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Association Officers
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President
Ron Zimmerman Sr.
474 SW Prater Ave.
Port St. Lucie, FL 34953
(772) 621-4016
ae17assn@adelphia.net
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Vice President
Jim Dunno
272 Stone Hedge Row
Johnstown, OH 43031
(740)817-2177
jdunno@columbus.rr.com
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Secretary
Jack Norton
2386 SE Patio Circle
Port St. Lucie, FL 34952
(772)335-9852
nortonae17@msn.com
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Treasurer
George Kaiser
311 W. Oak Lane
Glenolden, PA 19036
(610)237-1652
dcckaiser@juno.com
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From Our President:
Here it is again, already November, another
wonderful reunion is in the books and it is the start of a
new year for the Association. Jim and Joy did a fantastic
job with coordinating everything and making sure the reunion
ran smoothly. Well done to them both!
This edition is the start our new format and also the
beginning of reducing the mailing to just those that have
been Active Members of the Association. We are hoping
those that are still receiving this will also help out the
staff and submit articles for the newsletter. All articles
will be considered -
2 MAIN Rules…
Keep it clean and NO politics!
New Finds:
Gary Underwood, SN, ‘69; Jerry Thornton,
BM3, ‘66 and Robert Riehle, FN, 71. Welcome back aboard
shipmates.
Web Site:
Not a lot new this time. A couple of
pictures of shipmates and the information for the 2009
Reunion is posted. I also have a couple of projects that I
am working on. One is the pictures from our Cincinnati
Reunion and the other is going through a couple hundred
slides of cruises provided by John Whitford from his time
aboard. Slides take a lot longer to get ready, but from
what I’ve seen in the little hand held slide viewer - WOW!!
What a treasure trove he has to share with us. I am still
looking for names to put to some of the faces so if you
recognize anyone, let me know.
Ron Zimmerman
President

A word from the Vice-President:
Well here it is time for the 4th newsletter
of the year. I have been putting this off until the middle
of October but knowing the deadline to get it in the mail is
getting close I sat down at the computer to get it done.
Membership has been coming along with 179 dues paying
members so far this year. We had a lot of you pay your dues
at the reunion, which was great! But, and it’s a pretty good
size But, you all may want to look at the date on your card.
A lot of you who are paying at the reunion will notice that
your card was dated 2008 which only has 2 ½ more months to
go. What I’m trying to spit out is that if you Gentlemen can
find a spare $20, send it in and help get 2009 started off
on a good pace. There, that’s my quarterly dues talk.
I’m still in the process of mailing out your pins for
continuous years of paying Dues. I have mailed out 24 and
have about that many more to go, so you who are due one will
be receiving it in the next few weeks. Anybody who hasn’t
received one please let me know and I will check the records
to send it to you or let you know you forgot to pay for a
year or two.
Post Reunion Update:
Joy and I would like to thank all of you who
attended this year’s reunion! From the mail I have been
receiving it seems everybody had a good time. I know
Saturday night the whole Inn had a good time because they
were all in dancing with us, the other reason is that
everybody who usually goes to bed early were still
listening to the band at 10:30! I think if Joe Theisen had
his accordion he would have been playing along with the boys
at the Hofbrauhaus. I am waiting for word from the
photography company so I can send the pictures to them to
complete the memory book. While speaking of pictures I would
like to give a
SPECIAL THANKS
to Dorothy Hodnichak for taking all those wonderful
pictures. That about does it for me, see you next quarter
and everybody get ready for Boston!
Jim Dunno
Vice-President & Membership Chairman

Secretary’s Report:
Hello Shipmates!
Well, after all of my plans of being with you at the
Cincinnati Reunion, it ended up with my not being able to
go, because of my being in New York for required surgery.
We had expected to be back home in Florida in September, but
we are still in New York because of a couple of setbacks.
It reminds me of a story that I heard long ago, "Do you want
to give the Lord a good laugh? Tell HIM your plans for
tomorrow.
I would like to thank all the members, who voted at the
reunion, for their continued confidence in the current slate
of officers. We have heard from a lot of the attendees that
it was a great reunion. Thanks Jim and Joy, and we are
sorry and disappointed that we could not be there.
Boston, for our next reunion, is really progressing
well. It will be September 9 - 13, which is a few days
after the Labor Day holiday. Our hotel, the Sheraton in
Braintree, is located a few miles from Boston and with the
excellent rate of $99. per night it should be a great
opportunity for all of our shipmates to visit the Boston
area.
While I am recuperating, Ron has been taking care of things
for me - Thanks Ron.
Jack Norton
Secretary

