The Nashville Reunion was held October 14-17 1999 ......   the following article was written and sent out in November 1999

Judge Dewey Harper 51-53, President was on hand to greet all who arrived on Thursday, Oct. 14  After checking in at the front desk and freshening up in our rooms, we then went to the hospitality room and signed in and received our name tags etc. Unofficially, around 150 people were in attendance at the 11th annual reunion, representing at least 30 states. There appeared to be a good cross-section of years represented as well as Rates, Ranks and divisions.

Thursday evening was mostly getting acquainted / reacquainted, fellowship, looking at tons of old photos, recalling old memories, and just plain Navy scuttlebutt.  

Friday 8:30 a.m. approximately half of the people met at the front of the hotel to take a Grey Lines bus tour around Nashville, which included Ryman Auditorium, Country Music Hall Of Fame and a tour of many of the other attractions around town, including many celebrities homes. After arriving back at the hotel around 1:30 p.m. we had lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon back in the hospitality room. Friday evening we again boarded buses to the Grand Ole Opry Music Hall to an evening of country music.  

Saturday, we were free to do as we chose. Some chose as we did to spend the day at Opryland Hotel, which is a marvel in itself. It is a vast complex of over eight acres under one roof. It is said to be the largest such complex of its kind, outside of Las Vegas or Atlantic City. The hotel consists of 2,800 rooms with nightly rates starting at $200 and going for as much as $3500. There were many beautiful flower gardens, exotic plants, full grown trees, streams, waterfalls and other attractions all under one roof. Much too much to see in one-day! Fortunately we brought along our video camera and shot some pretty good amateur video footage.

Saturday evening, the banquet was held at the airport Days Inn and Judge Dewey Harper, President open the ceremonies along with a few words from several of the Board Members, Marvin Timm 48-49 and Wayne Gaddis , Treas. 45- who presented our honored guest Ms. Linda Haynsworth [ daughter of William McCall Haynsworth ] with an attractive plaque in honor of her father. Following this presentation Ms Haynsworth graciously thanked all the men who served on-board the USS Haynsworth in the over 26 years that it was in service, and those responsible for inviting her and for the plaque.

 It was also voted that Vernon Stuard 54-55 would be our host at the 2000 reunion in San Antonio, TX, ....... 2001 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and  ....2002 in Myrtle Beach, SC. The balance of the evening was comprised of music played by Dewey Harper and is his band, more good OLE fellowship, then later, a professional photographer arrived to take group photos of all the men.  The chore of getting everybody together for a group shot was tough enough, but getting all of us in the range of the lens proved to be even more of a challenge. After this, the ladies had their group picture taken. [note .... these group photos can be seen in the Nashville photo gallery]

Sunday  morning All Hands were summoned to a farewell breakfast by a sound that was familiar to all, a Boatswain’s pipe announcing chow-call, by none other than Roland Pagliaroli, BM3 50-53. After breakfast there were more individual picture taking and warm bon voyages.  

We left this reunion happy that we attended and with a feeling of real pride in the fact that we were honored to have served on-board such a proud ship with such a now distinguished group of "Seasoned Citizens".  

A personal observation from my four days in Nashville was that nearly all conversations, at some point or another, one name kept coming up, that name was none other than Bill Morton, Editor and more importantly the real thread that keeps all of us together as one big happy family with his Web page, Newsletters and his regularly informative e-mails, that 60 or 70 of us are fortunate enough to have available to us. I know I speak for many when I say we salute you Bill, for all your dedicated work over the past years.

Howard R. Doble  50-52

Below is an unofficial list of names that were in attendance at the Nashville99 Reunion

Note: If any information above is incomplete or NOT correct please advise us. 

            Ship's History | Crew Information | Photo Gallery
                          Reunion Information | How To Contact Us