NEWSLETTER
March 2006

Dear Shipmates,

Hope this finds everyone healthy and doing well.

Tom Wyatt and I went to Covington, KY in January to look it over for our 06 reunion, it is across the river from Cincinnati, OH. There are plenty of things to see and do, excellent restaurants and the hotel we selected is very nice and reasonable.

The date selected is 18-25 Sept. 06 and the hotel is the Radisson Hotel Riverfront, the rate is $75.00 per night, they have a rotating restaurant on the 18th floor with excellent food, you can make reservations by calling the hotel direct at 859-491-1200 or 800-333-3333, you must identify yourself as being with the U.S.S Floyd B. Parks DD884, (you must give the name of ship and hull number in it's entirety). The cutoff date for reservations at this rate is 15 Aug. 06. They have a 24-hour cancellation policy so please make your reservations as early as possible since this helps us with planning of events.

We will visit the Wright Patterson AFB museum on Friday 22 Sept., we are still working on events for Saturday 23 Sept. We're also working on some entertainment in our hospitality suite on Friday night. More details will be in later newsletter.
Airlines into Cincinnati are American, Continental, Delta, North West, and United, Amtrak goes into union terminal in Cincinnati.

Dayton, OH is one hour from Cincinnati & Louisville, KY is 2 hours away. You may be able to save money on airline tickets by flying into these cities, its worth checking on.

Average daily temperature for September is 55-60.

A lot of you are probably wondering why we have deviated from our normal rotation of reunion locations. Basically we are running out of new locations that meet our requirements, i.e: major airport, hotel size, cost, etc., also since Hurricane Katrina we have decided to steer clear of hurricane alley locations. We had heard so many great things about Covington/Cincinnati area and Northern KY is trying to build a larger military reunion base and has a lot to offer at reasonable prices. Therefore we decided to deviate from the norm this year. We are not giving up on the normal rotation. We will continue to try to schedule new and interesting locations giving you the most bang for your buck.

Our mini reunion in San Diego will be held on 1 Apr 06 from 1200-1600 at the Sizzler restaurant 2855 Midway Dr. if you can attend please notify in advance Bob Bahler at 858-565-6218 email
(bobbyred@san.rr.com)
or Bill Birdsong at 951-789-5309 email (bnsbirdsong@mindspring.com).

We need to know how many are coming for planning purposes, if you need a map please let me know. Harold & Bobby Golden from Atlanta GA are coming out again this year.

No Chaplains Corner this time, our Chaplain is out of state visiting family members.

From our ships store we have caps, golf shirts (blue & white) key chains, hatpins, patches and a new item we just added visor caps for the ladies. Please call or write me for prices.

Association Dues

Want to thank all the people who sent in their dues and donations, and for the app. 80% who didn't please do so ASAP. Dues are $15.00 per year, due each year Jan. 1st. Make checks payable to F.B. Parks Assoc. and mail to me. There is a sticker on the inside of your newsletter stating what you owe, if there is no sticker on your newsletter you are paid up.

If you change your e-mail address please notify Sue Birdsong ASAP. If you have a change of address or a telephone area code change please notify me.

We want to thank the people who are trying to help us in getting inactive members to join the association and attend reunions. Our inactive list is almost as large as our active but when people don't join the association or respond in any way for 3 years we don't have any choice but to place them on inactive. Postage is just too expensive, we have approximately 500 people on the inactive list to continue sending newsletter would cost the association $780.00 per year.

If you want a current membership list please let me know, for those with e-mail contact Sue Birdsong.

Some information that will be of tremendous value to your spouse in the event you pass away. This info may apply to all veterans, especially retirees or people who have NSLI insurance, drawing disability, social security etc.

The first thing to do is to register your DD214 with the county you live in. You can do this by seeing your Veterans Service Office. They are listed in the phone book under County Government Offices. You should visit them with all your records. They will record all necessary information and in the event that you pass away all your spouse has to do is call the Veterans Service Office who will take care of many things that have to be done and advise your spouse of how to cut through red tape for the rest. This is probably an over simplification of the whole procedure since I don't understand all I know about it however; it will get you started and the Veterans Services Officer (VSO) can guide you on the proper procedures.

Our shipmates who lost their homes in hurricane Katrina are on their way to recovery. Jim & Maggie Highton are living in their motor home while repairing another home they
bought. Jim and Beverly Lape rented a home from a friend and are now buying the home. Both are planning on attending our reunion in Sept.

I'm sad to report that 5 more of our shipmates have passed away since the last newsletter. Thomas UValdrop 5 Aug.05, Joe Strasser 15 Dec.05, Harris Swett 15 Jan. 06, Setrag Ogassian 2 Feb. 06, and Andrew Odom 20 Feb. 06.

Tom (352 344-5424)
Robby (530 283-2165)