NEWSLETTER
June 2006

Dear Shipmates,

Hope this finds everyone in good health, doing well and making plans for Kentucky in Sept. The more we find out about Covington, KY the better it sounds. For example, they have the South banks shuttle which goes to all of Cincinnati and northern KY's riverfront area attractions, hotels, restaurants and shopping districts, it stops at our hotel and the cost is $1.00 per person.

There will be brochures in the hotel lobby with the route & stops shown it runs every 15 min. 7 day a week. There is a casino in Indiana which is 30 min. away (shuttle doesn't go there).

If anyone is interested in playing golf on Thursday call Bill Cahill in Kentucky 859-331-1746, he says there are some good courses and he will make the arrangements.

When you make your flight reservations into Cincinnati please call the hotel with your airline, flight number and arrival time so they can pick you up.

If you have friends or relatives that you would like to bring to the reunion please feel free to do so, they are more than welcome. We have a few who attend most every reunion and they thoroughly enjoy it. Just give us their names so we can have name tags made for them. Also please ask them to have their picture made for our reunion book.

We should be getting our Springfield reunion books soon, Tony Allou sent it to the publisher around 1 May. If you paid for a book and don't receive it by 15 June please let me know.

Our mini reunion was a great success we had 52 people attending, many for the first time. We had people attending from Atlanta, GA, Alaska and Northern CA.

Juan Sanchez and Chris Hilgenberg attended they were close friends in the early 50's and had not seen each other for 54 years. It was a joyful occasion for both of them and the highlight of the mini reunion. To see 2 old shipmates reunited after so many years, makes all our work worth while.

Our new memberships list now has the person's rank listed (if known), we would like everyone to have a membership list so you could communicate with your shipmates. Also if you know someone who is not on the list please send us the name and we'll try to locate them. We make a continuous effort to locate new members and you could be a tremendous help to us. In 15 years we have just about exhausted all possibilities so you are our last hope. If you want a membership list please call or write and I'll send you one. Please cut out the request to the newspaper to print our reunion announcement and send it to newspapers in your area.

DUES - in the last newsletter we indicated who owed dues, a little less than 50% of these have paid. Please send your dues check, dues are $15.00 per year, make check to F.B. Parks Assoc. a sticker is on the top right side of this newsletter with your dues status, if there is no sticker you are up to date.

The reunion sigh up form is enclosed please fill it out and return it ASAP. We need to know the number attending for planning purposes. Make the check to F.B. Parks Assoc. if you have to cancel for some reason we will refund your money as long as we have 3 days notice.

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The hotel is the Radisson Hotel Riverfront make reservations by calling 800-333-3333 or
859-491-1200, you must identify yourself as being with the USS Floyd B. Parks DD884 you must give the name of the ship and the hull number cut off date for reservations at 75.00 is 15 Aug. 06.

E-mail addresses

We are having a lot of problems with incorrect e-mail addresses. If your e-mail address has changed within the past few months please notify Sue Birdsong at bnsbirdsong@mindspring.com .

In the Feb 06 newsletter on the subject of info for your spouse in case you pass away there is an error. The sentence that says "the first thing to do is to register your DD214 with the county you live, in should be- register your DD214 with your Veterans Service Officer.

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Dear Sir or Madam,
Please print our reunion announcement in your newspaper as follows:

The U.S.S Floyd B. Parks DD884 reunion will be held 18-25 September 2006 in Covington, KY.
Contact James "Robby" Robbins (530) 283-2165. P.O. Box 61 Twain, CA 95984
Thank You.
Your Name & Address Here

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Tom (352 344-5424)
Robby (530 283-2165)

 

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Hernian "W "Carter Chaplain

Greeting Sbipmates,

Spring is now upon us. Loree and I have been working in the flower gardens as well as my vegetable garden. We have had a wonderful year so far. Everyone in our family has been healthy, and we are thankful for that blessing. Debbie and Zack spent a few days with us during spring break in March. We really enjoyed their stay.

With the beginning of spring, comes new life for the dogwood trees and various colorful flowers. While on this thought of new life, I would like to share this poem with you that I found in a devotional book the author is unknown.

The Secret of Life As the Lord God was creating the world he called upon his archangels The Lord asked his archangels to help him decide where to put the Secret of Life. "Bury it in the ground," one angel replied "Put it on the bottom of the sea," said another "Hide it in the mountains," another suggested. The Lord replied, "If I see to do any of those only a few will final the Secret of Life. The Secret of Life must be accessible to EVERYONE!" One angel replied, "I know: put it in each man's heart. Nobody will think to look there." "Yes!" said the Lord. "Within each man's heart And so it was.~--­ The SECRET OF LIFE lies within all of us.

In closing, let of all remember that happiness, love, joy, and peace are the keys to the secret of life and each of us has these within us. Hope everyone continues to have a great summer and we look forward to seeing you in Covington, Kentucky in September.