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| Name: | Brian Mitchell |
| E-mail address: | Bmitchell@mchsi.com |
| Comments: | What a great site! My dad has been telling me stories over the years of his time on the Bangust. I told him I found your web site and he was thrilled! I have been printing him pages from your site as he is too stubborn to get a computer for himself. He would be interested in knowing anyone who would remember him. Kenneth Mitchell. Keep up the great work. |
| Name: | Teresa Payne |
| E-mail address: | teresablessed@ox.net |
| Comments: | Looking for info about my grandfather James C Standifer |
| Name: | Sherry Wray |
| E-mail address: | Sherrywray@aol.com |
| Comments: | Don,
I started my "little project" today and just finished 98 pages! That does not include diaries, reunions..etc. I expect it to reach over 200 pages easily. As I scan and print it amazes me at the work it took you to prepare this website. Again, I thank you for this legacy to the Bangust Crew and a bravo zulu! |
| Name: | Ben |
| E-mail address: | Ben560@yahoo.com |
| Comments: | Hi! Just wanted to say what a great job you're doing. keep it up! Congratulations to this superb website! Keep it up! people search autos travel ebay hotels jokes health books mortgages recipes lyrics news palm cars kazaa games weather jobs wallpaper movies music maps story world free freepicture toy freestory com picture position amateur cartoon movie hot asian phone offender interracial chat game photo indian tracker joke black |
| Name: | Sherry Wray |
| E-mail address: | Sherrywray@aol.com |
| Comments: | Don, I am once again using information from this website to write an article on the USS Bangust. It will be submitted to the WWII Memorial and they MAY choose to print it in their publication. I would like to have permission to print at least parts of the diaries and a couple photographs. Since the diaries were personal ones, I think I need to get the permission from each sailor to use their information and also if they want their name connected to the article. They have many entries so mine will only be considered, but hopefully used in a future publication. I also wish to do a segment on the coffee pot. Please give me your thoughts on this idea before I proceed further. I've used the site so many times for gathering information and it's never failed to delight and intrigue me. Sincerely! Sherry |
| Name: | Charvis and Iree Pollock |
| E-mail address: | Anavae@aol.com |
| Comments: | Hello to our good friend Hank Davis. Sorry that we were unable to attend the reunion. We were wondering if there is going to be anothe reunion in the future, or if maybe anyone was planning a smaller get together, we would just love to see you. We now have frequent access to the internet, so keeping in touch will be easier. Please write back soon.
Best wishes, Charvis and Iree |
| Name: | joseph m. stiles |
| E-mail address: | abjbwb@strato.net |
| Comments: | I am Joe's daughter. He was called "chuck" he was on the Kephart too. He is still alive, lives in Sebring. His address is 1855 Schlosser Rd. Sebring Fl. 33875. Please email back if i have the right site. Im trying to find info. for him about hte Kephart ship family and pictures of ship. |
| Name: | Stacy Arlotta |
| E-mail address: | sarlotta3@hotmail.com |
| Comments: | This is a great website. My grandfather is Ed Capraun and he is so proud of his days in the navy. It touches my heart to read all the stories and see the pictures on the website. It's obvious that the men who served on the USS Bangust DE739 were and are wonderful people. Thank you for serving your country and sharing your stories.
