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 Author  Topic: PT 728 trip to Athens N.Y.
  AlmKord

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of AlmKord  Posted on: Jul 12, 2009 - 6:02pm
So after a rocky start to our season, we finally got her working and did our first trip of the year. The town of Athens was having some sort of vestival and we showed up to give deck tours and rides. Being a new crew member I really enjoyed it. However I want people, and when I say that I mean parents, to remember that we work hard to get these boats in shape. They are historical and can't be replaced. We had young kids running around on and below deck without parents and I found two who went into the engine room and were playing around still hot engines. Probalby worse then the young kids were the teenagers. They got on the boat and were in large groups, they had no respect for the boat and one kid broke a 50cal handle off the gun. Another dumb ass tried to climb onto the boat from the dock near the bow. I yelled at him and told him to use the ladder. Utter bullshit. Parents, mostly fathers weren't wathching their kids because they wanted to look at the boat, and some just left their kids there and let them use the boat as a playground. Please remember to watch your kids. It was an enjoyable trip and even though it rained later on. Just remember you wouldn't want your stuff treated like this. We don't either. It can to a point where we were trowing people off the boat. We had teens sitting on the dock just messing around. Makes me mad!!!


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AlmKord

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of AlmKord  Posted on: Jul 12, 2009 - 6:03pm
I meant festival.


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AlmKord

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of AlmKord  Posted on: Jul 12, 2009 - 6:05pm
I also meant it came to a point.


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AlmKord

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of AlmKord  Posted on: Jul 12, 2009 - 6:05pm
throwing


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  Jerry Gilmartin

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of Jerry Gilmartin   Send Email To Jerry Gilmartin Posted on: Jul 15, 2009 - 9:58pm
I can identify with your frustration! Our crew on the PT658 have developed a system to control visitors on the boat. We try to keep them in groups of 10 and each group is guided by a crewman. There is so much stuff to keep an eye on and we specifically warn parents of small children they must maintain control of their kids at all times since the kids could fall down a ladder or off the boat into the water. You guys may want to have a crew meeting to discuss how you want to control large groups of people. We learned the hard way just like you did on this last trip! You are right to be concerned because so many people dont appreciate these boats for what they are and how rare and porecious they are. Crowd control and supervision of guests is what you need to focus on. You also must be willing to close the gangway if you do not have enough crew to effectively supervise the guests on the boat. Rare items can and will be stolen in the name of "I just wanted a souvenir". Just hope you guys can learn from this incident and improve your system in the future. Jerry PT658

Jerry Gilmartin

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Frank J Andruss Sr

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It's funny because in my world of things and Exhibits, it's tthe Grown ups I have to worry about. No matter how many signs I put out saying DO NOT TOUCH (in red letter's no less), they just pick things up. Even the kids do not touch items. When I display my Packard Engine, there is always some clown that wants to try and turn something or pull on something. I have to watch everything out of the corner of my eyes, because if it is not under lock and key, it will walk.

I have been lucky over the years in that most of my items are in glass cases or Museum style cabinets, but I did have one of my Packard Manuals stolen right from one of my table glass display boxes. I still do not know how they did that, because I watch everything. It's too bad that the large problem we have with Exhibits is the parents. They teach the kids no respect, and let them run around to get into trouble. A few of my friends went to England this past spring and siad you would not believe the difference in how their museums and displays are so well respected, compared to here. No one ever attepts to touch, steal,jump on, break, or abuse anything associated with any WWII displays. Too bad parents can't practice what they preach, or should I say what they don't preach..........


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FRANK

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of FRANK  Posted on: Jul 16, 2009 - 8:14am
Lost my dang password again! This is just a test!

Frank Ryczek, Jr.

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YOUR FRIEND THROUGH SCALE SHIP MODELING AND PT BOAT HISTORY!

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  FRANK

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of FRANK  Posted on: Jul 16, 2009 - 8:41am
Hey guys!

I don't have a full blown 80 footer to worry about, however, but I do have a model diorama that has been pain stakeingly hand assembled over the past 14 years that I take out to special veterans exhibits, school functions cook outs and to high schools as a teaching aide,

My biggest problem is the adults as well! I too have huge signs all over my 8 x 16 foot model display and diorama depicting "DO NOT TOUCH!! DO NOT DESTROY IN SECONDS WHAT TOOK YEARS TO ASSEMBLE!!" It's like these folks are blind or some thing!! Parents will pick up and try to rotate a scale twin 50 mount only to realize it it wasn't made to turn and snap it clean off. I can't build a plexiglass glass case to cover this diorama, Lord know I would like too, but how the hell do I haul it around??

When I do a military show it a whole different story! The veterans will ohh and ahh and ask me to explain the display to them. Hardly if ever do these folks touch anything on the display. But there was on case this past June at a Midway Survivors Banquet! One veteran gave ma a large envelope with WW II German, French and English currency bills and along comes this old vet and out of the corner of my eye I see him snatch a few bills off the display. Now I was told that a wheelbarrow full of those old German marks are rotally worthless, but the point of the matter HE SHOULD HAVE ASKED FIRST!! And "NO" I didn't say anything to this gentleman! I didn't want to embarass him in front of his peers!

