Olympia Resort & Conference Center
Oconomowoc, WI
September 7- 12, 2010 

Reunion number 12 is now in the books.  All the preparation, hard work and time paid off as this was another good reunion. It was perhaps our smallest turnout but never the less I believe a good time was had by all. Large or small group, we know how to party.  Without knowing it, we got our daily exercise at this resort without going to their exercise room.  Just walking all those miles, well it seemed like miles, to and from our rooms a few times a day was enough exercise to last some of us for the rest of the year.  The friendly staff and management of the Olympia Resort were great and couldn’t do enough for us.  The food on the premises was good and portions were generous.
Some of our group said they had very good dinners at the various in town restaurants.

On Thursday night the three Navy League Councils of Wisconsin, invited our association to snacks and drinks in our Sea Stories room.
The Council, as a gift, presented the ships Quarterdeck Mat to our association.
We also received a large limited edition framed photo painting, of the USS Wisconsin, set in the 1980’s-1990’s era. This is a painting by artist, William J. Koelpin and is number 345 of 600. Inscription below the painting reads as follows;
                                                        USS Wisconsin (BB-64)
                        Published in honor of her recommissioning in the United States Navy
                                         Pascagoula, Mississippi 22, October 1988.
Artist signature is on the lower left of the white boarder surrounding the painting and signature of Captain Jerry Blesch is on the lower right.

We also received other interesting items for our memorabilia collection. 

 Also present were the Battleship Wisconsin Sea Cadets and 40 "A" school sailors from the Great Lakes USS Wisconsin Barracks.
A great time was had in conversing between the present day sailors and our guys.

Our Saturday morning business meeting went off well.  Voted into office were:
Bill Ridings (1988-1990) President,    Ranzy Weston (1988-1990) Vice President, 
Re-elected was John Fox (1952-1955) as Treasurer and Don Falkenberg (1989-1991) Recording Secretary.  

 Memorial service was held right after our business meeting to honor our departed former shipmates and associate members.
Flowers were placed in the wreathes by family members, friends and association members.

 Our reunion came to an end with fun, food and good music at our Saturday night banquet.

 See you all at our 2012 reunion in Norfolk, VA.

 Photo credits: Dom Menta #1 to #144   Mike Rigdon #145 to #160
 Guy Tringali #161 to #164  Joan Romatowski #165 to #192
Tom Bradshaw #193 to #226

Mike, Guy, Joan and Tom  thanks for sharing your photos.

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