn’t give us our tickets until we
got to the dock), once you got to Alcatraz you could schedule your
own time to visit. There was a electronic guided tour in about
six languages which took about 2 hours (JCS took the tour twice –
once in English and once in German to practice his language skills).
The boats went back and forth every 15 minutes so you could “escape”
from Alcatraz any time. The remainder of Friday was “on your
own” which was really good as there was so much to do and see (although the FREE wine party at the hotel at 6:00 was quite a draw
for many of us). Many enjoyed the historical items about the
Pursuit, in the hospitality room.
Saturday was our day to visit the USS Hornet, a retired WWII
aircraft carrier over at the Naval Air Station in Alameda (across
the bay). Our bus picked us up at the hotel at 9:30 and took
us right to the ship (which was HUGE). The shipboard docents
were extremely knowledgeable and started us with a sit-down lecture
on the hanger deck. The ship’s scoreboard of planes downed and
ships sunk was displayed and it was awesome. We were assigned
a full time tour guide (a Navy Vet) who took us to the extreme top
(the bridge) and to what must have been the bottom of the ship.
We were given box lunches on the mess deck to keep us going.
We had a little time left, so we were bused over to the Museum on
the base where we were taken into tow by some more Navy vets.
My only observation is that all Navy vets have a lot of “Sea
Stories” to tell and when you are with some new Navy vets, it’s hard
to tell your story above theirs.
Later
that evening we had our business meeting (minutes were taken and are
available) and then we took our Official Photographs (our official
photographer was Amanda Schulz, now a Junior at San Francisco State
majoring in Photography)
The
banquet was excellent and a good time was had by all.
We all
thanked George and Martha for organizing another great reunion (this
was the fifth one George has organized which I think makes him the
Champion.).
Please
save some time next September when Malcolm and Mary will invite us
to the 2010 Reunion in Mystic, Connecticut.
Respectfully Submitted
John Schulz, Secretary
