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Waterman went from Maryland's death row to freedom, advocacy

editor@din.us1.dti — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 05:19:19 GMT

By Andrew West
Delaware State News
DOVER — Kirk Bloodsworth was given a death sentence on March 22, 1985.
In a Baltimore County, Md., courtroom, he was told he would be executed for the rape and murder of 9-year-old Dawn Hamilton.
“The courtroom erupted in applause,” he said. “‘Give him the gas and kill his ass,’ they said. I heard it in the back.
“That 300-pound door slammed shut at the penitentiary and my life was over. I was 22.”
He spent two years on death row before getting a retrial. He was found guilty again, but this time was given two life terms in prison.
Seven years later, Mr. Bloodsworth became the first U.S. prisoner to go from death row to freedom.
DNA fingerprinting proved his innocence.
“The death penalty doesn’t need to exist anymore,” he said. “It can kill innocent people.”
Mr. Bloodsworth spent much of last week in his home state of Maryland, lobbying lawmakers. Maryland is on its way to becoming the 18th state to abolish the death penalty, following House approval on Friday.
He plans to be in Delaware Wednesday to share his story.
“I lived it myself,” he said. “I spent 8 years, 11 months and 19 days in prison and two years on death row — and didn’t do a damn thing. Yet everybody believed I did it, swore up and down to it. They were dead wrong.
“Bottom line: It happened to me, it’ll happen again.”

***

Senate Bill 19, introduced Tuesday, calls for the repeal of Delaware’s death penalty.
If passed, it would end the practice of executing condemned killers and convert current death sentences to life in prison without the possibility or parole.
The Senate executive committee has scheduled a hearing on the bill for 1 p.m. Wednesday in Dover.
The bill drew swift reaction across the state this week.
On Wednesday, the Delaware Police Chiefs’ Council gathered on Legislative Mall to outline reasons the bill should be stopped.
The chiefs’ position document addressed several arguments, including the possibility of executing innocent people.
“There has never been a case where a death row offender in Delaware was found innocent of the charges against him,” the document said. “Any offenders who have been removed from Delaware’s Death Row were removed through appellate processes as a result of legal technicalities at trial. Those offenders were instead re-sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, not the consequence that an innocent person receives.”
Delaware currently has 17 men on death row.
Among them is Derrick Powell, convicted of killing Georgetown police officer Chad Spicer in 2009.
“It’s an awful thing for somebody to take someone’s life,” said Mr. Bloodsworth. “Nobody can ever say how horrible that is. But I can tell you this much: If you want to punish these people that we call the worst of the worst, put their butts away for the rest of their life.
“To see the walls, to see the cell door, to see the key, to see that yard, to see that every single day of their life ... if you really want to punish someone, that’ll do it.”
The death penalty ends the pain the killer might feel, but it does not end the suffering a victim’s family or friends experience, Mr. Bloodsworth said.
“We still feel what happened to our loved one,” he said. “And, they should, too. They should have to live with what they’ve done until they naturally die.”

***

Mr. Bloodsworth, who received an honorable discharge from the Marines, was a third-generation waterman.
After his release from prison, he returned to Dorchester County, Md., and bought an old commercial crabbing boat and gave it a major overhaul. He named her “Jeannette’s Pearl” after his mother and grandmother.
He was happy to get up in the wee hours of the morning and run a trotline.
“I was crabbing right into the wind,” he said. “It didn’t matter, I was happy. I’d sit up there with a cup of coffee, put my feet on the cabin and just sail on out in the dark.”
He upgraded to a more modern. 40-foot fiberglass Evans boat a few years later.
“Watermen fall in love with our boats and I named her ‘Freedom,’” he said. “I caught some crabs in her, too. But the next thing you know, people wanted me to go speak and I couldn’t even keep my lines baited up.”
Mr. Bloodsworth is now working full-time as advocacy director for Witness to Innocence, a Philadelphia-based group.
“I got off the boat and onto the bricks and started shaking hands, telling people my story,” said Mr. Bloodsworth. “I think it’s paid off.”
Over the years, he has lobbied against the death penalty in Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois, California, Montana, Minnesota and New Mexico. He has even done a speech in Japan.
Nationally, he lobbied for DNA testing. Through the Innocence Protection Act of 2004, the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program provides grants to states to defray testing costs.

