Let’s start off this issue of the USS Newport News E-mail Newsletter by clearing up some confusion about the USS Newport News Association Membership and the USS Newport News Association Snail Mail Mailing list (Mailing list that sends out information via the U.S. Postal Service instead of by E-Mail).

Are you a member of the USS Newport News Association?
If you are on our Snail Mail list, then you are a member. The problem is, many of you think you are on the USS NN Association mailing list, but in reality, you are not. We are going to try to clear up the confusion.

What is the USS Newport News Association?
This is all former crewmembers of the USS Newport News CA-148, and people interested in our ship. The purpose of this association is to keep the memories of our ship alive, share fellowship with other former members, and to host an all-hands reunion every odd year for all who can attend.

Who can join the USS Newport News Mailing list?
Anyone who was a member of the USS Newport News CA-148 or anyone who is associated with our ship. The only thing you have to do is give us your mailing address and you are on the list. (See “how to sign up for the USS NN Association Snail Mail List” below)

What does it cost to be a member of the USS Newport New Association?
Nothing, There are no annual dues or membership fees.

What do you get by being a member of the USS Newport News Association?
Being a member of the USS Newport News Association will get you on our Snail Mail list. By being on our USS NN Snail Mail list, next October you will receive in your home’s US Postal Service Mail box all the information about the June 2003 USS Newport News reunion. This includes the registration forms, what’s happening and everything you need to know.  Also, from time to time, we send out a mailing on other important topics our shipmates need to know about.

The current membership of the USS Newport News Association Snail Mail List totals 1,900 shipmates and friends of the ship. There are another couple of hundred of you that think you are listed as a USS NN Association member but are not.

How do I know if I am a Member of the USS Newport News Association?
If you received a Snail Mail letter from the USS Newport News Association last month talking about the USS NN Museum and the current status of our museum project, then you ARE on the Membership list. If you have NOT received anything from the USS NN Association in your mail box in the last month, then you ARE NOT on our membership.

I am a member of the USS Newport News Association, Why Didn’t I get the letter?
Some of you will say, “Well, Hell Shipmate! I KNOW I am a member of the USS Newport News Association but I did not get a letter in my mailbox! WHY?”

Often times there is confusion because of terminology used, assumptions made, or bad postal address information.

Here are some of the reasons people who think they are on the USS NN Association list are not:

Confusion caused by Terminology.
Too often, we use the term “mailing list” on in our conversations and it’s hard to tell if the person means a letter they get in their postal mailbox that sits out front of their house or email they get on their computer. We are trying to get better at using clear terminology when we talk about our different mailing lists. Here are some terms to help clarify what type of mailing list we are talking about.

Snail Mail Mailing List (Snail Mail List) or (U.S. Postal Service mail)
A mailing list where the letter is put into an envelope, a stamp put on the envelope and then sent through the US Postal service

E-mail Mailing List. (E-Mail List)   
A mailing list where you receive and send the letter electronically using your computer’s email software.

USS NN Reunion Association / USS NN Association Mailing list.
In the past, we have referred to our Snail Mail Mailing list as the “USS NN Reunion Mailing list”, sometimes we call it the “USS NN Association mailing list”. Sometimes we just simply call it the “mailing list”. Those of us who send out emails to you are going to try to standardize the name for our Snail Mail list as the “USS NN Association Mailing List” to help cut down on this confusion. 
 

Bad Postal Address
When the USS NN Association sends out one of its Snail Mail letters, (average about once a year or maybe once every-other year) somewhere between 100 and 200 letters are returned because of a bad address. This can occur because:

• The person has moved with no forwarding address.
• The shipmate has passed away.
• When they signed up for the USS NN Association, they made an error in their address information.

When a letter is returned to us with no forwarding address, these names are removed from our USS NN Association mailing list.

People move! It’s hard to remember to let us know that you have a new address. So, if you did not received the Snail Mail Letter from us last month, please give us your new address (See “how to sign up for the USS NN Association Snail Mail List” below)

Confusion caused by assumptions.
There is sometimes confusion about what groups do what. There is a USS NN Reunion association group, the USS NN Museum Group and the USS NN Web Site Group. These are 3 different departments under the USS NN Association who keep track of their own information.

Sometimes, when people sign up for our USS NN Crew Members web page on our Web Site, they think that they are signing up for the USS NN Association mailing list as well.  The Crewmember page signup web page is only for getting your name on the web site and on the E-mail mailing list.

The information and permission needed to put you on the Crewmembers web page is different than the information for the USS NN Association. The crewmembers page does not ask for a snail mail address because we want to protect your address from the public.  In addition to signing up for the crewmembers page, you also have to sign up for the USS NN Association Mailing list. (See “how to sign up for the USS NN Association Snail Mail List” below)

So, if you did not get a letter in the US Mail last month about the USS Newport News Museum and Memorial Foundation, then you are NOT on our Association’s mailing list and you are NOT going to get the information and registration about the 2003 Reunion we will be sending out in October!!

To sign up for the
USS NEWPORT NEWS ASSOCIATION “SNAIL MAIL” MAILING LIST,
Go to http://www.uss-newport-news.com/reunion/nn_reun1.htm
fill out the form and hit the submit button.

Possible solutions in the future.

To help with this confusion, here are some steps we have taken and some steps we are planning to take in the future. 

Combine data and information.

• We have been in the process of combining the information of the Crew Members Web Pages Data Files, the NN Reunion Groups data and the Museum group’s Data all into one set of Data files. This will allow better control of our information and less shipmates slipping through the cracks. 