Stacy Arlotta, Matawan, NJ |
| Name: | Lu Daley |
| Comments: | Don,
This is a wonderful site with so much great information. I understand that you are considering taking it down due to high costs of maintaining the site. I had no idea it costs so much to maintain a website, not to mention all the time spent as well. Perhaps there are other Bangusters who feel it should be kept available as well and we could help to defray costs to keep it up there. Thank you for your dedication to this project which helps so many remember and even enjoy the past! |
| Name: | Sherry Wray |
| E-mail address: | Sherrywray@aol.com |
| Comments: | Just had to check to see if the 2001 reunion news was
posted and sure enough there it was! Sounds like they had a wonderful time together once more!!! Thanks to Cappy for the update! And thank you for keeping us informed and making the Bangust Pages available to us 24/7. I have benefited greatly, when needing information, it's always right there!!! You are the greatest Don! Were you a Navy SEAL? I bet that's it!!! :) Just wish they'd have the reunion in Lompoc!!! Maybe one day they will!!! |
| Name: | Joyce (Diel) Peterson |
| E-mail address: | japeterson@twmi.rr.com |
| Comments: | My father, John Diel, served as an electrician on the USS
Bangust. He was able to attend two reunions before he passed away (March 14, 1991)and was very excited and enjoyed them immensely. We just found this site and were very excited to find a picture of my dad included with the electricians. Thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to honor all the men who served on the USS Bangust! |
| Name: | Sherry Wray |
| E-mail address: | Sherrywray@aol.com |
| Comments: | The new search engine you have added was helpful in putting
my booklet together! I went straight to the information I needed and was able to to get the stories quickly. What a timesaver!!!! Of course, I like looking at all of it, but this was a special project I was working on for Edward Capraun. Quick & Easy! That's great Don. Thank you so much. Sherry |
| Name: | Sherry |
| E-mail address: | Sherrywray@aol.com |
| Comments: | Just found a wealth of information to help with my booklet
today. Thank you so much for keeping these pages up for us to enjoy and share with the world! It's wonderful!!! |
| Name: | Sherry Wray |
| E-mail address: | Sherrywray@aol.com |
| Comments: | Dropped by to see what's new! Wow! A new look, new
material!!! It sure looks great to see the USS Bangust and crew on these pages. Keep it up Don. You are doing a great job, I just wish all the Bangusters had a computer to enjoy this history. Best wishes! |
| Name: | W.E. Turner |
| Comments: | Visited the web site tonight. 2/9/01 |
| Name: | Wynne C. Jones RDM 2/class |
| E-mail address: | Liz4336539@cs.com |
| Comments: | I would like to hear from my fellow shipmates. I have
been unable to attend the reunions because of health concerns for the last three years. My address is: 559 Westfield St., Rochester,NY 14619. Phone # 716-436-6539. (E-mail Liz4336539@cs.com) Your shipmate, Wynne Jones RDM 2/class |
| Name: | Mike preseren |
| E-mail address: | kjneibecker@cs.com |
| Comments: | Hi, my name is Mike Preseren, my rating was QM1-C. I'm in
Cleveland, OHio visiting my daughter on my way to the reunion in Albany. While here, we went on the web-site and I really enjoyed reading about all my shipmates. This site is really neat. I don't have a computer at home so I'm getting all the information I can on my daughter's computer. I recommend anybody and everybody to read the book "Fire Foe and Tempest". The most exciting reading of all the DE's in the Atlantic and the Pacific. A most interesting book. Worth every penny. Thank's to Don Pond for this website and all his diligent work. I'd be interested in hearing from any shipmate that served aboard the Bangust. You can use my daughter's e-mail or write me a letter at Michael Preseren, Box 90, Route 1, Quincy, Mo. 65735. |
| Name: | Sherry Wray |
| E-mail address: | Sherrywray@AOL.com |
| Comments: | Thanks to Eddie (Cappy) Capraun for the new additions to
the Bangust pages. Nice to see the diary which adds new information to the others and his neat poems honoring the USS Bangust. Come on Bangustr's, you ALL have stories to tell and we are waiting to hear them! Don Pond you are doing a terrifc job keeping this up-to-date! Bravo Zulu! The world is watching! Continue this fine tradition so future generations may know the GREATEST GENERATION a little better. |
| Name: | Edward Capraun |
| E-mail address: | CCappyE@aol.com |
| Comments: | A tribute to Jim English.Jim passed away 4/26/2000
Jim was a great shipmate and a good friend from all the crew of the DE739 USS Bangust and your friends at DESA the Garden State Chapter.you will be missed. |
| Name: | Edward Capraun |
| E-mail address: | CCappyE@aol.com |
| Comments: | I am and will always be a proud member of the Bangust
D E 739 The Poem that i wrote The Hat That I wear I Would like to dedicate to you great bunch of sailors. in the presence of a todays Naval Officer he told his crew to turn around and shake hands with real sailors.it will not go to there head. ED S/F3/c |