***

Mr. Bloodsworth’s story is too long to include in great detail in this column. Listen to his story in this video.
In short, he had left his Baltimore County home without explanation around the time of the girl’s murder in 1984 and his departure led police to where he was staying in Dorchester County.
Police went back to witnesses with his photograph and he became the suspect.
The case came down to being misidentified by witnesses, Mr. Bloodsworth said.
“They said the guy they saw was 6-foot-5, curly blonde hair, bushy mustache, tanned skin and skinny,” said Mr. Bloodsworth. “I am six-foot tall and my hair was as a red as a fire plug back in those days. I had sideburns like (former Orioles baseball player) Eddie Murray. And, I do not tan.”
He said he is fair skinned and “looked like a lobster half the time” because of his work on the water.
“In the end, when they caught the killer, 10 years after I got out, he was 5-foot-6 and 160 pounds,” he said.
That man, Kimberly Shay Ruffner, is now serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of the girl.
It was the same DNA test that cleared Mr. Bloodsworth that led investigators to Ruffner, who was already serving a 45-year sentence for a rape and attempted murder that occurred a month after the Hamilton murder.
In December, 1993, Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaeffer pardoned Mr. Bloodsworth.
The state compensated him $300,000 for the time he spent in prison.

***

So why hasn’t Mr. Bloodsworth just walked away and chosen a quiet life on the water?
“If I saw a man out in the channel in the Choptank River and he was sinking and I didn’t help him, he would be in dire straits in a minute,” said Mr. Bloodsworth. “I have to stop and help him. That’s just the way a waterman is.
“This is really an extension of that lifestyle, of the people that I know so well,” he said. “I take the same values into any legislative body that I go to.
“I could have walked away, but I see the possibility of a lot of people sinking.”

Delaware Police Chiefs Council says capital punishment is meted out objectively

editor@din.us1.dti — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 05:05:03 GMT

Editor’s note: The following letter, signed by Lewes Police Chief Jeffrey Horvath, was sent to the Delaware General Assembly by the Delaware Police Chiefs’ Council.

The following paper represents the position of the police chiefs throughout Delaware.

The intent is to provide an objective and fact-based viewpoint that is opposed to the repeal of capital punishment. In summary, the Delaware Police Chiefs Council would urge the honorable members of this General Assembly to consider the following key points that are detailed within the report:

• The Delaware constituents have throughout history expressed their opinion that the sentence of death is the appropriate punishment for murder of an aggravated nature.

To supplant the opinion of the people as to what is right and just will result in further undermining the integrity of the criminal justice system as a whole.

• The U.S. Supreme Court agrees that the death penalty for an abhorrent crime such as murder is not cruel and unusual and that it is up to the people to make that determination.

To say otherwise, is to in effect say that the life of the victim is worth less than that of the murderer.

•The primary goals of capital punishment are incapacitation and retribution, not deterrence.

For some, the threat of consequences, even death, is not enough to prevent the commission of crime. It is for this very reason that the most severe of penalties is necessary.

Capital punishment is the only method with which to guarantee the public’s safety from the offender in whom death creates no fear.

Furthermore, to punish an atrocious murder with anything less than death instills in the public a lack of confidence that the criminal justice system can effectively protect their safety or is willing to enforce their sense of moral right and wrong.

Delaware is not discriminatory in the application of its death penalty. Murder is not committed by a proportionate representation of all of the races, genders, or socioeconomic groups.

According to the most recent Delaware data available, a greater proportion of black offenders commit murders than those of other races. Even so, more white offenders are currently on Delaware’s Death Row.

Thus, the death penalty in Delaware is working as it should. Capital punishment is being reserved for offenders not based upon the color of their skin but rather for the atrocities committed.

The facts have also positively disproved the proposition that more offenders who kill victims of a different race than their own are sentenced to death. The majority of offenders in Delaware sentenced to death actually murdered victims of their own race.

