------------------------------------------------------------

PRESIDENT’S PONTIFICATIONS

It was good to see so many members turn up for the Annual General Meeting at Kedron Wavell. Unfortunately the numbers were not sufficient enough for a sit down meal upstairs with our accompanying raffles. We now have a new Treasurer, Henry Diekema, who we most sincerely welcome to the Committee. Kevin Dios-Brun is now one of our Committeemen.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Ray for his outstanding efforts as Treasurer for quite a few years It is widely accepted that the Secretary and Treasurer of an Association are the backbone of the operation.
The dates have been set for next year's reunion in Bundaberg, so it will be up to the individuals to make bookings when we can get a list of motels and caravan parks from Dick Harrison.
Anzac Day is not far off, so get out the medals and give them a bit of a polish. As Alan has said in this newsletter, we will step off last this year but he would like some help with setting up the banner.

Regards Doug.

NEXT MEETING
Our next meeting will be held at the Mooloolaba SLSC on Sunday 18th May. Usual meeting time of 1030 for 1100 with lunch approximately 1200. Please RSVP to any of the committee by phone or email no later than Wednesday 14th.

LAST MEETING
Our AGM was held on Sunday 10th Feb. 25 members and guests again enjoyed the facilities provided by Kedron Wavell RSL with the after meeting lunch in the Coral Sea Room. Unfortunately, our small number didn’t justify a separate room for lunch so no income was derived from raffles. The previous executive and committee, was re-elected with the exception of the Treasurers position, which was vacated by Ray Duesing. Henry Diekema volunteered to take over from Ray and was elected unopposed. Kev Dios-Brun, having volunteered, was elected as a fourth committeeman. Congratulations to all concerned and thanks to Ray for his efforts over the past 7 years.

ANZAC DAY
2008 This year the Navy will be last off so don’t forget the caps (see Peter Thomas if you haven’t got one) and blockout. The Navy contingents will form up on the Elizabeth Street side of Queens Park. Look for the Banner. It would be appreciated if a few members could attend early (10‘ish) and assist with erecting the banner so that those looking for a place to gather prior to the march can see it.

FOUND
Association member Ron Bojtschuk's medals recently surfaced on eBay in the UK. They had been stolen several years ago and when the Seller was confronted with this advice he said he had bought them from a reputable dealer about 12 years ago.

REUNION Bundaberg Update – from Association member Dick Harrison

HMAS HOBART NATIONAL REUNION

Bundaberg

14th – 18th OCTOBER 2009

ALL WELCOME

For further information contact
Dick Harrison
Phone: 07. 4159 4515 or send an email to: dick.coralcoast@bigpond.com

A "rough" outline of events is as follows,
14th. PM - Registration - Meet & Greet - B.B.Q.
15th. AM/PM - Local/District Tours
16th. AM/PM - Local/District Tours - Golf (Fort those who like to chase little white balls.)
17th. AM - Free and Easy - P.M. - Reunion Dinner
18th. AM - Commemorative March - P.M. B.B.Q. Farewell.
Further details as they come to hand.

JUST A MOMENT Remember, you may not be able to change the course of the wind, but you can adjust your sails.

ON LINE (Your Service History) For members with computer access: - http://naa12.naa.gov.au/ is the official site that provides personal information on ex-service personnel up to the time personnel records were transferred to EDP, (1/2/1970).
Following are the steps to get the information. Once logged in: -
(1) click "Guest" box (bottom left)
(2) on the next screen, type in the person’s name and at "Location of Record" click
Canberra, then click "Search"
(3) on the next screen, which provides brief personal details, click "Display"
(4) and on the following screen click "View Digital Copy" and your record appears.
At the top left of that page, click "Enlarge" for better/larger copy. Sadly the legibility and printing quality is of poor standard.

ICE
The following was received by email and comes from the NSW Ambulance Service.
We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in their memory. There can be hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the person to contact in case of an emergency? If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know whom to call. Hence this "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign. The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As mobile phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" (In Case Of Emergency). A paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn’t know which number to call thought up the idea. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the
right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE".

