July 29, 2006
Turtle Eggs and Cannons
"Abbey Road, Mexico." (l to r) Sean Quigley, John Donovan, Ward Brewer, and John Nowakowski, half of "Brewer's Bandits" on the DD-574/E-01 in Lazaro Cardenas. Mk4 20mm cannon in the foreground.
Photo filched from Rob Harshbarger.
John Donovan of Argghhh! and the rest of Ward Brewer's crew are getting a lot of work done on the John Rodgers/Cúitlahuac as they continue to prep the destroyer to take the long trip from Mexico's west coast to Mobile Bay. The Mexican Navy is taking great care of them... perhaps too good of care of them. I'm jealous.
Read the latest posts at Argghhh! here and here to find out why.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at
12:08 PM
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The gent on the left is Sean Quigley - a walking encyclopedia of Fletcher info and a strong back to boot!
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at July 29, 2006 03:00 PM (h2KP7)
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And we curses you Harshbarger! We hateses our profile!
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at July 29, 2006 03:01 PM (h2KP7)
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Thanks John. Updated the caption.
Sorry I can't help with the profile. ;-)
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at July 29, 2006 06:08 PM (psJM2)
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CY, this is definitely a cool project, but how do people afford to restore these old ships? Just wondering...
Posted by: Johnny at July 29, 2006 07:00 PM (Vtwo9)
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Shouldn't that be "Brewer's Banditos".
Kinda like they're kinda the Frito Banditos, only with bigger guns and better attitudes (at times).
Posted by: phin at July 29, 2006 07:46 PM (9Vcb6)
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Phin - actually deliberately chose to go with Bandits and not Banditos as I didn't want to take a chance on offending our hosts, who have been wonderful to us.
Johnny - it *does* take millions. I wandered around the forward boiler room on the Rodgers while Ward and John tossed around 7 figures - just to refurbish the boilers, nothing else.
BT Corporation has corporate sponsors lined up, willing to give cash and in-kind donations/offered at cost materials and labor to help with this work.
Ward and the staff at BT Corporation are some amazing people.
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at July 29, 2006 08:14 PM (h2KP7)
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I would bet if there was a pay-pal account linked to a non-profit org (a real one as opposed to some of the others that have cropped up over the past few weeks/years), that people would donate. I would.
Johnny - nice to see there are some things we can agree on.
Posted by: Specter at July 30, 2006 12:22 PM (ybfXM)
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July 27, 2006
Bringing the Rogers Home-Day 1
Ward Brewer and his team from Beauchamp Tower Corporation (
Operation Enduring Service web site,
blog) have arrived in Mexico City on the first leg of their trip to bring home the DD-574
John Rogers/E-01
Cuitlahuac (
photos from NavSource Online), the longest-serving of the World War II-era
Fletcher-class destroyers.
AA Action view from CVA-8
Hornet 14 May 1945 of kamikaze exploding over
John Rogers (John Chiquoine via NavSource Online)
They will push on today to Lázaro Cárdenas, a Mexican port city in the state of Michoacán, where the John Rogers is currently berthed.
The blogging community is very lucky to have an exclusive on the repatriation of the Rogers, with milblogger John Donovan reporting in on Argghh!, and his first post form Mexico is already online.
Read it here.
I'll hope to have some additional commentary posted here on Confederate Yankee, and my brother phin will be chiming in as well, which isn't necessarily a good thing. He promised to reveal "deep, dark secrets" about me to Ward and John in exchange for the recipe for the Avocado Ranch dressing they use to lace the fish tacos he got addicted to on his business trips to the southwest.
Whatever the charge, I maintain my innocence, and will remind my dear brother that that particular street runs both ways.
Update: John has another post here, and the first pic.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at
08:21 AM
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I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!!!!
But as I said before. We're talkin' fish tacos man. FISH TACOS.
Posted by: phin at July 27, 2006 08:51 AM (X42kM)
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Avocado ranch?? Yum, please share!
Posted by: Raging Mom at July 27, 2006 10:59 AM (l+Chn)
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And, since this part of Mexico is the avocado capital of the world... we've been having some mighty find guacamole today!
We had a late lunch with two Admirals, 4 Captains, and an Ensign today.
At the Club Naval, and it was... *good*.
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at July 27, 2006 07:01 PM (h2KP7)
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July 25, 2006
The Longest Trip Home
Long-time readers of this site know that one of my pet interests is
Operation Enduring Service, an effort of not-for-profit Beauchamp Tower Corporation to make the best practical use of retired U.S naval vessels currently facing the cutting torches of scrapyards.
Most of my focus has been on one aspect of OES, the creation of a disaster response fleet I long ago dubbed the "Salvation Navy." Negotiations for that part of the program are currently being worked out at the highest levels of state and federal government, but another part of the program hasn't received as much attention, and that is the restoration of World War II-era warships, beginning with the DD-574 John Rogers, the last of the serving Fletcher-class destroyers.