Repair 3:
Sea story, definition from Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia...
A sea story is a work of fiction set largely at sea. The
enclosed setting of life aboard a ship allows an author to
portray a social world in miniature, with characters cut off
from the outside world and forced to interact in cramped and
stressful conditions. Themes can include differences between
seamen and officers, bullying behavior, humor or levity,
struggles against treacherous weather and sea conditions,
piracy, shipwrecks, mutiny, naval activity and battles,
adventures set on all manner of watercraft, explorations,
etc.
As we set off on this edition of the Great Sitkin newsletter,
my thoughts are again drawn to a good sea story. But, while
this one involves shipmates from the Great Sitkin, it isn’t
from the years she sailed the 3 seas. So, I did a search on
Wikipedia, and I’m thinking my story fits the quals, so here
it is.
About a month ago, the crew of the Great Sitkin were
assembled for our reunion in Cincinnati. One of the trips we
took was to the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio. Part of our
visit included the memorial service where we remember those
shipmates who have departed their earthly voyage during the
past year. A new addition this year was a real bugle we were
going to use to play “Taps” at the appropriate time. The
catch was that the instrument had an electronic device that
fit inside the bell, and would play a recorded Taps when a
button was pushed, the bugler would then hold the instrument
up and appear to be playing, providing a nice touch to the
memorial service. I was the bugler this year. Now, those
that were there by now are chuckling at the memory of what
took place when I was preparing to play. It will be one of
the “sea” stories that will be passed along during many
future reunions. For those that weren’t at this reunion, you
don’t know what you are missing my friends.
We really did have a great time this year, and I’m sure Jim
will cover it all somewhere in this edition. What struck me
this year as it does every year is how such a diverse
assembly of guys from over 25 years of service on a
auxiliary ship can get together, year after year. This year
at the Saturday evening dinner dance I started what I hope
will be an annual tradition, to toast the memory of the
Great Sitkin, the ship we loved, hated, sailed and sweated
in, and that brought us all, save 1, safely back to Americas
shores.
As I look around the repair locker, I find I still have a
large stock of Great Sitkin gear for you. Along with the
polo shirts, we also have a new style ball cap. It is the
close fit strap back fashion of the AE17 hat, but this one
has the same ships name and silhouette as the mesh back hat.
It’s available in navy blue, red, and pink. Ok, why red? In
today's Navy, the fire squad wears red ball caps, and seeing
how I am a Damage Controlman, and this is Repair 3, dealers
choice is to offer a red hat for the firefighter members of
the crew! So, get your Christmas lists ready, and get your
orders in. Cutoff for Christmas orders will be December 12th
this year.
That’s it from the repair locker. Everyone enjoy your
holidays, and keep your calendar open for Boston in 2009!
George Kaiser
Treasurer

The Chaplain’s Corner:
I have been
asked by Ron to write a little something for our News
Letters and keep all updated on our “Honor Roll List”. I
think I shall call it “The Chaplain’s Corner”, for the sake
of a better name and will be a regular feature of the
newsletter.
We certainly had a great reunion this year and many thanks to
Jim and Joy for their hard work. It’s great to have folks in
our association that are so gifted to bring all theses
things together.
As I set and ponder events that are affecting us, our
401Ks, savings, and retirement accounts, I’m reminded of
what Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:28 (KJV) :
“And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose.”
It’s hard sometimes to keep in mind that
God is still in control of all things, but he is. Let us
keep our hearts focused in these dark days and our faith in
Him who still has the reigns in his hands and be ever so
thankful. We still live in the greatest nation upon the
earth.
We have lost a few more of our shipmates recently. Ron has
received word that Doug Wales, DK2, “62 of Acapulco, Mexico
who was with us this year and last, has passed away
suddenly. Reports aren’t real clear yet but word is that he
was robbed and murdered. How tragic this is. We need to
keep his family, and those of the other shipmates, in our
prayers.
Starting in this issue of the mailed out version of the
newsletter, if we have them, we will be adding pictures of
those shipmates who have passed.
Also starting with this issue we will be including the names
of the spouses of our Shipmates that have passed to the
Newsletter. They are apart of us and we need to Honor them
also.
Honor Roll Update:
Elmer Pariseau, SK3, '51; Joseph Bozick,
S1c, '45; Douglas Wales, DK2, '62 and Ronald Grams, GMG3
Spouses:
Gloria Reynolds, spouse of B.J. Reynolds,
LCDR, XO ‘71—’72
Mark Rucker
Chaplain

