I want to tell you how much I enjoyed your website. I'm just back from the reunion in Corpus Christi. They put up a picture of your dad and information on the web page on a wall in the hospitality room. I'm sorry you couldn't come personally so we could thank you for your interest.

I'm a past president of the Salt Lake Association[1986-87]. I served aboard the Salt Lake from 1944 to 1945. I was a storekeeper and it's great seeing all the other storekeepers and cooks who were also in our division. Some of the storekeepers who come to the reunion got off the ship before I got on but we have become fast friends over the years.

The others, who I remember serving with, we keep in contact with and I have visited their homes and they have come to the Philadelphia area so we can visit together.

I was sitting in the hospitality room in Corpus Christi talking to a shipmate at his first reunion, when, out of a clear blue sky, he said he had been a storekeeper and on board the ship in '44 and '45. "So was I," I said excitedly. His wife ran down to the room and brought up a picture of all the storekeepers. Then we recognized each other. We were at the same searchlight during battle stations and had slept in the same room. That's what makes the reunions exciting.

Overall it was another great reunion and it was wonderful to see our shipmates. It's like going to a reunion of brothers. It should be held each year. Two years is too long.

Once again, thanks for building the USS Salt Lake City website. I'm sure your father would be delighted.

Sandy Oppenheimer

We saved money for a year and were able to afford a wedding in a Methodist Church (neither of us is Methodist) with the pastor doing the ceremony and his wife as witness, a $12 gold ring and a one-night honeymoon in a local hotel. The next day, a Sunday, I covered a 50 year wedding anniversary party and when the people found out we had been married the day before insisted we both come in and join the party. We stayed for a short time and then left. Meanwhile, the editor of the paper had been trying to reach me for a day because on Saturday, the day we got married, somebody had been killed and my reporters hadn't been able to get a picture or much of a story. So much for a wedding.

Sandy has been a Newspaper editor for many years. He has written many articles throughout his career. He has taken some of his favorites from over the years and put them in a book titled, "Here I Am". The book was published in about 1984, but some of the articles were written long before that. He sent me a copy of his book and has given me permission to post any of it that I want.
 

• Articles & Information
  • Terrible but necessary: The day we dropped the bomb
  • A long-ago bend in road of life
  • Memories of a Big Battle
  • Tidbits from Bon Morgan
  • 1986-87 SLC Association President
  • 2002-2003 SLC Association President
  • Remembering his time at Iwo Jima
  • Pictures
    • #5 in picture with StoreKeepers eating "Geedunk"
    • Pictured with friend & shipmate, Bon Morgan,SK1c, 1940's
    • #6 in Storekeepers, 1944-45
    • Ship's Storekeepers at 1989, Denver, CO. Reunion
    • Sandy & Mary O. in SLC, Utah Museum, 2001

Ted D. Acri, S1c, who lived about a 100 miles from me but in the same state of Pennsylvania, and I looked for a mutual Salt Lake friend, R. J. "Bob" Bell, SKD3c for years. I'm a semi-retired newspaper editor and pretty good at finding people. Bob was from Philadelphia so we thought he might still be around.

We couldn't find him. Then one day I got an E-mail from Pat Monteleone who said he had gotten an E-mail from Bob Bell who said his nephew had scoured the web for the Salt Lake and found him. In the E-mail Bell said he particularly remembered me. Well, it turned out we lived in the same county, although at different ends. Along with two other Salt Lake veterans who live in the Philadelphia area we all met for dinner one night in a town halfway between us. It was a great night. Unfortunately, Bob didn't make the reunion but we talk on the telephone about getting together again.

I wanted to write you today to tell you about something that happened a week ago. We had gone to Branson, MO to see some shows and were in St. Louis where we get our plane to return home.

We went to Harrah's Casino to kill the night. We were in the Buffet Restaurant when on the way to fill up my plate I saw a table where three guys were wearing blue caps with the name of a ship. I got closer and saw it was the USS Pensacola, our sister ship which went everywhere the Salt Lake did.

I went over and talked to them and found the Pensacola was holding its reunion in St. Louis. We had a warm, lively time talking together. Later my wife and I went down to the main floor to gamble but ran into another Pensacola vet. We talked and went into the big bar area to talk some more and have a drink and watch some ball games on TV. After more than an hour we all had to go so we left and we never got to do any gambling. All the Pensacola guys seemed warm to have a reunion of Cruiser Division Five which included the Pensacola, the Salt Lake and the Chester in a year none of us were meeting. The Pensacola meets every two years as we do. The problem is who is going to run such a reunion. Anyway, it was great talking to the Pensacola guys.