The LAST Patrol

Over the years, beginning in 1988, our Sharkhunters have enjoyed the warmth and hospitality of our German and Austrian friends when we were on “Patrol” in old Europe. We had great times, met many people from the history of the War at Sea who became close personal friends. There were great “Patrols” and great times. Sadly, they must now come to an end. Every year there are fewer and fewer American veterans from the war to make the journey overseas, and fewer and fewer German and Austrian veterans to greet us there. Those who are still with us are getting well on in years and will not be able to meet with us much longer. It is very sad, but it is a fact of life that our wonderful “Patrols” where “Yesterday’s Enemies become Today’s Friends” will soon end.

The year 2005 marks the 60 th Anniversary of the end of World War II. Therefore, our “Patrols” to Europe will be outstanding, filled with great things to do, wonderful places to see – and probably our last opportunity to meet with veterans of the German military in the way we have done since 1988. Watch for the details, which will appear soon and don’t miss this “Patrol” – there will not be any more of these “Patrols” ever again. 2005 will be the end.

AUTOMATIC RENEWAL

The automatic renewal program, which has been in effect since the early part of 2002, is well received by our Members. It saves time and the headaches of having to full out a form each year, sticking it in the envelope and licking the flap, then hunting up a stamp etc. For our Members with credit card numbers in our files – there is nothing for you to do. When your dues are due, we simply charge them to the account and the Member is renewed for another year. It’s THAT simple! When you see the charge appear on your statement, send us an e-mail, FAX or phone up to let us know which FREE audiotape (soon to be FREE CD) you want, and if you have been a Member for five or more years, let us know which FREE videotape you want in addition to the audiotape (or CD). Take any videotape you want from our assortment of more than 140 tapes – it is your FREE gift. Members love this program.

CRITICAL!!! READ THIS

There is a space on the form you used to join Sharkhunters and again on your dues renewal form, on the order form and on forms to fill out for our “Patrols” in which we ask for your telephone number and your e-mail address. THIS IS CRITICAL! We don’t EVER let this information out to anyone else and nobody will call you to sell you anything over the phone – but when we need to contact you, this information is critical.

Without spending too much space on specifics, a situation arose recently when it was critical to contact a Member to save him a LOT of money, time and aggravation. We called him – sorry, the telephone number has been disconnected. We sent him an e-mail…..it was no longer in use. We could not send an old-fashioned telegram because he had only a post office box, so we sent an overnight EXPRESS letter. It did not reach him in time, and it was a real nightmare!

PLEASE make sure that we have your current telephone number and e-mail address (if you have one). If you change these contacts, let us know right away so that we can update our files. This is no joking matter – it indeed, is critical that we have this data. Thanks.

What is YOUR e-mail?

We asked before for ease of contact, but now there is a more important reason you give us your e-mail address. We’re in the “modern” age of instant communication; frequently, news items come up quickly & by the time we get them into the KTB Magazine, have it printed, take it to the school where it is gathered, collated, stapled, folded, stuffed & sealed then to the post office - it’s possible that an entire month goes by before you got the news.

No more! If you give us your e-mail address, all HOT news items will be sent out to Members immediately via the Internet. Relax – we will NEVER give your e-mail address out – ever! Send us your e-mail now. Just e-mail to us at sharkhunters@earthlink.net & we’ll update our records.

DUD Torpedo

We know this means that we made an error here. In KTB #178, USS TRITON was listed as SS 221. That is not correct. TRITON was SS 201. We apologize for the error.

This has been corrected in the MagWeb archives. --RL

Sharkhunters in 71 Countries

DAVID CARR (5371-1997) lives in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the 71st country in which there are Sharkhunters Members. Since we are on this subject, we remember that ART AYDELOTTE (787-C/LIFE-1988) suggested some time ago, that we should again publish the list of countries in which there are Sharkhunters Members. At the time he made this suggestion, the computer that kept that data had literally burned out its insides, but we have finally been able to reconstruct the data. We will list each country with the name and Membership Number of the first Member in that country.

# COUNTRY MEMBER
1. United States HARRY COOPER (1-LIFE-1983)
2. West Germany HANS GöBELER (3-+-1983) Yes, there WAS a West Germany back then.
3. England Col. JOHN BLASHFORD-SNELL (7-1983)
4. Canada GORDON LOHMER (24-1984) Author who wrote travel books.
5. Spain VICTOR TURON (28-1984)
6. Bahamas DENIS KNOWLES (36-1984) Had a great liquor shop in old Nassau!
7. Australia W. H. van COMMENCE (52-+-1984)
8. Belgium WALTER CLOOTS (112-1985) Expert on the Type XXI “Electroboots”.
9. New Zealand MIKE HOWELL (174-LIFE-1986) Firefighter Captain
10. Brazil RADM Max Justo Gueddes (180-1986) A Captain when he joined, heads the Brazilian Navy Museum
11. Sweden PETER EBERTZ (182-1986)
12. Austria VINZ NOSCH (280-+-1987) VINZ was a crewman aboard U-66 when they had that well known encounter with the USN destroyer escort USS BUCKLEY. When the DE finally rammed U-66, the German sailors tried to scramble aboard to save their lives. This action was the foundation for the movie “The Enemy Below”.

That is all the room we have in this issue – more in KTB #180 next month. We say again, that the sun never sets on Sharkhunters Members around the world.