Sea Story, November, 1961:
I’d reported
aboard the USS Great Sitkin (AE-17) in April 1961, shortly
after the ship had completed an overhaul at the Monte Marine
Shipyard in Brooklyn, New York. (Don’t bother checking the
yellow pages for a phone number, the company went belly up
in 1961.) During our shipyard availability period, ALL of
the ship’s electric motors had been overhauled, and various
valves in the ship’s fire main system had also been removed
and repaired/replaced.
Now deployed to the Med, we were allowed for once, to
join the more “glamorous” warships of the US Sixth Fleet in
a port visit; among them, the Sixth Fleet Flagship USS
Newport News, (CA-148). As was typical for ammunition ships
we always had to anchor out, but in Genoa, so did all the
other US warships.
At the forward end of Sitkin’s CIC was the navigator’s
chart table. Before entering port, I’d made a routine tour
of CIC to ensure the AN/SPS-10 surface search radar and its
associated AN/SPA-4A radar repeater (PPI scope) were
operating correctly. Assuring myself that they were, I
passed the chart table, and noticed that the posted chart of
Genoa’s harbor had a number of circles drawn on it. A
Quartermaster told me that each ship in company was assigned
one of those circles, and that a radius line from the
circle’s center represented the length of the respective
ship’s “swing” around its “hook.” The presumption was that
each ship would drop its hook dead center in its assigned
swing circle.
Through some glitch, we dropped the hook a bit
off-timing, thereby missing the center of our swing circle
by several yards. Since all ships in company had dropped
their hooks simultaneously (such precision), and all were
therefore pointed in the same direction... things looking
fine. Of course, the tide’s flow eventually changed, and
each ship rotated around its hook to correspond to that
change in tidal direction. Someone noticed that if we
continued our swing, our stern was destined to impact the
Flagship’s mid-section in the vicinity just aft of their
port side’s twin five-inch mount. Apparently, someone on
the flagship noticed that too, and sent us a “blinker”
message to hoist anchor, get underway, and correct our
positioning. Being anchored out, we of course had a boiler
lit off and steam available to get underway....the problem
we soon discovered, was in hoisting the anchor. The anchor
windlass motor, so recently overhauled by that now
out-of-business shipyard, fried itself immediately after it
was lit off to perform the task for which it had been
designed. We were stuck and still swinging our fantail
toward its destiny. I don’t know how it was explained to
the good folks aboard the cruiser, but I watched as they set
sea and anchor detail, hoisted their anchor, and relocated
to another anchoring berth well out of our way. I remember
thinking, “Wow! That cruiser might have had us out-gunned,
but we sure out-maneuvered her!”
Our anchor was later raised through the ingenious
expedient of lowering the forward cargo booms to deck level,
tying off the hoist cables to the anchor chain, and then
lifting the booms back towards the vertical. As the anchor
chain came aboard through this method, it would be “stopped
off,” and then the process repeated. I can’t say for sure
that the hoist motors were actually powerful enough to
obtain “anchor’s aweigh,” but they probably were strong
enough to remove all the slack from the chain. Once the ship
got underway, it was able to “pop” the anchor free from the
bottom and ready for hauling aboard as before using the
hoist and booms.
After leaving Genoa, the Newport News came alongside for
re-arming. Our ship, the hull of which had been fully
painted in the shipyard not eight months before, evidently
looked pretty shabby to the three-star aboard the cruiser.
As punishment for the shame our appearance was now bringing
him, compounded by the dishonorable anchoring we’d sprung on
him in Genoa, he “exiled” us to the western side of
Sardinia, outside of normal shipping lanes, where we could
“heave-to” and paint ship. In actuality, it proved futile
since we didn’t have sufficient fresh water to “prep” the
hull’s surface before applying the fresh coat of haze gray,
and the first sea that we encountered thereafter, just
sloughed off all that fresh paint.
I started this article by mentioning that all of the
Sitkin’s electric motors had been overhauled. Not
surprisingly, every one of those “overhauled” motors got
fried before we returned to the States. And those fire main
valves? Yep, you guessed it. A Damage Controlman told me
that either through incompetence or as a way for the
shipyard to cut corners during our overhaul, “fresh water”
valves had been installed in place of the correct sea water
valves; consequently, every one of those replaced valves
eroded, leaked, and had to be replaced.
Tony Fernandez, ETR2, ‘61
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