•Delaware does not speed offenders to execution but guarantees them the same fundamental rights that the U.S. Supreme Court requires of all states.

That Delaware is more efficient in the delivery of justice than California, a state which has faced federal litigation due to its system-wide malfeasance in the criminal justice arena is to be expected, and certainly not fodder upon which to base criticism.

•Delaware’s death penalty does not apply to “accomplices” if the term “accomplices” means one who aids or abets.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Enmunds ruled that the death penalty may not be applied to one who merely aids or abets a murder. It does however apply to co-defendants, that is, anyone who takes part in the aggravated murder of a human life.

•There has never been a case where a death row offender in Delaware was found innocent of the charges against him.

Any offenders who have been removed from Delaware’s Death Row were removed through appellate processes as a result of legal technicalities at trial.

Those offenders were instead re-sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, not the consequence that an innocent person receives.

•As for costs, the cost of not maintaining the death penalty is far greater than the sum of its financial expenses.

No study has successfully compared the associated pecuniary costs in a scientifically reliable manner between a sentence of death and a sentence of life without parole.

Beyond that though, the true costs of aggravated murder far surpass any quantifiable data. Betraying the community’s sense of moral right and wrong by offering a “discount” on the taking of a human life will cost far more than any monetary calculation can repay.

Allowing the cruelest offenders amongst us to “get away” with their crimes, with their lives, will result in undermining Delaware’s criminal justice system as a whole and will foster an even deeper lack of trust in our system’s ability to serve and protect.

We are already seeing the results of this erosion of faith, when witnesses refuse to cooperate against murderers, when gang members murder without fear of consequences and when law enforcement officers die as valiant symbols of a system for which respect is eroding.

Members of the General Assembly, the Delaware Police Chiefs’ Council would respectfully request that, prior to making a decision in this regard, you would consider the shared opinion of the Council and that of the people of Delaware in deciding what is best.

The report (available at the web address listed above) provides reliable support for the fact that, at least in Delaware, capital punishment is meted out objectively and to only the most cruel and depraved murderers.

The murder victims, their families and the good citizens of the state of Delaware deserve to have their lives valued at the same level at least as that of the murderer’s. They deserve to have a criminal justice system that they can trust to do justice.

Lewes Police Chief Jeffrey Horvath is chairman of the Delaware Police Chiefs’ Council, Inc.

‘Mayor’ Artz backs up his promise to Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce businesses

editor@din.us1.dti — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 04:46:33 GMT

Steve Artz, shown with Delaware State News mascot Newshound, is Central Delaware's Honorary Mayor

By Andrew West
Delaware State News
DOVER — Steve Artz has done his best to live up to his campaign promise.
“My motto during the campaign was, ‘If it’s fun, it’ll get done,’” he said.
Mr. Artz is in the closing weeks of his term as an honorary mayor of the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce.
If you go through his “Steve Artz Honorary Mayor” Facebook page, you can see him sharing a spot along the ribbons of several area business openings in the past year.
The honorary mayor’s loosely-defined role is one of ambassador in the community and a champion for new chamber memberships.
The mayoral campaign represents a significant fund-raiser for the chamber, with last year’s monetary “votes” totaling more than $20,000 in donations for chamber programs.
Mr. Artz said he represents the chamber, his sponsor Orthodontics on Silver Lake, Smyrna-Clayton Rotary and more when he is out and about.
“I always talk about wearing multiple hats because I’m involved in multiple groups,” he said.
But the big, black top hat is the one that makes him stand out more than anything.
The hat and a blue sash were present to him last April when he was named the winner.
“Many people feel it looks silly to wear the hat and the sash, but I’ve come to the age where I really don’t care what the other people think of me, as long as I’m having fun and those people are smiling when I meet them,” Mr. Artz said.
Besides the two or three ribbon-cuttings and other appearances he has made a week, he has used the role to promote the dental business.
One of the highlights of his term was riding with Chief Wilbert Bordley in a police car leading the Smyrna Fourth of July Parade. In advance of the candy-tossing parade participants, he was scattering toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes.
Mr. Artz, a retired DuPont Co. chemist who has held more than a dozen patents, is the office coordinate at Orthodontics on Silver Lake. His wife of 26 years, Dr. Stephanie Steckel, opened the practice in 1995.
“She’s particularly happy when I’m the mayor and out of the office,” said Mr. Artz.
The time away from the office, he said, has been good.
The same, he said, was true when he was in the chamber’s yearlong Leadership Central Delaware program in 2010-11.
“What I found was that my wife and I are sort of like workaholics,” he said. “You can get too focused and not see what other people are doing. LCD was a real opportunity to see what other people and businesses were doing.”

