This year's reunion was held in the Boston, MA area and home base was the “Sheraton 4 Seasons” at Burlington , MA. The official starting date was Wednesday the 22nd of September with closing at the end of day on Saturday, the 25th of September.

Those that came Tuesday, the 21st went “whale watching” and enjoyed every minute of their time at sea and were able to see a large number of the huge “sea mammals”. Wednesday saw the remainder of the attendees wander in and we had a total of 90-attendees with Florida weather and sickness causing a number of cancellations that would have put us over the one hundred mark. Two couples that never missed a reunion for other than national decrees missed their first because of health - Lou & Flo Laffoon and Bill & Fran Betz. I have had the opportunity to serve with both men and I can take to heart Stephan Ambrose's book titled “Band of Brother” for to me as were men that I served with directly – they were “my brothers”. I especially miss “Bill Betz” with whom I shared so much aboard ship – sleeping quarters, meals and duty stations, just to name a few of those areas that we were close and with “Lou Laffoon” it was somewhat different when he became a Lieutenant “J-G” and fell into the older brother class. As I saw it aboard the “Gyatt” the “captain” was the father, the “exec” was our stepfather, the “senior officers and chiefs” were older brothers and the rest were our brothers. Those that came before us and at no time served with us were “uncles & cousins”. The passing of “Bill Betz” the day after our memorial service brought the “Band of Brothers” relationship home to me. On our list of departed shipmates – Bill was number 301. The memorial service was held Thursday – the day before Bill's passing and our chaplain – Tom Fuller assisted by three shipmates had a bell service that tolled after the reading of all 300 departed shipmates whose names came to us by wives, children, grand-children and shipmates. After the reading of the names of all departed shipmates taps were played and a wreath placed upon the sea.

After the memorial service we took the opportunity to visit the USS Constitution the oldest ship in the fleet (commissioned in 1797) and tour downtown Boston . This evening, as with the previous and following evening was shared with shipmates and spouses, who we now get to, see at least once a year and some that we hadn't seen in 50-years. The schedule set forth by our host “Bill Myers” allowed this opportunity.

Friday saw the men head to Battleship Cove and the women to Newport , RI . The women toured a 70-room mansion and the men toured the battleship - Wisconsin , the submarine – Lionfish, the Gearing class destroyer – Kennedy, two PT boats, a Russian corvette and some WWII airplanes. The men also had lunch aboard the Massachusetts.

Saturday was somewhat different; first, our business meeting (always held on Saturday morning was arbitrarily cancelled and) held Friday night. We got to take a bus tour to Cape Ann and the towns of Rockport and Gloucester . We walked the streets of these towns and visited some of the shops of both communities – some of us got to visit the statue of the “ship's helmsman” and read the plaques with the names of the fishermen lost at sea from this area. The statue and plaques were most recently brought to our attention by the movie “The Perfect Storm”.

We closed our day by meeting at the hotel and sharing our gifts. We bid farewell to shipmates and spouses looking forward to another year and another sharing of time and made most aware of the fact that our time together is very, very precious and not there for the taking with the passing of our “brother – Bill Betz.”

Until our next journey – fair winds and happy sailing.