The Blueback Base of USSVI iis holding a Lost Boat ceremony on Memorial Day at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). The ceremony will start at 1300, behind the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) building, next to the Willamette river and the USS Blueback. The ceremony includes a salute by one of Portland's fire boats using its water cannons shooting red, white, and blue water. The Coast Guard will also be there with their RIB's on the river as well as in the person of a guest speaker. Everyone is invited and the weatherman is telling us that it will be dry that day!
The following week the "Rose Festival Fleet" comes up the Columbia river, from Astoria, into the Willamette river and downtown Portland for its annual visit. While here the ships are open for tours to the public. Security is tight and lines are long. There usually are 8 to 10 ships involved, not submarines, but some of our Navy "Targets" as well as some from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian Navy will be here. PT-658, one of the last PT boats to survive, now fully restored, is usually part of the "fleet" as well. Last year she served as an escort for part of the trip up the river.
My wife and I along with about 100 others will bus to Astoria and ride one of the ships into town again this year. This year we will be aboard the USS Gary (FFG-51). The "fleet" is kind of special to me as my dad was part of the "fleet" visiting the rose festival on the USS Honolulu (CL-48) when he met my mother.