***

Mr. Artz said he is careful not to misrepresent the role of honorary mayor.
There are times when he can take the spotlight and other times when it is best to stand back and let the “elected” officials take the spotlight.
“I had one contractor that thought I was going to be a real mayor,” Mr. Artz said. “He said, ‘what are you going to do about Downtown Dover?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m going to have an inaugural party.’”
He said Dover’s real mayor, Carlton Carey, has been especially supportive.
And, Mr. Artz said he likes the way Mr. Carey wears a hat to most events and has followed suit by wearing the black tophat throughout the term, except in summer when he opted for a cooler fedora.
“Frequently, people do address me as mayor,” said Mr. Artz. “It’s funny because the one who says it the most is Carlton Carey. It’s kind of like a joke. We always say, “Mayor” ... “Mayor.”
At the Jan. 19 ribbon-cutting event for CNU Fit in Dover, he was called upon for the obligatory photo with the owners in the absence of other local dignitaries.
If ribbon-cuttings are an indication of economic improvement, 2013 may just be better than last year.
“I’d say last year, there was a reasonable pace,” said Mr. Artz. “But since January, there have been large number of grand openings. I think business is picking up a little.”
On Thursday, he attended the opening of the Smyrna American Legion Ambulance building and had to miss the opening of the Bayard Pharmacy in Dover.
On a more serious note, Mr. Artz said he took the time to facilitate a meeting of Central Delaware mayors with the common goal of making the area a “great place to live, work and play.”

***

To help with the orthodontics office and his mayoral role, Mr. Artz took on two interns in the past year in a relatively new internship program the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce supports.
Cory Maka, a Wilmington University student, and Naomi Francis, a Delaware State University student, helped with administrative and marketing
He said it is he would not want to see a student complete a four-year degree without work experience.
“That’s a disconnect,” he said. “It gives some of these interns a chance to do something in their field.”
Mr. Artz said Orthodontics on Silver Lake office has had a longstanding relationship with Polytech, hosting students from the dental assisting program.
In addition to the interns’ support, Mr. Artz said he enjoyed having mayoral back-up from members of the orthodontics office staff.
Everyone in the office, he said, got to fill in as mayor and don the hat and sash.
“It’s more than just me,” said Mr. Artz. “It’s one thing to be the mayor and feed the ego to some extent, but to give the mayor to the other people in the office was very enjoyable for them and they were proud to say the mayor came from their office.”

***

The candidates to succeed Mr. Artz are Carolyn Phinney of Signs By Tomorrow, Rori Allen of Rori and Co. Salon and Spa, Christina Lessard of Lessard Builders, and Kevin Phillipson of Kent County Women’s Journal.
The current frontrunner is Ms. Lessard, but using the lesson of the first year, it’s not over until the final numbers come in.
Mr. Artz came from behind to win a competitive race against Tonda Parks of the Delaware State News, Stephanie Turner of Faw & Casson and Adrienne Hawes of WSFS.
“All of them are very energetic and dynamic women,” he said. “The only backhanded comment I received was, ‘It’s a good thing you were going against three women. They split the women’s vote and that’s why you won.”
The next Honorable Mayor will be announced at the chamber’s April Sunset Business Mixer, 5-7 p.m. April 24 at Townsend Brothers Chevrolet in Dover. The chamber asks that members RSVP ahead of the event,
Mr. Artz said he decided not to seek reelection and does not have a choice for successor.
“Well, I endorse them all by not running again, he joked.
“I don’t think they said I couldn’t run again. But I just think we’re better off with more mayors,” he added. “Even though I’m not going to be the active mayor, I’ll always be the first honorary mayor and I don’t see that I won’t always want to try to promote and help Central Delaware. Having a new mayor, just means there will be two mayors working for them.
“Overall, it’s less about me and how can you really help Central Delaware.”
Visit www.cdcc.net to cast a vote.
As the chamber folks say, vote early and often.
Each vote is $1.