| Name: | Charlotte E. Billheimer |
| E-mail address: | Byrdlady01@aol.com |
| Comments: | This is one of my favorite sites. Don, you have done a
magnificient job here. I very much enjoy the stories, diaries, photos, and poetry. My Uncle, Robert R. Lee, served aboard the USS BANGUST DE739. I am so proud of him! He has numerous books and back issues of the DESA newspapers he shares with me and I love reading them all. He has shared so many stories, some humorous, some very heart-wrenching. Your ideas for a Memorial Fund to preserve the Bangust Pages are wonderful. We cannot allow future generations to forget the sacrifices made so many years ago to insure our freedoms we so enjoy today. I feel this is a great way to memorialize our heroes. Thank you for this tribute! And THANK YOU to all who served on the USS BANGUST DE739!!! |
| Name: | Warren F Szczypiorski |
| E-mail address: | warrensz@earthlink.net |
| Homepage URL: | http://home.earthlink.net/~warrensz/ |
| Comments: | Nice Site! Lots of info! Visit us at the USS Gillette
homepage above. |
| Name: | Lu Daley |
| E-mail address: | Eye2eye2000 |
| Comments: | What a FANTASTIC site! So much good information here and
especially enjoyed all the connections to other sites as well. That makes for a well rounded webpage and took a lot of work to achieve. Thank you so much. Love my VET! |
| Name: | Kenneth R. Mintz |
| E-mail address: | kmintz@worldnet.att.net |
| Comments: | I am the oldest son of Kenneth M. Mintz who served on the
USS Bangust in the Pacific. He died on 6 March, 2000, and was buried at the Sandhills State Veterans Cemetery just outside Fayetteville, NC, near his birthplace and boyhood home. We, my brother J. Mark Mintz and I, requested a Navel ceremony to be conducted on 10 March, 2000, on what would have been his 78th birthday. This was carried out. Motor Machinist Mate Kenneth Moore Mintz served in the US Navy during WWII from 27 January, 1941, to 6 November, 1945. He, like many of his generation never made much of his service saying little about it; therefore, I will do it for him and, by proxy at least, for the rest of you of the WWII generation who remain so quiet. Especially those who crewed the Bangust, for when Dad did talk of his time at war it was most often of his time on that small vessel. Kenneth Randall Mintz |
| Name: | Jeannie Roulet Minchak |
| E-mail address: | jeannie@uscom.com |
| Comments: | Don--like the music on the web site!! Hope to
see all our Bangust friends at the Albany Reunion |
| Name: | Bill Griggs |
| E-mail address: | bill@ormocbattle.com |
| Homepage URL: | http://www.ormocbattle.com |
| Comments: | Your site is a great tribute to USS BANGUST DE 739. I was
aboard USS KEPHART DE 207/ APD 61, also in pacific. We may have passed by occasionally. |
| Name: | Tracey Frank |
| E-mail address: | JJFax991@aol.com |
| Comments: | My father served on the USS Bangust during World War II as
a Gunners Mate. His name is Hobert Frank. Enjoyed the site. |
| Name: | Kim M. Frank |
| E-mail address: | ksefank@aol.com |
| Comments: | Mr. Pond, it was very nice talking with you. The web site
is very interesting. My father has a lot of old photos of goings-on onboard ship. I'll dig them up and send you copies. My Father's Naval career spanned 20 years. A little known fact is that Dad was 2 weeks past his 15th birthday at his time of enlistment. His rank at retirement was E7 GMC. He spent 10 years in Fleet reserve, and in 1972 accepted a commission in the Indiana Guard Reserve. Dad retired this year at the rank of Brigadier General. After retiring in 1962 from the navy, Dad went to work for Naval Avionics, maker of the Norton bomb sight, and retired after 31 years. My Father and Mother were married for 48 years at the time of her death in 1995. Dad suffered a heart attack and stroke in Nov 1998 and can no longer communicate effectively and is confined to a wheel chair. Dad spent almost his whole life in the military and still has a military bearing about Himself. I am very proud of Him, and I am very proud of his service aboard the USS Bangust. Thank you, Kim Frank. |
| Name: | Jeannie Roulet & Ray Minchak |
| E-mail address: | jeannie@uscom.com |
| Comments: | Hi, to all the Bangust Reunion folks!!! Have a wonderful
time this weekend, enjoy yourselves--say Happy Birthday to my Dad and Jack Hansen!!! See you next year hopefully!! |
| Name: | Elizabeth Davis |
| E-mail address: | MamaBank@aol.com |
| Comments: | For people who are interested in reading about DE's in
WWII, there is a wonderful book just out this year. It is: "Tempest, Fire & Foe" Destroyer Escorts in World War II and The Men Who Manned Them by Lewis M. Andrews, Jr; published by Narwhal Press in Charleston, SC. The book can be ordered from DESA. If any one is interested I will send the address. |
| Name: | Eileen McN |
| E-mail address: | moozbah@erie.net |
| Comments: | Hi!~ I'm looking for information on the typhoon of 6/5/45
