DVinson
08-16-2006, 03:13 AM
Every day, I am asked what was the motivation for getting this web site started. The answer is actually quite simple. It just happened. I will try to provide some insight behind its happening below:
I was on board the Small from 1962 until 1966 and left the ship as a Sonarman 1st Class. Over the next few years, I lost touch with my friends and shipmates. I became absorbed with education, family and career and from that point, I never looked back. Until recently, the Ernest G. Small and my time aboard her was just a dim memory.
Then, late in 2004, my son told me about a destroyer reunion he visited in Burlingame, CA when he and his wife went there to pick up his father-in-law for a visit. Joe Bruno, the father-in-law, told me about Tin Can Sailors, Destroyers On-Line, etc. Said I should check them out. I did, and found E.G. Small crew listings on most of those sites. However, there were few registered from the 1962-1966 period and none that I was actually acquainted with. So I registered and waited.
Then last summer, upon my return from vacation, there was an e-mail from Bert Royster, STG2. We connected and he hooked me up with three other shipmates from Fox and 2nd division. Bert told me about MLRS and the reunion service they provided each year. After checking out the SmallTalk newsletters, it became pretty obvious that there was little representation from the shipmates that served on the Small in the 1960's. Since I planned on attending this year's reunion I decided to look up some of the shipmates that I remembered (memory being vague after 40 years). I started searching in April and had little success, so I leased some time with NetDetectives.com and by the end of the month had turned up about 25 old shipmates.
In order to get come commitment of attendance at the reunion or fill voids in my photo album, I offered to produce a pictorial DVD of our 1964-1966 homeport deployment in Yokosuka, Japan. I offered anyone who attended the reunion or anyone who contributed photos to the effort a free DVD of the cruise. I started with about 120 photos from the 1964-1966 period. To date, I have received submissions increasing the pictorial images to more than 600 photos and ships artwork.
Further research into the history of the Small led me to Richard "Ski" Glogowski RM3 who served on the Small in Korea and was on board when they hit the mine in 1951. He lives about 20 miles from me, across the S.F. Bay and has a wealth of historical information regarding the Ernest G. Small. Ski has become a mentor/guide through the early years on the Small and he was one of the principals that started the reunions through Military Locators and Reunion Service, Inc. Ski has volumes of historical data in hardcopy. We agreed that it needs to be put into digital format so it can be shared with all of our shipmates. Since there was no unique web presence for the U.S.S. Ernest G. Small where this information could be centralized, I felt it was time to build one.
Robert Nunes of OPT-TEK.com has donated his skill and services as a web designer to facilitate the task. We only started the project about six weeks ago and the initial site is on-line. The Forum/BBS is fully in place and after our initial announcement, one week ago, we have 29 members registered. The static part, Home Page, History, Crew Listing, etc. is in design and will be published within the next 3 or 4 weeks. If we encounter no significant glitches, it should be up before the reunion.
Ski has been instrumental in providing mail lists and I have received lists from MLRS and other destroyer web sites. Today, I finished updating the Shipmate Roster with the most current information available. A lot of e-mails bounced on our initial announcement and further updating will be required. For sake of individual privacy and to keep the Spammers away, the Shipmate Roster will be published with shipmate names, dates of service and home city/state. We will not publish critical personal information. Yet I will try to make information available to individual requests by asking permission of the person(s) that an individual is trying to locate. Of course, all members registered on the Forum have the ability to communicate with other Forum members by way of public posts, private posts or e-mail.
To quote other shipmates, "We have started something that is long overdue." Stay tuned, get involved in the Forums, and enjoy the things to come.
I was on board the Small from 1962 until 1966 and left the ship as a Sonarman 1st Class. Over the next few years, I lost touch with my friends and shipmates. I became absorbed with education, family and career and from that point, I never looked back. Until recently, the Ernest G. Small and my time aboard her was just a dim memory.
Then, late in 2004, my son told me about a destroyer reunion he visited in Burlingame, CA when he and his wife went there to pick up his father-in-law for a visit. Joe Bruno, the father-in-law, told me about Tin Can Sailors, Destroyers On-Line, etc. Said I should check them out. I did, and found E.G. Small crew listings on most of those sites. However, there were few registered from the 1962-1966 period and none that I was actually acquainted with. So I registered and waited.
Then last summer, upon my return from vacation, there was an e-mail from Bert Royster, STG2. We connected and he hooked me up with three other shipmates from Fox and 2nd division. Bert told me about MLRS and the reunion service they provided each year. After checking out the SmallTalk newsletters, it became pretty obvious that there was little representation from the shipmates that served on the Small in the 1960's. Since I planned on attending this year's reunion I decided to look up some of the shipmates that I remembered (memory being vague after 40 years). I started searching in April and had little success, so I leased some time with NetDetectives.com and by the end of the month had turned up about 25 old shipmates.
In order to get come commitment of attendance at the reunion or fill voids in my photo album, I offered to produce a pictorial DVD of our 1964-1966 homeport deployment in Yokosuka, Japan. I offered anyone who attended the reunion or anyone who contributed photos to the effort a free DVD of the cruise. I started with about 120 photos from the 1964-1966 period. To date, I have received submissions increasing the pictorial images to more than 600 photos and ships artwork.
Further research into the history of the Small led me to Richard "Ski" Glogowski RM3 who served on the Small in Korea and was on board when they hit the mine in 1951. He lives about 20 miles from me, across the S.F. Bay and has a wealth of historical information regarding the Ernest G. Small. Ski has become a mentor/guide through the early years on the Small and he was one of the principals that started the reunions through Military Locators and Reunion Service, Inc. Ski has volumes of historical data in hardcopy. We agreed that it needs to be put into digital format so it can be shared with all of our shipmates. Since there was no unique web presence for the U.S.S. Ernest G. Small where this information could be centralized, I felt it was time to build one.
Robert Nunes of OPT-TEK.com has donated his skill and services as a web designer to facilitate the task. We only started the project about six weeks ago and the initial site is on-line. The Forum/BBS is fully in place and after our initial announcement, one week ago, we have 29 members registered. The static part, Home Page, History, Crew Listing, etc. is in design and will be published within the next 3 or 4 weeks. If we encounter no significant glitches, it should be up before the reunion.
Ski has been instrumental in providing mail lists and I have received lists from MLRS and other destroyer web sites. Today, I finished updating the Shipmate Roster with the most current information available. A lot of e-mails bounced on our initial announcement and further updating will be required. For sake of individual privacy and to keep the Spammers away, the Shipmate Roster will be published with shipmate names, dates of service and home city/state. We will not publish critical personal information. Yet I will try to make information available to individual requests by asking permission of the person(s) that an individual is trying to locate. Of course, all members registered on the Forum have the ability to communicate with other Forum members by way of public posts, private posts or e-mail.
To quote other shipmates, "We have started something that is long overdue." Stay tuned, get involved in the Forums, and enjoy the things to come.