Anonymity gives strength to Delaware Crime Stoppers

editor@din.us1.dti — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 06:59:29 GMT

By Andrew West

Delaware State News

DOVER — What would you do if you saw or suspected a crime but feared involvement or retaliation?

Robert Mooney suggests you call Delaware Crime Stoppers.

How is that different from calling law enforcement officials directly?

“Anonymity, a guarantee of anonymity,” said Mr. Mooney. “I take great pride in the fact that I am the biggest pain in the butt to a defense attorney that he can find,” said Mr. Mooney. For 30 years now, Delaware Crime Stoppers has been receiving tips and handing out small rewards.

Mr. Mooney, a retired state trooper, has been executive director for the past 10 years.

Over the course of those years, Delaware Crime Stoppers has fielded 18,179 tips on all sorts of crimes — everything from bullying to welfare fraud to homicides.

❑❑❑

Mr. Mooney said he would love to expand Crime Stoppers’ awareness initiatives, particularly into middle and high schools.

“They are the up-and- coming people in today’s society that are missing out on the importance of caring for one another,” he said.

At some schools, such as Lake Forest and Sussex Central high schools, signs are prominently placed to encourage tips. Mr. Mooney said he wants to promote Delaware Crime Stoppers as a method for children to report drug activity, bullying, harassment and other concerns. And, he said, tipsters should not worry about the fear of possibly identifying the wrong person.

“All of those things are relieved from your fears and should be removed from your fears,” said Mr. Mooney.

Mr. Mooney said he often works closely with school resource officers in the area.

He said there have been rewards given to students this year for leading police to arrests and that information is kept confidential.

❑❑❑ Crime Stoppers receives tips by phone, text and the Internet now. All are forward to police, he said.

Mr. Mooney said the phone system is set up so that callers cannot be identified or traced and the web posts do not include an IP address.

“We never ask for a name and never ask for a number,” he said.

With the Internet, tipsters receive a skew number that can be used for computer-generated follow-up, he said.

The way the rewards process works is that the tipster has to follow up with Crime Stoppers after learning of an arrest. Once police confirm the tip led to an arrest, the tipster can be given the reward.

The rewards, said Mr. Mooney, are not large.

Part of the reason for that is that criminals realize they can get back at others by snitching on those who may have shafted them.

“We don’t offer a lot of money because we don’t want to show that is monetarily profitable to the criminal,” said Mr. Mooney. “We hope the civic-minded person is motivated to do the right thing.”

❑❑❑

Mr. Mooney said Delaware Crime Stoppers got its start in 1983 with funding from MBNA, Wilmington Trust, the DuPont Co. and Chrysler.

Delaware Crime Stoppers receives funding from the state’s Grant-in-Aid funds ($20,000 was approved by lawmakers for the current fiscal year), the Attorney General’s Special Law Enforcement Assistance Fund and private donations.

Mr. Mooney, who retired as a corporal after 20 years in the state police and as a lieutenant colonel after 35 years in the U.S. Air Force active and reserves, is the sole Delaware Crime Stoppers employee.

He said funding will continue to be a concern for the organization.

“With the economy, we are really struggling,” Mr. Mooney said. “I can’t find major contributors. It’s impossible.”

Mr. Mooney, formerly mayor of Camden, could retire, but he says he loves public service.

In the first two months of this year, he has fielded more than 370 tips that have led to 16 arrests and more than 200 fugitives located. More than $600 in rewards have been paid.

So why does he maintain 50-plus hours of work a week for Crime Stoppers?

“I care,” he said.

To submit tips, call (800) TIP-3333 or visit www.tipsubmit.com.

