You can certainly see from this log that this page grew fast and quick. It's slowed down a lot, but the improvements are still coming. Let me know what else you'd like to see here.
I added a bunch of new entries to the stories page based on my survey of Mr. Jacobs. (13 Oct 1999)
I spoke to Placido J "Jake" Jacobs today for 48 minutes. The survey may look short, but over the phone it takes a while. Mr. Jacobs is a plank-owner and told me some nice real-world stories about the USS Wintle. If I can get more of these, the actual ship (as opposed to just the abstract idea of some ship) will start to take shape. <13 Oct 1999>
Found out from people at the reunion that the USS Wintle was damaged in the killer typhoon that wrecked a few ships in the Pacific during the war. Apparently the port bow deck was bent upwards. (8 Oct 1999)
I started a crew list based on people at the USS Wintle reunion. I still have to manually type in the "official" one. (8 Oct 1999)
The reunion has been running all this week, and Andrew Pulley has been kind enough to keep me "in the loop". I did manage to send out a print-out of this page to all the veterans, and two surveys. One is USS Wintle specific, the other is research for Bruce Franklin's next DE book. You can download the surveys from here if you would like to participate. Obviously the results of these surveys will help improve this page greatly.(8 Oct 1999)
I watched the video on DE's I bought at the USS Slater giftshop. It's pretty good.
Server problems all week prevented me from being able to update this page, although people could still visit it, thankfully. (8 Oct 1999)
I've been hearing a lot from Andrew Pulley about the reunion. It's next week. I'm hoping to print out 15 copies of the web page and a survey for him to distribute. (29 Sep 1999)
Added a section on the DE "collectables" that I've purchased. I'm also looking into using Amazon's new zSHOP service to sell them online. (29 Sep 1999)
Does anyone know what the "code name" of the USS Wintle was? In each of the books I've read each ship has a code name that is used for radio communications. Often, it seems, this name becomes more the name of the ship to the crew than her official name.(27 Sep 99)
I'm actually getting about ten visitors a day, and more on the weekends. Which is pretty cool. One book was sold through my Amazon link. Which was also cool. My main computer at home lost its hard drive, which was very uncool. This is frustrating my attempts to get some more scans online. I ran a spell check on the page! Man was it bad. (27 Sep 99)
I'm planning to visit the USS Slater in Albany this coming weekend. This is very exciting. Feel free to come! (27 Sep 99)
When I got back from my trip I found that I had received the book Men of Poseidon -- Life at Sea Aboard the USS Rall. So I read it. Excellent for those interested in what it was really like to live on board a DE. This book was written by an officer that kept the deck logs (an OOD), so he has a real knowledge of what was going on. Plus he was very into current events at the time, and does an excellent job of giving the whole story historical perspective. Well written and enjoyable. (18 Sept 99)
I also received the blueprints from Maryland Silver Company. They're reduced a lot, so the writing is very hard to read. But they are the blueprints. I hope to scan them in and make useful diagrams on this page. (18 Sept 99)
Most importantly I received a whole packet of stuff from Andrew Pulley. It includes the reunion mailing list. The scanner can't read it, so I'm going to have to hand-type it. But then it will be here on this page. (18 Sept 99)
My trip was excellent, especially the visit to the Canadian destroyer HMCS Haida. It's a small DD, on the scale of DE really. It was very educational, and they really let you explore many areas that would be off-limits on a US ship. (visited DD 12 Sep 99)
I will be away on a business trip to Toronto from today (10 Sept) until next Friday night (17 September). I don't know yet whether I will have email or web access.
