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« on: September 08, 2008, 04:22:39 PM »
Ray Wewers --- raywewers@suddenlink.net
Shipmates, this is my first posting on this forum, but acting as the USSVI Memorials and Ceremonies Chairman, I get the feeling that many subvets, especially those associated with the Museum boats, do not realize that USSV CF has a program to provide financial assistance to the boats. If you have a project on a museum boat that requires financial assistance you can request up to $1000 per project from the M&C Fund. You are required to raise the same matching amount and submit invoices for the materials and services necessary to complete your project. You must also assign a project manager to communicate with the fund. On Razorback, we had a major project to air-condition her at a cost of approximately $25000. We received a $1000 donation from a former COB on Razorback, $4000 from a former Razorback Torpedoman's family and Razorback Base provided $11000 toward the project. We did the project in two phases and for each phase the M&C fund provided us with $1000 for a total of $2000. At present, I am in the process of rewriting the M&C procedures manual but am willing to hear from any of the museum boats who are in need of financial aid. Although our fund is limited, at present, I will try to go to the board of USSVI for more funds if necessary. If the funds are available, I am sure the National board will support the additional donations to these museum boats. I agree that these are essential to our ability to perpetuate the memory of our shipmates who gave their all for us to be free.
Along the line of museum boats and their ability to be maintained, we, Razorback Base, have become pretty good at "begging". We have been able to obtain enough vinyl tile and adhesive to replace all the tile on Razorback's main deck, enough cypress wood to replace the deteriorated topside deck, all the labor to install 4 geo-thermal AC units, and, so far, have been able to get the primer and topcoat to paint the hull and superstructure. All this has been donated at no cost to the base or the Museum.
Razorback is owned by the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum, a subsidiary of the city of North Little Rock. The director is a USSVI member and the curator is an associate member of Razorback Base. The Maintenance Chief is a USSVI member and an employee of the city of North Little Rock. We, Subvets of Razorback Base, have a good working relationship with the staff of the Museum. Agreed we have had our differences on what needs to be done and how it should be done, but overall, we are able to work together. Our biggest problem is getting the equipment needed to some of the work due to cost. We want to remove the clamshells and send them to a machine shop to rebuild the steel supports, but it costs us $1000 a day for barge mounted crane to remove them and then the cost of restoring the supports is in addition to this. So far, we have been able to restore approximately 65% of the ship's lighting, replace the tile, replace the topside decking, scrape, prime and paint about 1/4 of the hull and superstructure. It is slow, tedious work when you only have 3 or 4 people who can dedicate about 2 days a week. Most of our volunteers have to drive anywhere from 60-80 miles one way to get to the boat and with the price of gas that gets very expensive. We try to schedule workdays once a month and in the past have had up to 8 subvets and sometimes 3-4 Air Force personnel from Little Rock Air Force Base attend. It's definitely a labor of love since the pay is non-existent. So in closing, I am available to assist any museum get some financial aid from USSVI and will try to get more information out to the museums in this matter. I may want to shoot myself for doing this after I get flooded for requests, but give me a chance to update our M&C manual before you overload me.
Ray Wewers
M&C Chairman
Razorback Base Commander
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