Missle-testing C-5A will retire to AMC Museum

editor@din.us1.dti — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:37:42 GMT

Director Mike Leister welcomes a Minuteman missile to the Air Mobility Command Museum collection. Photo by Andrew West.

By Andrew West
Delaware State News
DOVER — Once a new C-17 arrives in Memphis, Tenn., this year, an old friend will be free to return to Dover Air Force Base.
Dover’s Air Mobility Command Museum is awaiting the arrival of a C-5A Galaxy cargo plane to add to its ever-growing inventory.
“We will be the only museum to have a C-5 and it will probably be that way for five to 10 years,” said AMC Museum director Mike Leister.
The C-5A that has been idled at Memphis Air National Guard base was factory-delivered to Dover Air Force Base in 1971.
Mr. Leister said the museum hoped to receive the plane in March, but it may take longer.
“The March arrival date is very much up in the air — and I don’t mean that as a pun,” said Mr. Leister with a laugh.
The delay relates to what’s known as the “strategic airlift floor,” said Mr. Leister.
What that means, he said, is that the U.S. Air Force has a minimum number of aircraft that it must maintain. Once a newly-built C-17 is added to the fleet, Memphis can release the C-5A to the Dover museum.
Other C-5s to be retired will wind up in the boneyard, Mr. Leister said.
For the AMC Museum, it will be a special addition to its collection of 30 planes and a modern history element of the strategic airlift story it wonderfully offers.

***

The C-5A coming to Dover has tail number 69-0014.
After leaving the Dover fleet, it was stationed at Travis AFB in California, Altus AFB in Oklahoma and Lackland AFB in Texas before being turned over to the 164th Airlift Wing of the Memphis Air National Guard.
But what makes it extra special was its unique 1974 missile mission.
On Oct. 24, 1974, the C-5A dropped a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missle from 20,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean to test its capability. Watch video.
In advance of the C-5A, the AMC Museum has already acquired an identical missile that will be restored and displayed next to the aircraft.
“It was about 120,000 pounds when they extracted it out of the back of the airplane,” said Mr. Leister.
He explained that the missile sat in a steel cradle that rolled out the back of the C-5 with the help of parachutes attached with foot-thick ropes.
“Once the parachute hit the slipstream, it just pulled this thing right out the back,” Mr. Leister said.
As the missile stabilized after about an 8,000-foot drop, it was lit and sent back toward the sky before falling into the ocean.
“The big deal is that this was done to let the Soviets know they had one more thing to worry about,” said Mr. Leister. “It was one more way to have a set of nuclear deterrents that they couldn’t defend against.
“They only did it once, just to say they could do it. But once was enough.”

***

Worldwide Aircraft Recovery delivered the missile on Jan. 23 to the museum.
It was an attention-getter all along its route from Cochran, Ga.
“People were locking up the brakes like ‘what in the heck was that?’ So, it was pretty entertaining as far as that goes,” Worldwide employee Marty Batura told Airman 1st Class Kathryn Stilwell during an interview for her story in DAFB’s Airlifter newspaper.

***

It will be interesting to see how all of the budget discussions play out in the coming weeks.
The Air Force has already been studying ways to reduce expenses.
Of interest to local aviation fans is the potential loss of flyovers at big sporting events such as the NASCAR races at Dover International Speedway and air shows.
Both were on a “near-term actions” list issued by Jamie M. Morin, acting Undersecretary of the Air Force, in January.
Langley Air Force Base in Virgina and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina have both canceled May air shows.

***

Earlier this week, the Delaware State News ran an obituary for Edmond L. Barnes, an active member of the aircraft restoration team at the AMC Museum.
One of the newest attractions inside the museum hangar is a Waco CG-4 Glider. The glider, used in World War II, could carry 13 troops and equipment.
Mr. Barnes, a retired chief master sergeant who finished his career at Dover Air Force Base, was the crew chief on the restoration project.
Mr. Barnes died Feb. 9 at age 83.
“He lived to see it be put on display,” said Mr. Leister, noting Mr. Barnes was at the museum just a few weeks ago.

