STAR SPANGLED DINNER BOOSTS NAVAL SHIP MUSEUM

Marine General Captivates Local Crowd With Tales of Terror, Glory

April 11, 2003
By: Dave Rogers

Bay City hasn't seen anything quite like it for many moons, perhaps since the bond drive dinners of the World War II era or the events of the 1960s at the Wenonah Hotel involving destroyer launchings at Defoe Shipbuilding Co.

"It" was an old-fashioned, flag-waving, spirits-rousing patriotic dinner, complete with the singing by a tiara-crowned beauty and traditional military pomp topped by a three-star spell-binding speaker.

The startling, and internationally newsworthy, revelation by retired Lt. Gen. Martin Steele that he, an expert in terrorism, had warned Congress about the exact scenario of 9-11 in New York City six years before it happened, would have been reason enough for me, as a reporter in the old days, to have dashed for the telephone to call the wire services.

"You're going to scare the hell out of the country," a shaken U.S. senator told the general outside the hearing chambers in Washington. "I'm not trying to scare the country, Senator, I'm trying to scare you."

Obviously, the prophetic warning did not take and neither did all the "chatter" picked up by intelligence agencies prior to 9-11. A more than sad commentary about our national defense preparedness and one which has had constant repetition through the years, a case in point being Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

A packed house of more than 200 of the town's political, business and social elites gathered Thursday night, April 10, at the Bay City Country Club for a fund-raising dinner for the Ssginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum.

In a room dominated by a huge American flag and decorated with uniformed personnel from several branches of the service, guests at the $100 per person event dined on a gourmet meal including a sensational, sweet curried carrot soup with roasted pecans, frothy spring greens with orchid petal champagne dressing, succulent grilled North Atlantic salmon with dill sauce and roasted New York sirloin with green peppercorn sauce done to perfection, to repeat several perfunctory gourmet cliche's.

Sides were a marvelous Tomato St. Germain (peas and lettuce chiffonade) and broccoli florets and twice-baked potato topped off with pecan ball for dessert. It was a gorgeous, as well as magnificently-tasting meal, obviously well-enjoyed by all in attendance.

For me, it recalled the late 1960s when the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce packed 600 into the Consistory Cathedral for a dinner and tub-thumping economic development pep rally featuring soon-to-be Governor George Romney, then president of American Motors.

Gazing around, you could see a collection of Bay City's great and near great, many names from the past as well as the power brokers who aspire to the lifestyle of the carriage trade.

Over here is Bill Defoe, former executive of the shipbuilding firm, lending his longheld influence as an industrial leader to the project; Mr. Defoe drew praiseworthy comment from the General for his firm's "rollover" method of shipbuilding which speeded ship production in World War II.

There is retired Congressman Bob Traxler, and also former Congressman, now State Senator, Jim Barcia, singled out by the speaker for their service to the nation.

A personal touch was added when Dr. Douglas Cummings, president of the Country Club, introduced speaker Gen. Steele and bantered about boyhood days in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Gen. Steele, CEO of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, put aside the ribbing and paid serious tribute to his boyhood pal, noting: "You are blessed in this community to have had him as a physician for the past 12 years." He commented pertinent to the occasion:

"I have found a special place in Bay City, a beautiful city with a historic past and a wonderful waterfront where hopefully the USS Adams will be some day," said Gen. Steele.

Ship Museum organizers Dick Janke and Mike Kegley took bows, and Kegley noted that fundraising will continue with a goal of another $2.5 million needed to bringthe Adams to Bay City. Kegley commented: "Although all the Defoe destroyers are gone, Bill Defoe told us to get the Adams, from Bath, Maine, as the next best thing." City officials have already staked out a spot at the former American Hoist development on the riverfront. Our destroyer may not bring in the 650,000 visitors that the carrier USS Intrepid and two companion ships draw to New York, but it appears that Bay City's ship museum will be an important "destination attraction" the tourism leaders of the town are seeking.

If the turnout and obvious support shown by community leaders at Thursday's dinner are any indication, the ship will soon be on its way to a new berth in downtown Bay City.