off Okinawa. My late father RM(3) was on the USS CONKLIN DE-439. The BANGUST had linked up with her 5/28/45 to escort 2 merchant marine ships, the Waco and Lumenbourg. All 4 ships got caught in that typhoon (I think.) Does anybody remember this? Was it just the CONKLIN and the BANGUST doing the escorting or were there more? From cryptic comments in the posted diaries it sounds like there were some funny stories before the typhoon. Any info? Were the 2 Victory ships still with you when the typhoon hit? Do you have a radio log of talking to the Conklin? (Oh please, Lord, please, please....) Do you know anybody from the Conklin? You don't have to go by these questions, you can tell me anything you want! This is the best DE web site I've seen. Those diaries are tremendous! And the crew seems terrific! Since starting my research, I have become impressed that Destroyer Escort crews were probably the toughest, hardest working, bravest and most undersung men in the Navy. You are the men that saved the world. Eileen McN moozbah@erie.net |
| Name: | Jeanne Bragg |
| E-mail address: | jeanmam@ctaz.com |
| Comments: | I am the niece of Robert McKnight, and proud of him. The
website is great, thanks Jeanne Bragg, Arizona |
| Name: | Sherry Wray |
| E-mail address: | Sherrywray@AOL.com |
| Comments: | This is awesome! To think these sailors had the insight to
make diaries of those difficult days that will now live on, reminding future generations of their service and sacrifice to our Country. I felt like I was aboard ship, seeing the bodies in the water, hearing aircraft and not knowing if it was friend or foe, sleeping on the cold wet deck, feeling the emotion, sights and sounds of the war. This places the reader aboard the USS BANGUST and into the realities of war. I thank God that these sailors came back safely, many did not. A very special thanks to Don Pond for his brilliant talents and time pulling this project together. I had the opportunity to work with him on a genealogy project so I'm doubly grateful for his work. A grateful thanks to all the men and women who have and continue to serve our country during peace or confict, Bravo Zulu! A special prayer for those in harms way! Wishing you fair winds and following seas. Salute! A NAVY MOM, USS CARON DE970 |
| Name: | Patrick N Curtis |
| E-mail address: | p1549@juno.com |
| Comments: | A very good Web Master!! Just wish we could reach more of
our shipmates. |
| Name: | R.E.(Bob) McKnight |
| E-mail address: | asa10navy@juno.com |
| Comments: | I'd like to thank you for doing such a wonderful job of
putting this page together.This is the glue that will hold this group together.While reading the notes of others in your guest book, I was sorry to see that so many of our shipmates have passed on. I have some great memories of things that happened on board (and Pearl Liberty),but i've forgotten the names of many friends.We all have sunk the "Sub" and weathered "The" typhoon a thousand times. I was on board from the Commissioning 'til the start of the shelling of the main Island of Honshu,Japan. Thanks again Don. Bob McKnight EM 2/c |
| Name: | jim english |
| E-mail address: | eenglish@erols.com |
| Comments: | jim's son eric |
| Name: | James F. Mckeon jr. |
| E-mail address: | jimckeon@aol.com |
| Comments: | Hi, my father who passed away in 1980 was a crew member of the USS BANGUST. James F. Mckeon, Gunners mate 1rst class, from Boston, MA. . He told me many stories of the ship and the crew. He has a box of memories including pictures of the crew, a piece of a JAP zero plane and shells and foriegn currency. He was very proud of this ship and the crew who he served with. I hope the reunion is memorable. Sincerly, James F. mckeon jr. |
| Name: | Paul Merkle |
| E-mail address: | RolloTmaci |
| Comments: | Hello to everyone. My grandfather, Daniel Fuchs was aboard
the Bangust in WWII. I believe he was a gunners mate. He is still very active to this day. He is presently a Tin Can Sailor and has a bunk aboard the USS intrepid in NYC where they rebuild old ships. He still loves the navy and has pictures of the ship, certificates like "the order of the golden dragon" (i think thats what it is, and even a picture of joseph bangust hanging up.If anyone remembers him, or not, i would love to hear from you and will pass the message to him. You would not believe how happy it would make him. thank you very much......Paul Merkle |
| Name: | Bill Barron |
| Name: | Mary Anne Davis |
| E-mail address: | maryanne@netshel.net |
| Comments: | This page is wonderful! My father in law, Hank Davis, was
on the Bangust, and now I can see what it was like! Kudos to the developer of this page -- it is well put together and very interesting. |
| Name: | Hank & Elizabeth Davis |
| E-mail address: | MamaBank@aol.com & Papabank@aol.com |
| Comments: | Don the additional pictures are great. Hope some more of
the guys send some personal histories. 1999 Reunion plans are firming up, according to Ernie Winders, and a notice will go out to all shipmates soon. We really appreciate what you have done with this webpage - Thanks. Elizabeth and Hank |