***

It seems like there’s something new to enjoy each time one visits the AMC Museum, whether it is a tour of the base’s old flight tower or the new cheek window on the B-17 that now gives it a “mission-ready” look.
It’s a small detail, but there’s even a new display of an emergency key that the Dover Air Base Fire Department kept in case NASA’s now-retired shuttle had to make an emergency landing at the base.
On the way up to the museum, visitors will notice the old hangar where the museum restoration team worked has been razed since it was too close to current runway standards, Mr. Leister said. A new restoration building will soon open inside the fenced-in area of the museum.
Later this year, the museum will display a massive orange radar unit that has been in use for 40 years at the base. And, there are planes to mount a small, color plane at the entrance on Del. 9.
For more information on the base, visit http://amcmuseum.org.

***

For a gallery of AMC Museum photos, visit delaware.newszap.com.

Klein’s legacy continues with education foundation

editor@din.us1.dti — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:04:01 GMT

Originally published in the Delaware State News on Feb. 10, 2013

By Andrew West
Delaware State News

DOVER— For years in Central Delaware, Roy Klein was at the forefront of economic development discussions and initiatives.

Shortly after his death in 2005, eight close friends decided his legacy of caring about economic progress and education should carry on.

They did so with the start of the Roy Klein Education Foundation Fund.

“He knew, deep in his heart, that one of the things that was going to make Kent County — and the state of Delaware — a better place to live was to have our children well educated,” said Ed Wilchinski, a longtime friend of Mr. Klein. “He also knew there needed to be opportunities for our kids after they were educated.

“That’s the connection to the economic development and trying to attract business and industry to this community so that more of our kids would hang around, instead of disappear.”

Mr. Wilchinski said the fund — administered by the Delaware Community Foundation — would be able to offer $8,500 in grants later this year after recently hitting the $200,000 mark as principal.

***

Mr. Klein moved to the Doverarea in 1976 and made a name for himself in development projects.

Mr. Klein, president of Klein Development Corp., developed Royal Grant, Generals Greene, Acorn Farms, Walker Woods I and II and Four Seasons developments.

ROY KLEIN

He was 79 at the time of his death and very active in the community.

He was chairman of the Central Delaware Economic Development Council for more than 20 years and served on several boards.

“His father was a great philanthropist and that did rub off onRoy, definitely,” said Marion Klein, Roy’s widow. “He was always driven by the fact that his father gave back. Roy wanted to be remembered as someone who gave back to the community.”

Mr. Klein’s father and grandfather were owners of the Caloric Corp., which made gas ranges and other appliances. The company was later taken over by Raytheon.

“Roywas inspiring,” said Barbara Rafte, who closely worked with Mr. Klein on tourism in Central Delaware. “He would do and say the things needed to be said and done. A lot of people have to hold back because of who they work for, who they’re involved with. But he was always out there with new ideas. He was all for Delaware and Kent County.

“I never saw him say something can’t be done.”

Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce President Judy Diogo said Mr. Klein was synonymous with economic development.

“Roywas always out in front of the pack when it came to moving Kent County forward,” Ms. Diogo said. “Roy also understood the that economic development and education were one in the same. He knew that you had to train people and provide people with educational tools to make them good leaders for their community.”

The original group that formed the foundation were Ed Wilchinski, Frank Fantini, Mary Skelton, Judy Diogo, Denis McGlynn, Dan Wolfensberger, Linda Graham and Jim Hutchison.

“We felt it would be nice if we could do something, in his memory, where the community would continue to benefit,” said Mr. Wilchinski, a longtime Delaware educator who retired as program director for the Delaware Advisory Council on Career and Technical Education.

The current foundation include Mrs. Klein, honorary chair; Mr. Wilchinski and Mr. Fantini, co-Chairs; and Ms. Diogo, Mr. McGlynn, Janis Nesterak, Barbara Rafte, Dan Simpson, and Steve Welde.

***

Since 2007, the Roy Klein Education Foundation Fund has awarded $36,500 in grants and scholarships.

