30 April 2010
NEWSLETTER

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USS Wisconsin BB-64 Reunion
September 7-12, 2010 Olympia Resort, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
_City of Oconomowoc Home Page
Our reunion website is now active.
To access it, click on the following:

www.militaryreunionplanners.com/wisconsin

Please READ the instructions carefully!  Everyone has the option of registering online and paying with a credit card (which incurs fees for processing) or the forms can be printed and mailed in to Military Reunion Planners, with no additional processing fees.  We will be posting attendees on our weekly newsletter since the attendees’ info will not be online until 4 months before the reunion.  There is a link to our weekly newsletters on the attendee page.

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU

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Please keep your email address up to date with LaDonna
even if you don’t want it posted online.
  Please contact LaDonna Bradshaw, bb64members@aol.com. Or (601) 693-4614
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       FROM MY PERSONAL LOG

Greg Stamatelakys is still doing his best to try and get the USS Wisconsin BB-9 ships bell, placed on display in the Madison Capitol Building.   See his first email in the 26 March 2010 newsletter.

Dom,

I'm the fellow over in Milwaukee trying to have U.S.S.WISCONSIN BB-9 ship's bell relocated from a dilapidated situation to the rotunda of Wisconsin's state capitol building in Madison. Thank you for running those photographs of the bell. Would you please consider running my letter to City of Wauwatosa Mayor in your weekly newsletter? I'm sure your ship, U.S.S. WISCONSIN BB-64, carried a number of fellow Wisconsinites and perhaps the letter will encourage them to back my efforts. If you can, with the letter please run (again) one photo of the bell and perhaps my e-mail address.

Yours,

Greg Stamatelakys
skeg@uwm.edu



Greg Stamatelakys

1640 N. 118^th Street

Wauwatosa, WI 53226                                            April 27, 2010

 

Mayor Jill Didier

City of Wauwatosa

City Hall

7725 W. North Avenue

Wauwatosa, WI 53213                                                    

 

Dear Madam Mayor,

 

I’ve been a resident of our city for about 15 years and while visiting City Hall I notice the large bell outside the offices. On closer inspection I was amazed to read the plaque and realize this artifact came from such noble ancestry. I am an ex- U.S. Navy boatswain’mate and to appreciate the story of the bell and its ship is to understand the unique place Wisconsin holds in all things maritime. This is the last vestige of our great ship, U.S.S. WISCONSIN battleship #9, to sail around the world with the Great White Fleet of 1909. Its condition and placement is disrespectful to the bell and the memory of those people and events from so long ago. A warship’s weapons, along with its whistle and the ship’s bell, is its voice and sounded in times of anger, distress and honor. As a veteran and a citizen of Wauwatosa I ask that our city Mayor lead the citizens and gift the U.S.S. WISCONSIN bell to the people of the State of Wisconsin. Please let this noble bell reside in the greatest place of honor, the Madison Capitol Building. Let its glorious note ring in memory and solace of those Sailors and Marines who give us their ultimate sacrifice.

 

Respectfully,

 

 

Greg Stamatelakys

 

 

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PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE IN YOUR PRAYERS,
OUR SICK AND DEPARTED SHIPMATES AND THEIR FAMILIES.

FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS