Hotel: Engleside Inn
Location: Beach Haven, NJ
Date: 09/25/2016 - 09/28/2016
Chaired By: Ken Stone/George Estey/John Ivan
Attendance: 64 total/31 shipmates
Highlights
The DJB went through FRAM I in Bremerton in 1964 and nine of us in attendance were part of that experience. We stayed in downtown Bremerton so we were within walking distance to the Bremerton Boardwalk, the Seattle and Port Orchard ferries, the USS Turner Joy, the Puget Sound Navy Museum, the Harbor Side Fountain Park, and a number of places to eat. The DJB and the Turner Joy were in Desron 19 together from 1959-64, so ten of us were part of that experience.
Crew/guests arrivals were ongoing throughout Sunday, so no specific activity/dinner plans were set. Monday 18 crew members accepted one of our shipmate’s invitation to tour his Naval Museum and property in Sequim. The lady’s took advantage of that and did a girl’s tour of Port Orchard. some early scouting missions of Seattle and the casino’s in the area resulted in a good sized group of us taking the ferry to Seattle on Tuesday.
Wednesday morning it was discovered that one of our shipmates, passed away during the night. He was brought to the reunion by his daughter, who was one of the loves of his life. He had done well at the casino Tuesday and had a good time that evening in the Hospitality room reliving his time on the DJB, sharing memories and pictures with his navy buddies. We held a memorial for him and our shipmates who we’ve identified that have passed away since our last reunion at the Harbor Side Fountain Park. We then had our banquet/business meeting/raffle at the Kitsap Conference Center. Many stories were shared well into the night in the Hospitality room as the reunion wound down.