Central Washington sub vets win national honor

ELLENSBURG – The U.S. Submarine Veterans of Central Washington, with members in Quincy, George and Ephrata, has won the Golden Anchor Award, given by the national office of U.S. Submarine Veterans

The award is for the vet base that has best demonstrated a leading role in developing and promoting creative membership renewals and has developed successful recruiting tools, programs and ideas.

“The Yakima Base (chapter) is the smallest USSVI Base in the 13-State Western Region, and is indisputably the most active and the fastest growing,” SVCW publicist Gary Brown of Ellensburg said.

Within the last year, members of the SVCW built a 16-foot long miniature submarine, the USS YAKIMA (SSN509), for use as a parade float. They entered her in five parades around central Washington.

The sixth parade this year will be the Veterans’ Day Parade in Yakima. Earlier this year, they held a Christening and Commissioning Ceremony for the new boat.

Other activities that led to the award include hosting the annual Submarine Birthday Ball, which celebrated the 112th birthday of the U.S. Navy’s Submarine Force.

The SVCW established a Community and Media Outreach program, giving other central Washington Submariners the opportunity to attend and join.

The group sent a delegation to the dedication of the Sail of USS Triton (SSN586) at the Triton Sail Park in North Richland.

The SVCW arranged a trip to tour an active-duty Submarine in Bangor. It arranged a tour of the US Department of Energy’s B Reactor at Hanford, the world’s first, full-scale nuclear reactor. It produced the plutonium used in the “Fat Man” bomb dropped over Nagasaki, Japan in August of 1945.

The SVCW created an informative Web site, www.SSN509.com, and have an active presence on Facebook. They provided an inspirational guest speaker to a Boy Scout Troop’s Court of Honor.

The SVCW holds its monthly meetings at various locations around central Washington, making access easier for sub vets. In the last year it has seen membership increase by more than 60 percent.

The Yakima Base’s newsletter, The Snorkel, also will be honored. It earned the third consecutive Newsletter of the Year Award among Bases with fewer than 51 members.

The ceremony will take place at the American Legion Hall in Yakima at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13. John Mansfield, Commander of the 13-state Western Region, will be on hand to present both awards.

Persons interested in the SVCW are welcome to call Mark Briggs at 509-480-8245 for information.