INVITATION
The Australian-American Association extends an invitation to our members to attend the memorial service commemorating the 66th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea to be held at 10am on the 10th May 2008 at the Lyndon Baynes Johnson Memorial at Newstead Park, Newstead. The service will be followed by morning tea (gold coin donation). Dress: Uniform or Business attire. Please RSVP (no later than 30th April) to aaa@americancommunityaustralia.com or 3278 6366.

CLARIFICATION
There has been some discussion recently as to whether or not the DDG Hobart received a second citation from the US during the third deployment to Vietnam (as stated on the wikipedia website). After extensive research by several people, including Archives in Canberra, we can confirm that the only citation issued was to the First Deployment.

NAVAL HISTORY
The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) as a combat vessel carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators (fresh water distillers). However, let it be noted that according to her log, "On July 27, 1798, the USS Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum." Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping." Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum.

Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine. On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchantmen, salvaging only the rum aboard each. By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, and though unarmed, she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Her landing party captured a whiskey distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home. The USS Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, NO rum, NO wine, NO whiskey and 38,600 gallons of stagnant water. Now these guys knew how to drink!

HOBARTIAN HISTORY
The following was copied from the NSW Buzz.
Captains Christmas Message to his Ship’s company on 25th December 1940
“A very merry Christmas to you all. The sudden appearance of an enemy raider down near the Equator caused us, as you know, to short circuit Colombo where a host of Christmas turkeys waited to greet us and where I hoped it might be possible to embark a beverage that would add cheer to your Christmas – our second consecutive Christmas at sea.
Instead of these things, I will give you something, which I think is both food and drink to you and that is good news!
Our intended movements are that only after a brief stay at Fremantle, we will push on to Sydney and providing that our enemies (or potential enemies) do not make any unexpected move, a period will be spent in Sydney to enable leave to be given.
So I take this opportunity of wishing you not only a Merry Christmas, but a happy homecoming and leave.
I am sure you will realise that this advance information is passed to you on the understanding that it is not mentioned ashore while at Fremantle.
I like to think of Christmas as not only a time when we extend Greetings and Good Wishes, but also as a time to express one’s feelings toward the good deeds of others.
I have therefore elected this Christmas morning to express my gratitude to each one of you for the splendid way in which you have built up and maintained the fighting qualities of the ship since the outbreak of war. I think I can best make known to you my feelings in the matter by giving you a few extracts of a report I wrote on the evacuation of British Somaliland. (There followed flowing praise of various departments and individuals for the successful evacuation). The Captains message continued… In a final paragraph I have stated: ‘During the whole period of this operation and in fact during the whole period proceeding it when British Somaliland was being re-enforced, I had that confident feeling that whatever difficulties might arise, whether it required skill, ability, endurance, initiative or courage, the officers and ships company of HMA ships under my command could be relied upon to give a most creditable account of themselves.
It was gratifying to find my confidence was not misplaced. I cannot better express my opinion of the most admirable manner in which officers and men conducted themselves through every phase of the operation than to state what I have already stated to the assembled ships company that I am very proud of them”.

DID YOU KNOW
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone?

SLOPS
Just a reminder to anyone interesting in purchasing slops. The following are available:- Caps ($15 - one size fits all!), Polo shirts ($35.00 - please advise size), Name Badges ($12.00 + $3.00 postage (if required); please provide the name you wish to appear on the badge), ties (about $20, have to order from our Southern cousins), brooches & medallions (price TBA). Goods ordered by the end of this month would be available for collection on Anzac Day (at our usual venue in Brisbane, at the Mooloolaba or subsequent meetings. Items to be mailed are subject to additional cost of postage & packaging. Contact Peter Thomas by email at matsno@bigpond.com or 0417-916-078.

