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Letters
How can we get a visit from a Naval Ship in Adelaide? Dear Mac, This year I was elected as a Councilmember of the South Australian Chapter of the Australian American Association in charge of the calendar of events. This year was my first year to put together the commemoration of the Battle of the Coral Sea events. As you can imagine I was given a great deal of advice and a lot of archival information regarding the events in the past. When I told about the events put on in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth I naturally asked how we could have a visit from a US Naval ship and include the Officers & Crew in our Coral Sea weekend. It came a bit of a shock when I was told that “Oh, it has been more that 9 years since Adelaide has host a US Navy ship for the Coral Sea.”. I found that hard to believe. As a widow of a Navy Vietnam veteran and the mother of a Navy Persian Gulf veteran, I do understand that decision are often made based on the popularity of an R&R port. But for such an historic event it would be fitting to send even a PT boat. I was also surprised to find out the even the USS Lassen was delayed in Brisbane on its way to Adelaide so that they could attend the Brisbane festivities and arrived here a week late for us. We do have more than 4,000 Americans living in Adelaide and we felt a bit left. I would seriously like to rectify this situation if I can by contacting the necessary chain of command with regard to the assignment of vessel visits for the Coral Sea festivities. If you could forward my details to the appropriate person for them to contact me, perhaps we can start a dialog for next year. I appreciate any help you can extend. Sincerely, Adelaide
Thank you for your mail. 2008 will be the 100th. anniversary of the visit to Australia of the Great White Fleet, although I do not know what the USN plans are for ship visits to our country, I would indeed be suprised if we did not find that a significant US Naval force visited our waters next year. I would suggest that you start with the US Naval attache at the US Embassy in Canberra, to plead your case, and the sooner you get on to him the better, try to phone at first, and ask for his advice on how you might go about obtaining a USN ship visit to SA, I would also mention that 2008 is the 100th anniversary of the US Great White Fleet coming to Australia. It was Deakin as Prime Minister who contacted President Teddy Roosevelt directly to invite the US Navy to Australia, the visit was an incredible success, the public flocked in large numbers to see the ships, balls, parties etc were put on, the sailors paraded and were feted. It raised the public view of the importance of a Navy at that time, and I believe had an impact politically, so that in 1911 our fledgling Navy gained the prefix ROYAL. See this URL: http://www.greatwhitefleet.info/GWF_Visits_Melbourne.html for its Melbourne visit. Here are the US Naval attache's details.
Good luck and best wishes. back to letters index |
