CREW'S STORIES
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EUREKA REMEMBERS!
Subject:
- Eureka Remembers!
Date:
- Wed, 22 Mar 2000 20:26:55 -0800
From:
- "AA6DX" dx@northcoast.com
To:
- bennington@uss-bennington.org
Just a note to let you know that the residents of Humboldt County remember the Bennington! We remember her crew members spending their Christmas on the storm-tossed waters off Eureka, California. We remember the helicopter crash that took the lives of the Bennington boys. We remember the help provided to an area in dire need!
I was a new Amateur Radio operator then (WN6NHF), and spent many hours in communication with the Bennington on the 75 Meter band from the Humboldt County courthouse basement, where the Civil Defense Headquarters was housed. Our callsign there was K6PKM.
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See page from
DISASTER RELIEF MISSION
USS BENNINGTON ASSIST DURING
EUREKA FLOODS
Christmas 1964
Part 1
Page 15
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Mark Nelson, AA6DX
801 J Street
Eureka, CA 95501
aa6dx@arrl.net
(For those of you not familar with this story, over Christmas 1964, Northern California, especially the town of Eureka, was inundated with a great flood, and Bennington was dispatched from Long Beach to stay offshore, and be a base for helicopter rescue missions. Unfortunately, these dangerous recue attempts cost the lives of 3 helicopter crew men. For more details, see the crews stories page. I had left to go back to Boston for Christmas leave, just before the ship was sent on the rescue mission. By the time I got back from Leave, everything was all over and the ship was back on Pier E, right where I left her!
BUT, Lonnie was there. Read his story about the THREE FOOT EGG)
Bill Copeland
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