NEW SUBMARINE
(Received by Email) June 8, 2007. Britain launches massive sub that can hear a ship from across the Atlantic. She is 4 years late and a massive 900 million over-budget. But when the Royal Navy's super-sub HMS Astute finally arrived, she made for an awesome sight. More complex than the space shuttle, and able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing, the 7,400-ton monster is the largest and deadliest hunter-killer submarine ever built. Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, cracked a bottle of beer brewed by the sub's crew on her prow to officially name the 'boat'. The specifications for Britain's biggest submarine make for mind- boggling reading, as long as a football pitch, at 318 ft, and as wide as four double-decker buses, HMS Astute is a third longer than any sub which has gone before. Her nuclear-powered engine will propel her through the water at more than 20 knots, yet the UK's first stealth sub makes less noise than a baby dolphin, making her as good as undetectable by enemy ships. Astute's sonar is so advanced that if she were lying in the English Channel she would be able to detect ships leaving New York harbour 3,000 nautical miles away (although the details of how she can do this are classified).
The nuclear reactor will never need refueling, and with an ability to make oxygen and drinking water out of sea water, the sub could stay underwater for its entire 25-year life span were it not for the needs of the crew. Once she goes into operation in 2009, Astute will carry a 98-man crew and stay at sea for 12 weeks on a routine patrol. She will carry 38 Tomahawk cruise missiles, with a range of 1,240 miles, meaning Astute could attack targets in North Africa with pinpoint accuracy while sitting off the coast of Plymouth.
Spearfish torpedoes will also be on board for attacking ships and other subs.
But Astute will not carry nuclear weapons the UK's Trident missiles are launched from the Vanguard class of submarines. Astute is the first of four vessels to be built by BAE Systems at a total cost of 3.85 billion, or 960 million each!

SOMETHING YOU PROBABLY NEVER KNEW YOUR MOBILE PHONE COULD DO

Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry?
This may come in handy some day.
Good reason to own a mobile phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your mobile phone.

Then hold your mobile phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock!
Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a mobile phone!"

AND NOW FOR SOME FUNNIES

Mick and Paddy had promised their uncle Seamus, who had been a seafaring gent all his life, to bury him at sea when he died. Of course, in due time, he did pass away and the boys kept their promise.
They set off with Uncle Seamus all stitched up in a burial bag and loaded onto their rowboat. After a while Mick says, "Do yer tink dis is fer enuff out, Paddy?"
Without a word Paddy slips over the side only to find himself standing in water up to his knees.
"Dis'll never do, Mick. Let's row some more."
After a bit more rowing Paddy slips over the side again but the water is only up to his belly, so they row on. Again Mick asks Paddy, "Do yer tink dis is fer enuff out Paddy?"
Once again Paddy slips over the side and almost immediately says, "No dis'll neva do." The water was only up to his chest.
So on they row and row and row and finally Paddy slips over the side and disappears. Quite a bit of time goes by and poor Mick is really getting himself into a state when suddenly Paddy breaks the surface gasping for breath. "Well is it deep enuff yet, Paddy?"
“Aye it 'tis, hand me da shovel."

AND

The Admiral was about to start the morning briefing to his Staff and Ships Commanders. While waiting for the coffee machine to finish its brewing, he decided to pose a question to all assembled. He explained that his wife had been a bit frisky the night before and he failed to get his usual amount of sound sleep. He posed the question of just how much of sex was 'work' and how much of it was 'pleasure?'
A Commodore chimed in with 75-25% in favour of work.
A Captain said it was 50-50%.
A Chief responded with 25-75% in favour of pleasure, depending on his state of inebriation at
the time.
There being no consensus, the Admiral turned to the AB who was in charge of making the
coffee. What was HIS opinion?
With no hesitation, the young AB responded, "Sir, it has to be 100% pleasure."
The Admiral was surprised and, as you might guess, asked why?
“Well, Sir," began the AB, "if there was any work involved, the officers would have me doing it for them."
The room fell silent.

See you on Anzac Day or at Mooloolaba.