May 1st, 2010

Dear Shipmates, Family & Friends,

    A new year has started and as always, I don’t know what we old ones would do without you young ones. We want to thank Cindy, George, Frances and Guy for looking after us. They do such a great job of making plans and finding places of interest for us to go.

    Yesterday (1-14-2010) I received a phone call from Calvin Joe Dooley, (# (609) 641 2678, majodooley@aol.com). He needs information about Santo Porto - gunner mater second class in the USS Rich DE695. He was from a family of 14 or 15 children in a small town of about 500 in Lumberton, NJ. Joe said there is a picture of Porto hanging in Town Hall. Now that the Town is growing and building new community builds he and others would like to see a school or new building named for Porto. He is asking that anyone who served on the USS Rich that knows anything about Porto get in touch with him to help his cause.

    We also received an email from Robert Hoffman, in September 2009. I’m including it below as Hoffman is searching for information his father. If any of you have any information, please pass it on.

    I want to thank Carl Boedecker for his early experience going into the Navy. Carl did not tell of him loosing both legs after the USS Rich, DE 695 went down, however he still wears a smile on his face and to my knowledge, still enjoys his pipe. Thanks again for your letter, Carl. (see pg 2)

    In the photo sent to George and forwarded to me, is a picture of five of our shipmates. Second from the right is Thomas, Eugene TM3. I do not recall him; however the photo brought back a lot of memories, the second on the left is, Fox, Earnest George GM2. He and I went on liberty in Norfolk, Va – he too was killed in action.

    A man named Rich Dudley emailed us after seeing this photo on the website, to let us know that Gene was his great uncle, and was killed in action at the age of 18.

    I received a letter from Marty Frazier thanking us for our donation to the Normandy Memorial in Bedford, VA in memorial of Paul.

    Cindy has had her hands full, playing doctor taking care of HB Sims who has been in the hospital with heart trouble. She got him going again, even though he might not be in fourth gear yet - leave it to Cindy though, she’ll get him there. And bless her heart, even with all of that on her plate she still managed to scout around for a new lodging place for us in Lynchburg, and she got us hooked with a nice hotel; and at a nice rate too!

    If you’re planning on using the group rate, please remember to make your reservations no later than May 17th. Also, you must use the group code USR/ Government, and refer to the USS Rich Reunion. Reservations can be made through email, at the address listed above – but do not try to make the reservations on the website. Also, if something happens and you don’t think you’re going to be able to make it, please cancel your reservations at least 24 hours in advance. If any of you are feeling sporty, bring your bathing suit and go for a swim. I won’t be doing any swimming, but I’d love to see some other people try. Thank you again for getting this together for us Cindy, we can’t tell you how much we appreciate all you do!

M H Green, the Communicator
315 Kinsey Street
Raleigh NC 27603

(919) 833-0747
(919) 414-4535 (cell)

(A copy of information about the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA, is being included for your reading. We will be going there again this year on June 6th. Join us if you can.)

 
M. H. Green
Guy Rich - Frances Livesay

            
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