Farragut Reunions 2002-Present

Gene Jennings, Merle Denny, and David Paulson got a great idea to have a reunion. They are the Founders of what is now the Farragut Ships' Association, Inc. We had a great time with DLG-6 and DDG-37 Shipmates and families present.

Harlan Higgins and Jack Bonner got us all together, DLG-6 and DDG-37 alike, and with our families we started a reunion tradition. 

For the first time we had a Commanding Officer present, Sandy Mock, and we were treated like celebrities on tour of Bath Iron Works. Then there was something about the bar in the Holiday Inn that looked like it lacked pirates and we fit right in and had a great time. Thanks, Tom Randall, for getting us together, 6 and 37 and Farragut Forever! 

More to follow, but we were the guests of honor at the Commissioning of USS Farragut (DDG-99) and this was the ONLY time we had a WW2 Veteran of DD-348 present for duty. When we were asked to stand and be recognized, some lunatic retired Army CWO used his engine room voice to call the crew members present to ATTENTION! When we rose up the crowd cheered like thunder. For that brief moment all the hardships we endured at sea faded away and we felt appreciated. We had five Commanding Officers prese

Hosted by FSA President Jerry O'Connor, and Joe Ferlin of DLG-6 and Bill Forester, DDG-37, we went to a MLB game and... 

Hosted by Robert Ursum and Greg DeLong, DLG-6 and Gordon Wright, DDG-37; we visited USS Nautilus Museum, the Submarine Museum . 

Hosted by FSA President Russell Kaufman, DLG-6 and Gordon Wright, DDG-37; we visited Farragut Hall as the US Naval Academy.. 

Hosted by FSA President David Paulson, DLG-6 despite a small turnout. We made up our minds to not let this falter or fail and determined to start fresh in Jacksonville, FL next reunion

Hosted by FSA President Thomas Randall and Rolando Valdes of DDG-37 and Eugene Finck, DDG-99, we celebrated the event but our planned visit to the ship went out to sea with her. We visited USS Lassen (DDG-82) and that ship honored us by providing CPOs for tour guides. We had our meeting and voted to go to Norfolk, VA. We had a great banquet with CDR Megan Thomas, CO; CDR Corey Baker, XO and CMDCM (SW) Martin Roberts of USS Farragut (DDG-99). as our guests of honor.

Hosted by FSA President Thomas Randall, Juan Yera, Bob Behre, and David Sage all of DDG-37 we visited Nauticus and USS Wisconsin downtown and went on a river cruise with retired FORSCOM Master Chief Robert "Irish Bob" Conklin as our Guest of Honor and speaker. At our meeting we decided to visit Farragut, TN to honor The Old Man. 

Hosted by FSA past-President Thomas Randall, Chip Cipolla, Henry Patient. We went to the Town of Farragut that welcomed us in fine fashion. We had a tailgate party before we marched with the Farragut High School Admirals onto their stadium led by "D.G. Farragut", re-enactor and Vietnam Veteran Milton Foster of Ohio. We held our meeting in the town council's chambers and ate some more barbeque, this time from Texas (Thanks Robert Seale and Phil Thedford.) 

Hosted by FSA past-President Thomas Randall, DDG-99 Plankowner CMC Gene Finck.. We went to visit the ex-USS Orleck (DD-886) that is now the center of attention for the Jacksonville Naval Museum. An all-volunteer working party ripped up and removed years of tile from the former helo hangar. They then proceeded to repurpose bricks for the walkway. We all took two busses to Mayport to visit Winston Churchill (DDG-109) and Tom escorted Admiral Farragut to visit USS Farragut (DDG-99). We had a crazy