Update on the Marlin and Freedom Park

[Viejo]

Gents, wanted you to know what has been happening with the Marlin and Freedom Park.  Last week, I met with Brook Bench,  the head of Maintenance for Omaha Parks and Rec, who is in charge of keeping up over 250 parks in Omaha and the surrounding area, and with Brenda Paul,  the Special Projects Coordinator for the Parks in Omaha.  The meeting was very positive. The first thing expressed at the meeting was the passing along of thanks from the Mayor and City Council of Omaha for what we had done so far.
 Brook Bench, head of maintenance is very enthused with the park and very appreciate of what we have been able to do so far. He is bringing in one of his crews to remodel the small gazebo inside and out so we can have it for the gift shop. He also is turning on and fixing all the restrooms and will make sure the heaters in the gazebo and the Hazard are working. 
I have been asked to set up a committee to oversee the running of the park and we have already set up some short and long term plans to expand what is there. We are setting up financial accounts and have in place forms to use for tax deductible donations. We will be able to keep separate donations for those who want money to go to the Marlin or to the Hazard.
The XO of Stratcom is a Captain in the Navy who has commanded submarines and he has accepted my offer to be on the committee. We also have a retired Navy Captain who was a sub squadron commander that works for one of the contractors at Offutt and he too will be helping us out.
We are forming the USS Marlin SST-2 Base under the command of HMCS(SS) Mike Loftis. Mike is gathering applications and will be sending them to the CDC3 to get the charter back for the base. The major project for the base will be in helping out the park and serving as docents and maintenance people for the two ships.
In case I haven't mentioned it yet, we did get the outside of the Marlin scraped and painted this fall and also a helicopter and this last week the 5" gun and one of the missiles. We have had eagle scouts doing much of the painting in the park and many of the small pieces of armament have been repainted this fall.  The park is really starting to look nice again.
 This weekend, I'll be meeting with several of the volunteers to set up some priority lists of things that we want to get done this winter and what we hope to have accomplished next spring. The painting of the Hazard will be done as soon as it is warm enough next spring.
By next spring, we will be a RSVP site and will have enough volunteers from the Omaha area to be open each weekend. The goal is back to being open each day as it once was. Having a core of dedicated sub sailors will make this much easier. And I want to add that so far, each of them understand that it is a privilege to work with the park and that working on the whole park is beneficial to promoting the Marlin.  We will be using the park to have various ceremonies during the year and it will of course help us live our creed.
Also, thanks to Bill Parker, Rich Pekelney and others, we are now a HNSA site again and that is already giving us benefits that we can see.  While at the convention, I got to meet Aaron Washington, who was down there with Bill, and I will as I have been, be picking their brains for ways to make things work better.  Greg Stitz, curator of the Razorback, came up on a Saturday, bringing me a trunk load of things to display at the park and gave me much valuable advice about things as we walked around the park. He even knew what the guns were that sit around the park.
I can't  overstate the cooperation and willingness of Brenda and Brook and others from the city to allow us to be a part of the park.  You couldn't ask for better people to work for and they really appreciate what the subvets and other volunteers have done so far.  I have written up application forms and other documents for volunteers to sign and use as they come to work with the park and am writing training manuals for them to use.  We are set up with a non-profit corp. run through the city and have our first tax deductible donation going through now.
So we'll be working all winter, fixing things and getting set up for the spring and then hit the ground running.
Oh, yes, the city is redoing the web page for the park and I also am figuring how to set up an online forum for the park managment committee to us.
I'll keep all posted here as more gets done.
Bill

[JTheotonio]

Lots of work Bill, thanks for the update. 

[Lance Dean]

Bill,

I moved this topic over to the Marlin board.  I hope it doesn't get lost in the shuffle.  Thank you so much for the update on the Marlin.  Like I said before, it's amazing what people can accomplish when volunteers get together!

[Viejo]

Lance, no problem.  It is really starting to tick me off that everytime I or others mention doing something like this at USSVI, all we hear is that no one will support anything and you can't count on volunteers to keep things up. People will always help out, but you do have to ask first.  I am really pleased at the attitude of the subvets and their being willing to help out as needed, no matter what part of the park it is. Course the whole park is a Navy Museum.  Also the city is very accomadating about making sure funds go where people want them to go.
Bill

[Viejo]

I wanted to put up some pictures of the new paint job on the Marlin. Also we have had the Helicopter and some of the guns and shells repainted this fall. Next Spring, we'll do the outside of the Hazard and will start repainting the inside of the Marlin.
Viejo

[Bill Wasil]

The Marlin looks even smaller than the Dolphin in San Diego.  Amazing.

[Viejo]

Billl, it only looks smaller because it is.  131' long and less than 13' at its widest point. 
Tonight I put up a fan page for Freedom Park on Facebook. After hooking up with the Batfish and the Cavalla pages, sounded like a good idea, so started on one.  Some of you guy  that I don't know about are probably on facebook, so if so, go to search and then type in Freedom Park and become a fan. Also send me an invite and we can get connected there.
Thanks,
Viejo

[Lance Dean]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/East-Omaha-NE/Freedom-Park-Omaha-Nebraska/188868925641

[Viejo]

Thanks Lance, glad someone knows to put in the details.
Viejo

[Viejo]

