Here’s recent news of our ship and our Commissioning Committee.
First off, the ship got underway for the first time with an all Navy crew and sailed away from the shipyard in Pascagoula, MS in mid-December. She spent a few days over the Christmas holidays in Key West, FL ,then proceeded to Guantanamo Bay for fueling and on to the Panama Canal, which she transited on January 9th. She was a tight fit as the old canal is 106 feet wide and USS Portland is 105 feet wide.
After a brief “crossing the equator” ceremony when 200 polliwogs became Shellbacks and members of King Neptune’s regime and real seafarers, the ship headed north and will reach Manzanillo, MX for another port call today, January 15. With the exceptions of brief liberty ports, most of the time is occupied with training, drills and becoming familiar with all shipboard equipment. Reports from Capt. Hill state that all is going well. They expect to be in San Diego soon.
And your Commissioning Committee has now transited from planning to implementing events for the ship when it arrives in April. (Three months from today she will be here!) The Outreach Committee, lead by Tony Sebbio, is seeing more success in raising funds and we expect to be able to afford all the events associated with a great Commissioning. That’s a relief! Let’s keep those donations coming in!
Our Social Committee, lead by Michelle Stoneking and Carol Bray, is working on details of dinners, reception and other events for the crew and families. The largest will be held aboard ship for about 800 crew and families. Our Operations Committee is working with the Port and various security groups to assure we have 5,000 chairs and parking at Terminal 2. Jim Main says “all will be ready”.
Then, behind the scenes, Jim and Elsie Lasher are almost being overwhelmed by invitation requests. Our record day was this past Saturday. They received 165 requests. Unfortunately we expect to have to close invitation solicitation soon, as we are reaching our limit of 5,000. Ken Bray is working with Chad Harder on the design of the crew’s plankowner “planks,” a Navy tradition for each sailor on a new ship. On the publicity front, Nolan Johnson and Phil Brunson have a lot more news to put out now that the ship is heading our way and our local news outlets seem to be publishing and broadcasting more as the Commissioning date (April 21) gets closer.
These are exciting times — trying to get ready for such a great civic event for our City. Your Committee is moving forward — maybe not quite like a well-oiled machine but, hey, we’re volunteers — and we have three months left. We still plan to have one of the best Commissionings the Navy has ever seen.
All Donations Help! Contribute through our website: USSPDX.ORG
Here’s recent news of our ship and our Commissioning Committee.
After a brief “crossing the equator” ceremony when 200 polliwogs became Shellbacks and members of King Neptune’s regime and real seafarers, the ship headed north and will reach Manzanillo, MX for another port call today, January 15. With the exceptions of brief liberty ports, most of the time is occupied with training, drills and becoming familiar with all shipboard equipment. Reports from Capt. Hill state that all is going well. They expect to be in San Diego soon.
And your Commissioning Committee has now transited from planning to implementing events for the ship when it arrives in April. (Three months from today she will be here!) The Outreach Committee, lead by Tony Sebbio, is seeing more success in raising funds and we expect to be able to afford all the events associated with a great Commissioning. That’s a relief! Let’s keep those donations coming in!
Then, behind the scenes, Jim and Elsie Lasher are almost being overwhelmed by invitation requests. Our record day was this past Saturday. They received 165 requests. Unfortunately we expect to have to close invitation solicitation soon, as we are reaching our limit of 5,000. Ken Bray is working with Chad Harder on the design of the crew’s plankowner “planks,” a Navy tradition for each sailor on a new ship. On the publicity front, Nolan Johnson and Phil Brunson have a lot more news to put out now that the ship is heading our way and our local news outlets seem to be publishing and broadcasting more as the Commissioning date (April 21) gets closer.
These are exciting times — trying to get ready for such a great civic event for our City. Your Committee is moving forward — maybe not quite like a well-oiled machine but, hey, we’re volunteers — and we have three months left. We still plan to have one of the best Commissionings the Navy has ever seen.
All Donations Help! Contribute through our website: USSPDX.ORG
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