DD-574 John Rogers served in the Pacific theater of World War II, serving in raids and amphibious landings in places with names like Tarawa, Wake Island, Bougainville, Kwajalein Atoll, and Guam, where Rogers fired more than 3,600 shells to knock out Japanense defenses. Rogers also served of Iwo Jima and the invasion of Okinawa, and in July of 1945, participated in what was the deepest naval penetration of the war. Destroyer Division 25's anti-shipping sweep that came within 1½ miles of the Japanese shoreline. John Rogers steamed into Toyko Bay in September of 1945, having fought in almost every major offensive campaign of the Pacific theater.
John Rogers was decommissioned after the war like many destroyers, and was transferred to Mexico in 1968. The destroyer was renamed the E-01 Cuitlahuac in honor of the Aztec emperor. On July 16, 2002, more than 60 years after being launched, the longest-serving Fletcher was retired by the Mexican Navy.
But that was not to be the end of the story.
On December 7, 2005, 65 years to the day that the Japanese launched an attack on Pearl Harbor plunging America into World War II, CEO Ward Brewer of Beauchamp Tower Corporation signed a transfer agreement to return the ship to American hands.
Tomorrow, Ward Brewer's team from BTC, milblogger John Donovan of Argghhh!, and documentary film crew will fly to Mexico to tow John Rogers from the Mexican Pacific coast to the shipyard in Mobile, Alabama where the last serving Fletcher-class destroyer will be restored for future genrations.
In the coming days, follow the story of the Rogers repatriation at Argghhh!, starting with John's first post, A Series of Fortuitous Events. I'll also have commentary here at Confederate Yankee.
It has been 63 years since the DD-574 was launched on the Texas Gulf Coast, but the John Rogers is finally beginning the longest trip home.
Update: The Operation Enduring Service Weblog is back up and running at a new address: http://www.btconline.us/mt.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at
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I've been trying to find out more about Ward Brewer, Beauchamp Tower Corp and Operation Enduring Service. But the BTC site is down, and all the searches I do come up as being fluff or self referential. Even Volunteer Match says there are no volunteer positions open. WTF? Seems a bit strange for a not-for-profit group not to have volunteer positins. Can you provide more detail?
Posted by: Larry at July 25, 2006 12:43 PM (Lpswv)
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CY, thanks to you keeping the light on for BTC. With people like you, this will be one of the best restorations of US Navy ships ever done. Let's wish them good sailing and God's speed and I wish that I could be there when she docks in Mobile, Ala. I will be there when the other ships come HOME after the long battle.
Dan, BTC Texas
P.S his server is down now and will be up later
Posted by: Dan Howell at July 25, 2006 01:43 PM (cJl4r)
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Larry,
I can handle those questions.
Web Site
The BTC web site (http://www.btcorp.us/) is presently offline and will be so for a few weeks. To make a long story short, the person at BTC who registered the site died in a tragic car accident. As everything was registered through him, it more difficult to getting the domain renewed. It could be a few weeks to get everything sorted out, simply because BTC is focused on getting the
John Rogers home safely.
BTC's web site is now parked at a new URL,
http://www.btconline.us/, but as all the links appear to be absolute links (using the full domain string, instead of relative addressing), it might be a day or two till all the links work properly. Be patient, and weÂ’ll get it sorted out. Alternatively, use Google's cache to view stored pages of the btcorp.us site. That is how I got the link I have to BTC in the post above.
About BTCÂ’s visibility/Volunteer positions/etc
Ward Brewer should probably handle this, but he's packing for the trip, so I'll do the best I can. Besides, heÂ’s used to me stepping on his toes. :-)
You are correct in that many non-profit are high-profile volunteer organizations—the Red Cross, Salvation Army—but BTC isn't structured as the kind of organization you are thinking of.
BTC doesn't directly work with individual volunteers, but with the management of those kind of groups. It might help to think of BTC as something of a procurement and project management group, coordinating among various organizations and corporate donors. It is different than what you are used to, because it is a different kind of not-for-profit organization.
As for why you canÂ’t find a lot of stuff on the internet about Ward Brewer, Beauchamp Tower Corp and Operation Enduring ServiceÂ… well, Ward isnÂ’t that self-promoting, and they havenÂ’t done a lot yet that the media and would find interesting.
Hopefully, bring the
John Rogers home will help to start showing what BTC can do, and generate some interest in the media.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at July 25, 2006 01:58 PM (g5Nba)
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...64 years to the day the Japanese attacked Peal Harbor
Posted by: bws53 at July 25, 2006 04:02 PM (fpChM)
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Nice story CY. If any ship deserves restoration, it sounds like it would be John Rogers.
I am sure you have mentioned it, but how do these organizations afford to perform these restoration projects?
Posted by: Johnny at July 25, 2006 07:58 PM (Vtwo9)
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