I'm working with the artist Craig Slaff with the idea of commissioning a painting of the USS Wintle in action. I think the best scene might be the two aviators hanging on to the fuel tank in the foreground and the USS Wintle right behind. Although there are certainly other moments that would be of interest (heading out, heading home, accompanying tankers, shooting starbursts over the dark harbor). Please let me know what you think of any of these ideas. A painting is an expensive thing. I would need to have about 50 people buy prints at $85 to make it work. (10 Sept 1999)
Found what sounds like a good book on Evarts ships (includes diagrams) at the USS Rall site. (see books)
Added the photo of the USS Wintle back home, courtesy of Maynard Brown (8 Sep 99)
Rick Neuman sent me the crew roster (enlisted men only, and only 41 of them) that he got from the US government (and paid for out of his own pocket). Very cool. I hope to have it online here soon. He's going to try to get the officers next.(1 Sep 99)
I received Bruce's book The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts in the mail last night. I'm only 35 pages into it, but it really is the authority on DE's. I'm impressed. (1 Sep 99)
The one month anniversary of this web page and it's the first day where there are no updates! (31 Aug 99)
I purchased the video The Enemy Below this weekend. In the beginning of Crimson Tide they debate which is the better sub film, this or Das Boot. Well there's no comparison. Das Boot is a film, and this is just a corny war movie from the 50's. However the acting is fine, and I was shocked to see that it's about a DE! You get to see a variety of DE systems in action, especially K-guns and depth charges. Unfortunately they don't show a hedgehog launch. It's cheap video, however, and I recommend it if you like DE's and/or subs. (The story is loosly based on the experience of the USS Buckley. DE-181, USS Straub, survived the war and presumably was used in this film.)(30 Aug 99) (Correction -- The USS Whitehurst was filmed in June of 1957 for this, portraying the USS Haynes, according to the USS Whitehurst webpage.) (14 Dec 1999)
I got mail back from the Nat'l Archives about the deck logs! They are $320 for the 16 months I requested -- 1200 pages! Let's say I bought them. Then I'd have to scan them in, run the program to put them into text (OCR), then get them into a web format, then upload them all and make some way to access them (a big calendar I suppose). What a huge project. Maybe I'll buy one month's worth and see what that's like. It sure would be cool. (27 Aug 99)
Added list of DE sub kills from Bruce Franklin. (26 Aug 99)
Added corrections and letter from Jackie Wintle (26 Aug 99)
Finally called Andrew & Harold Pulley. Wow. Harold has a lot of info. Like details about the photo, stories about the travels, etc. (added to stories page) Hopefully collaboration with him will bring a lot more info to this page. (25 Aug 99)
I noticed that I must have accidentally demolished a section of the page right before I left!
The end of the links and the beginning of the books are just plain gone! I'll have to try to recreate them. If anyone printed out or otherwise saved a copy of the page I'd like to know what I lost. (24 Aug 99)
Upon getting my mail from the past week, I see the Navy has already sent pictures of the christening of the USS Wintle! Included is a photo showing Mary Wintle next to Mrs. Dempsey. The Dempsey people will love it! (24 Aug 99)
Right before I left for vacation I got info from Jackie Wintle, as well as some cool documents from the shipyard where USS Wintle was after the war from Maynard Brown! (14 Aug 99)
I will be on vacation next week, so there will be no updates. (Aug 15-22 1999)
Added a very well-told story of the rescue of the B-29 crew sent to me by Maynard Brown! Part of the new Stories & Recollections page. (Aug 13 1999)
I spoke to David Saunders on the phone, and added his contact info here. It was thrilling for me, and a little intimidating, to speak to an actual member of the crew. (Aug 12 1999)
Added table of contents, so you can find things on this monster. (Aug 10 1999)
already! It's very cool. Please scroll down a little to see the text below the map. (Aug 9 1999)
Added a counter and a guestbook. The counter is zero as of today, and only shows unique visitors, not "hits". (Aug 9 1999)
Added my address for US mail. (Aug 9 1999)
Rented the National Geographic Video The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal.
It does indeed have narration by Mary Wintle. It does not tell how Jack Wintle died. Other accounts
say that he was in the bridge when the ship was hit by Japanese shells. The video uses Jack's
very touching love-letters to Mary as a framework for making the battle human. (Aug 8 1999)
Added list of people involved with the web project so far.
Found out (from Robert Wintle) the proper name of the National Geographic Video The Lost Fleet of Guadalcanal (Aug 6, 1999)