The past few days have kind of been a blur as they always are at these functions. Something new, different and wonderful always happens. One new thing, Rocky Britton of the DD 467 and his daughter Darlene and son-on-law Randall are here. Rocky hasn't been back to a reunion in a while, so it was very nice having him and his family come. 

The other wonderful thing is the appearance of David Mearns of Blue Water Recoveries, LTD. David had to be over here for a meeting in New York and a couple of other visits on the east coast, and he decided to make time to stop by Gettysburg to meet me and hubby Greg in person for the first time, see Andy Hoder again and to have a chat with our DD 467 guys, Jim Merriman and Rocky Britton. David arrived on Wednesday late afternoon with a smile on his face, and thankfully he left with one!  He had a great time meeting these folks of the DD 467/758 association. We went to dinner at Dobbin House Inn, the oldest building in Gettysburg dating to 1776, and had a wonderful conversation peppering him with questions about his work. Then we came back to the hotel to spend time in the hospitality room until we were tired enough to drop. After breakfast the next  morning David was on his way, but in his wake he left a lot of hope and inspiration for the future of this project to locate and document the wreck of the DD 467 in the Kula Gulf.  If anyone can do it, it's David and I would not even want anyone else to try and tell this story in documentary form. The guy is excellent at what he does and does it well. 

So to help others understand a bit more about his work here's a link to his web site, which is also on my Navy Research page: 
http://www.bluewater.uk.com/
For books about his underwater explorations and findings, see the Navy Research and Links page on the site. 

In other news, the early release of Stephen Harding's latest book, The Castaway's War, scheduled for May 3rd of 2016, Amazon's web site for pre-ordering the book which is sure to be a blockbuster! 
http://www.amazon.com/Castaways-War-Battle-against-Imperial/dp/0306823403/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442058498&sr=1-1&keywords=the+castaways+war

For other books by Stephen Harding: http://stephenhardingbooks.com/praise.html


-Tammi

Hail, hail, the gang's all here!  We even got a new/old guy, Rocky Britton. Rocky is here with his daughter Darlene and son-in-law. He and Jim Merriman are having a good time talking about the past. Today was a tour of the Gettysburg battlefield and Visitor's Center. I've included just a few shots of the diorama and a group shot of the guys from the bus. 

Tomorrow is a free day for exploring on our own, and Friday is Hershey, Pennsylvania and the chocolate factory!  We get to stop in Amish country on the way back to do some shopping. Looking forward to that!

Hey all,
Something unusual and wonderful has happened!  Da Capo Press has allowed Amazon to go ahead with pre-orders for The Castaway's War!!!  This is highly unusual, but very welcome. The book will get so much press in the next year, it's incredible. This is our book, about our ship and one of her men. Lots of the guys are mentioned, men Steve interviewed, people I interviewed, excerpts from letters and other documents - a lot of research and heart went into this book from everyone involved. I have already had a glance at the manuscript and have a very good feeling about it. I wish it could have been twice as long truthfully, so much had to be omitted due to publishing constraints. I hope to fill in some gaps with my own book if we ever do get an expedition. There are also so many other stories that could be told and any one of you could do the job as well. I'd be happy to help anyone with research if you choose to tell the story of your sailor.

True release is scheduled for the first of July 2016 around the 73rd anniversary of the sinking. 

-Tammi