I aslo have a collection of PT Boat pactches that I purchased from PT Boat Headquarters that I put out with my display. At one show at my local YMCA some kid thought HEY FREE STUFF and pocketed all of the patches! I caught him just as he made it to the front door and told him I want the patches BACK!!! His old man added his two cents by saying "If you put stuff out on a display peoplle are going to take it!!" Need I say more??? 'Nuff said!!!

Thanks for letting me add my two cents to the pot and blow off some steam, guys!

Frank Ryczek, Jr.
Modeler/Friend RON-10 PT-169 " ZEBRA SNAFU "

HIGH TIDES ALWAYS!

YOUR FRIEND THROUGH SCALE SHIP MODELING AND PT BOAT HISTORY!

Total Posts: 349 | Joined: Oct 7, 2007 - 2:09pm | IP Logged

TED WALTHER

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of TED WALTHER   Send Email To TED WALTHER Posted on: Jul 16, 2009 - 9:24am
Frank;
I feel your pain. When I brought all my dioramas down to display in the UDT/SEAL museum in Ft. Pierce, Fla. I made plexiglass dust covers for all of them. Well I made another trip down for Chapman's navigation school, a few years later, and I went to the museum to see my displays, and how everything held up. Well I got all kinds of stories. For exampleI did a big diorama depicting the NCDU guys running through machines gun bullet splashes and putting satchel charges on the Belgian gates, the piling poles with the teller mines on them and the A frame obstacles too. this was all on a 4'x2' piece of plywood as a base. the way it was arranged in the museum the large base was on a lower display box while higher up on two small display shelves mounted on the wall was a verlinden concrete bunker with crew and a 37mm anti aircraft gun, on the other side was another bunker and crew manning a Quad 20mm. well when I came back the bunkers were there, but the guns were gone. STOLEN!! Another diorama, entitled "STABRON 20 Mekong delta 1970" this was 3 Lssc's from STABRON 20 and a PBR, moored alongside a barge loading SEALS for a mission, one boat is undergoing repairs and has the 429 ford cobra interceptors being worked on by crew. Anyway I always drill the feet of the figures and put a metal rood in each foot(or as needed) and super glue the rods in the feet and drill cooresponding holes in the display. Well if you go there today, there are two boots sitting on the barge where a SEAL used to be. Someone came in and tried to do a quick snatch, but I fooled them.
I have since recieved two more damaged ones my Apollo 13/UDT 13 diorama, and another called STINGRAY, which was the UDT's first try at remote controll LCPL's.
Well that is all for now,
Take care and good luck,
TED


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  FRANK

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Post a Reply To This Topic    Reply With Quotes     Edit Message     View Profile of FRANK  Posted on: Jul 16, 2009 - 6:12pm
Hi there Ted-

Thanks for sharing your story with me and all the other here on the board. I have always been impressed by your fantastic dioramas and I'd like to see more of them as I bet others here on the board would as well.

After I read your story it reminded me of an incident a few years ago with my model ship club at our local R/C pond.We have an annual homecoming Fun Sail every year and we invite the locals to come out of the woodwork to see our models, both static display and working R/C ship models.

My good buddy Joe Hanner is one of the best military WW II modelers to ever come down the pike. He had just put the finishing touches on a French Resistance truck that was drop dead beautiful. Joe took the model out of the shoe box and placed it on the table next to some of my R/C models for dosplay. He than placed it on the display base. A local yokel comes by while Joe and I are at the edge of the lake and picks up the model truck to inspect it and it falls into the grass in smitherins. Joe noticed the guy hunkered down and picking up pieces of his model. After all this this jerk tells Joe," I didn't know the model wasn't glued down!!!" Not one word from this guy to say to Joe "Hey I'm sorry man!" Nothing!! Then he disappers into thin air!

Joe is an ex- Nam vet and could have ripped into this guy but he just turned to me and said, OHHHH CRAP!!" He never found the figures, tires or God knows what else. That was the first and last time Joe ever came out to a homecoming! I can't blame the guy!!

I don't know if people are just stupid, rude or just not thinking! People don't read signs anymore! When you tell them not to touch it THEY who get defensive! It's never the other way around! It's just amazing!

At this fun sail we also let folks run our R/C boats! One kid asked me if he could run my 1/32 scale PT-169. I had second thoughts but I gave in. I stepped away for a few minutes and saw the kid running my PT at full flank IN REVERSE!! The water came up over the transom and poured into the hull. By the time I got the radio in my hands away from the kid, she sank within a few feet of the shore line. By the time I got home all the electronics were nice and crispy!! Everything went- ESC, receiver, servos, motors, the works! The entire boat had to be rebuilt from the inside out! While I was feeling around for the model I knocked off a lot of scratch build fittings on the top deck besides! I was fit to be tied!!From that day on I was cured of ever letting anyone run my models!

Thanks again guys! My relief valve is working overtime today!

Frank Ryczek, Jr.
Modeler/Friend RON-10 PT-169 ' ZEBRA SNAFU "

HIGH TIDES ALWAYS!

YOUR FRIEND THROUGH SCALE SHIP MODELING AND PT BOAT HISTORY!

Total Posts: 349 | Joined: Oct 7, 2007 - 2:09pm | IP Logged

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