In finding materials to write some lesson plans for the Marlin, I recently received an almost brand new piping diagrams book for the Marlin. You remember the thing you carried in your back pocket for months while qualifying. All the piping diagrams in color with valves and and even has all compartment diagrams and tank layout. Similar to what Bob Pettingill has up on the Snook page for 585 class boats. I am going to scan these in the computer so as to be able to blow up and put them around the boat. They also will help those of us who are working on the boat know where things are and will help with tours.
I don't expect docents to qualify like we did but the more they know or know where to find info, the better things are.
Once again from a standpoint of understanding that showing a museum boat to the best benefit of the visitor and the people who own the boat is different from serving on one.  You can overload someone with information and you can sometimes intimidate them by telling too much about something.
When I put down facts to talk about for one of the ships in the park, I have to keep in mind that what they visitor wants to know may be entirely different than what I might want to know, because I have served on a sub and they haven't. So I ask questions of those who come to look and I find from the answers that a lot of visitors are more interested in the day to day life and the personal aspects of what went on, rather than the engineering concepts. A for instance is that when women come aboard and I mention that the Marlin used to have to spend two days taking out wives on a dependent cruise because there wasn't enough room to do it in one day, then they start asking questions about how the wives liked that and what it was like. It makes it more real to them to know that some other woman actually went out to see in what they are standing on. Teaching, like everything else is a learned skill and not all have the same interest in doing each job. But then, I have great need for those who just like to work on the sub and not deal that much with the public. There is a place for all types of people to work on our museum boats.
 It reminds me of when I used to build and sell houses. You sold the kitchen and bath to the wive and you sold trusses and insulation or different types of walls to the husband.
Remember we are selling when we show off a boat. We are selling info, good will, interest, and what we get back is more people wanting to see what they heard about or people wanting to donate because we convinced them that helping with this boat or this need was an important way for them to spend some money. 
I'll let all know when I get this on the computer and probably will put them up in a folder on the Freedom Park page. I'll also work on the same thing for the Hazard.
Viejo

[Viejo]

I have the TAB online on the Freedom Park page. I also was haned over 20 USN manuals on things such as the 3000 # Air Compressor, the 200GPD Vapor Compression Disticller, all the manuals on the MG sets on board the Marlin. And then found the manual on the periscope that we will be taking out to get fixed. So I am slowly starting to scan each of these in the computer. There has been so much going on at the park lately that I am bringing these home with me to do at nights. Several of these are not up yet on the HNSA pages, so will get them on discs and off to Rich P. when I get them done. We also have a source at Stratcom that will copy our blueprints full size, then put those on a disc for us.
The big news is that we have several groups in Omaha that are working on getting the sail and rudder from the USS Omaha brought to the park. Much to be done on that and a lot of money to raise, but someday we'll have them on display also. With the Skyhawk and the Captain's Gig painted last weekend, we are looking better and better. Oh yes, and I am now an employee of Omaha Parks and Rec which will make some things go easier.
Viejo

[Darrin]

Bill,

I can only hope that you can get the sail of the OMAHA, I served on her as a rider (repeatedly) in 1993-1994, she was the first boat that I rode after the Honolulu went into drydock. Damned good boat, the crew was outstanding and pissed because they were ALWAYS at sea and short handed.. My first run on her (EastPac '93) there was a Command Climate team onboard trying to find out why they had the lowest re-enlistment rate in Submarine Squadron 7.. I laughed because we were being run harder until the yards so it was easy for me to come onboard go to sea.. In the end before I got out, they didn't even give me a qual card or ask for mine from the Honolulu because mine were on file with the Yeoman, that and I knew just about everyone or so it seemed back then.

Darrin

[Viejo]

Darrin, I hope so also.  I wasn't even sure it still existed and as it turned out, it is scheduled to start the process of being scrapped this fall. I was glad that the Big Red Sub Club was interested in helping as they can be of help with other park projects. Many want to get both the sail ( and there is question as to whether the sailplanes are still around) and the rudder. But right now several groups of people in Omaha are working on this and the POC for the shipyard is all for having it come to Omaha, so good chance we'll get it worked out.  We have 10 nuc boat sails ( not counting the Triton) up as memorials on the sub memorials page and all of them have their fairplanes, so hope we can find the planes for the Omaha.
If the Clamagore does get scrapped, I hope that the museum boats get first chance at what is on it.
Viejo

[Darrin]

I hope that we get the chance to get onboard IF they scrap the Clamagore.  IF the Omaha's FAIRWATER planes are not there ask for the HONOLULU's she was the last true FIRST FLIGHT 688, she was scrapped a couple of years ago with the exception of the bow from the Aft end of the Torpedo Room. And yes as I recall those will slide in place just like the Omaha's origional ones would, FYI... the first flight 688's fairwater planes would not got to 90 degrees like the 637's or the classes of boats prior to the Los Angeles.

Here's another fun fact about the Honolulu... She has/had a hardened sail so she could break the ice, other boats in the class had a "soft sail" and could not break the ice without damage. and she also had the ONLY fly by wire system installed on a 688 or for from what I have been told any boat since. There was no emergency rudder control stick, it would litteraly shift into emergency if the hydraulic rams were moving slower then what was planned (I don't remember the actual time but it was I think only a second or two) and she had the ONLY set of split stern planes in the fleet..

Our piping TAB was ONLY for the SSN 718, other boats piping tabs had on the bottom of the pages NOT COMPATABLE FOR SSN 718

Before the USS SAN FRANCISCO SSN 711 decom's I hope to walk her decks once more so I can see where I once worked and lived (rode her also 93-94) and then to be able to step into my torpedo room from the Honolulu, on my desk are a boat ball cap from BOTH boats and I still wear them both... The Honolulu hat looks old and salty to San Fran hat looks like I could pass inspection with it at morning quarters, guess that I haven't abused it enough on the Torsk.

Darrin

[Viejo]

Darrin, thanks for letting me know about the Honolulu. I was goiing to find out from Paul Murphy what other ones he had if they can't find the Omaha. I think we need to have some on the sail when it goes up.
Thanks,
Bill