• The Reunion committee is no longer required to handle the responsibility of the Snail Mail list. The data from all 3 groups of the Association will now be managed by the “USS NN Association Data Systems Team” Led by Tim DeSalvo with help from all the team leaders of each USS NN group.

• We are in the process of combining the Crewmembers signup web page, and the USS Newport News Reunion (Snail Mail list) Signup Web Page and the USS NN E-Mail Newsletter signup Web page all into one signup web page so that when you sign up, you can take care of everything at the same time instead of having to go to 3 different web pages. (One signup does takes care of all 3 groups) But we need to do this in a way that is not TOO confusing for everyone and this will take some time to accomplish.

To sign up for the
USS NEWPORT NEWS ASSOCIATION “SNAIL MAIL” MAILING LIST,
Go to http://www.uss-newport-news.com/reunion/nn_reun1.htm
fill out the form and hit the submit button.

Note: When you sign up for the USS NN Association Snail Mail list, All information you provide will be treated as confidential and is strictly for use only by the USS NN Association. It will not be released to any other organization or individual.

For more information or questions on this topic
send email to Chuck Zendner at  **

On May 25, 2002, the City of Norfolk, Virginia and the US Navy Memorial Foundation dedicated the Wisconsin Square in honor of Norfolk-based ships that suffered an event (since World War II) resulting in a significant loss of life. 

A statue of the Lone Sailor (facing the USS WISCONSIN) and eight Ship's Memorials (including USS NEWPORT NEWS’ memorial to the 20 crewmembers killed in the turret two explosion) were unveiled and dedicated. 

The USS Newport News Association was represented at the event by some former crewmembers and the last two commanding officers of the ship.

For Additional details of the event and a pictorial tour of the ceremonies, Visit our web pages at http://www.uss-newport-news.com/memorial/loansailor/index.html

A Message from Al Siegel; 
USS Newport News Museum President
From Email dated June 6, 2002 

USS Newport News Museum Work Party Information

Hello Shipmates:

The plans for our USS Newport News work party, planned for Sept 19-22, 2002 are moving along very nicely.  All the rooms have been reserved at the hotel and bunks on the Salem.  For those of you at the hotel, I will get specific confirmation numbers in the next few weeks, but rest assured all the rooms are being held.

Those of you from the previous working parties might recall the dungaree shirt that some of the guys wore.  It was made available from Bob Freeman.  It looks like our old shirts we wore when we were living on old Thunder, but better quality, and has the ship name and Museum Crew over the left pocket.  They are available in all sizes from Bob if you want one.  Bob can get them for $30 for men and $27 for women.  If you do want one, get a hold of Bob at BobFreeman@netzero.net.

We will have specific assignments for each of you based on your abilities.  A good number of us will be needed to chip, prime and paint the 01 level near T2, as well as Mounts 51 and 52. Others will be needed in T2 to complete the clean up, paint and help install the audio/visual equipment, memorabilia etc.

The NN Foundation will be looking to purchase at least 4 needle guns to be used with a compressor that we will also purchase.  If any of you know of a manufacturer that we could get a deal from, please let me know.  All the brushes, paint and rags will be purchased prior to your arrival.

We are very fortunate this time because we will have a number of sons, daughters, wives and family participating.  We plan on having our big dinner Saturday night on Board the Salem - hopefully in the wardroom as before.

We are still getting in memorabilia from our fellow vets.  Just today I received an American flag the flew over the ship during it's raid on Haiphong Harbor in 1972.  That flag will be incorporated into our T2 Memorial.

We are also looking for movie footage from any of you that might have it, so we can digitize it and use it in our Museum A/V display.  That is going to be an outstanding feature of our museum thanks to Chief Dexter Goad.  Dex is working on a CD presentation that will incorporate as many different events in the ship's life as possible.  Visitors to the museum will be able to press a button, and see the ship and it's crew in action.  If any of you have any old 8mm film, or old movies that have been converted to video, and you think some of it would be appropriate for the museum display, please let Dex know at  dgoad@worldnet.att.net

Finally, for you Vietnam Era guys, the aft bulkhead of the museum will be used for mementos from that period.  We are planning to display a variety of blow up pictures, that in some fashion show the public what those cruises were about.  Other than the usual gun firing pictures, we will need pictures of the crew at work, on liberty etc.  If you have any pictures that you think would be good for that display, please scan them and E Mail them to me at siegel@uss-newport-news.com  or snail mail them to me at
Al Siegel
USS Newport News Museum Foundation
15233 Ventura Blvd., 900
Sherman Oaks, California 91403

I don't promise to use them all, but I do promise to give them all worthy consideration.

So far, we have 53 CONFIRMED signups for the Sept Work Party.  We still have a bunch of people that are interested and coming, but haven't yet confirmed.  Trust me -- this will be a great
experience for all of us, as good or better than the last one.

Any questions, E Mail me. siegel@uss-newport-news.com 

Best regards.

Al Siegel;  ETR2;  67-70
USS Newport News Museum President 

Take a look at your calendar, save the dates and go to our web site and fill out the sign up form.  Don't miss out -- this is the last one!!

Click here for more information about the next USS Newport News work party.

For more information on the Museum Project, please visit our
web site at http://www.uss-newport-news.com/salem/ 
or send email to AL SIEGEL at siegel@uss-newport-news.com   

For more information or questions on this topic
send email to Joe DeNatale at joebats@worldnet.att.net