Beneficiaries have been Delaware Technical Community College entrepreneurship scholarship winners, the practical nursing program at Polytech Adult Education, the Junior Entrepreneurs in Training summer program at Delaware State University, Junior Achievement, Delaware Aerospace Education Foundation, WesleyCollege’s Career Launch, Leadership Central Delaware, and the Small Business Resource/Job Center at the Dover Public Library.

The Roy Klein Education Foundation is currently accepting applications for grants from educational institutions and qualified 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organizations inKentCounty. The foundation will consider programs/projects that advance education and stimulate economic development in Greater Dover andKentCounty.

To receive a grant application, contact Ms. Rafte at call (302) 632-6308.

The deadline is March 15.

Donations may be sent to: Roy Klein Education Foundation,32 W Loockerman Street, Suite 201, Dover, DE 19904.

Even at age 80, comic Nancy still brings us a smile

editor@din.us1.dti — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:10:06 GMT

Originally published in the Delaware State News, Sunday, February 3, 2013

By Andrew West

Delaware State News

DOVER — The many funny faces of Nancy can be found in today's comics section.

As always, she and faithful pal Sluggo offer us a moment of amusement.

Believe it or not, Nancy is now 80 years old.

But, in our hearts, she is still 8. "We keep her about three feet tall with that plaid skirt," said artist Guy Gilchrist.

"I think the reason that Nancy hangs around is that all we really want is a smile," he said.

This frame from Guy Gilchrist's Jan. 27 Sunday Nancy strip shows Aunt Fritzi, Sluggo and Nancy. Nancy

appears on Sundays in the Delaware State News.

Mr. Gilchrist is in his 18th year of drawing Nancy.

He's the fourth artist to draw the strip since Nancy's originator, Ernie Bushmiller, died in 1982.

"It's a very simple thing," said Mr. Gilchrist. "We're not trendy, we're not political.

"The world is a tough, cold place and so when you look in on us for a moment, you'll see this pointy-haired, wacky-looking little girl, who likes ice cream, daydreams and sees animals up in the clouds. She's in the third grade and she's got this lazy boyfriend that would beat up any bully for her.

"It's an unconventional family with unconditional love and it's this little story that goes along each day, basically unaffected by the woes of the world."

••••

For Delaware State News readers, Nancy's gags are featured just once a week in our Sunday edition.

For the daily strip (available at gocomics.com), there is a running story line.

Mr. Gilchrist has taken the daily strip back to its roots in recent weeks, bringing back Phil Fumble, Aunt Fritzi's old flame and reminding readers that she took Nancy in when she had nowhere else to turn.

Phil Fumble was the title character in a strip in the 1930s. It shared a full page with the character's girlfriend Fritzi Ritz for years.

In 1933, Mr. Bushmiller introduced Nancy into the Fritzi Ritz comic.

Nancy soon became the star and title character.

Aunt Fritzi, said Mr. Gilchrist, was the first character he drew when he decided to take on Nancy.

The previous artist, Jerry Scott, couldn't draw her so she was left out for nearly a decade.

Aunt Fritzi, he said, was always drawn in the style of a pin-up girl, he said.

"I looked at it as an opportunity to sort of do a Betty Grable or Betty Page sort of thing with her," he said. "And I really wanted to bring her back, not just because she was a pretty girl, but because the strip really needed to revolve around a concept that somebody needed to take care of these children."

In addition to Nancy, Aunt Fritzi has unofficially adopted Sluggo because no one is there to take care of him, Mr. Gilchrist said.

"That was the whole idea of her," he said. "And, yea, as an added bonus, she's really attractive."

In the daily strip, Aunt Fritzi's old flame, Phil Fumble, has come back into her life.

He is back in her hometown, working at a mission - symbolic of the Depression-era beginnings of the strip and of the current difficult economic times.

It never has been explained what happened to Nancy's parents. But readers did learn a little more about Aunt Fritzi's romantic life recently.

"There is a strip where Fritzi and Phil are talking," Mr. Gilchrist said. "They have a date at this diner. Phil says, "How come someone as beautiful as you, the prettiest girl in town, hasn't been gobbled up. Why are you still on the market?' And she says, 'Because I haven't been on the market. When Nancy came to me, she had been shuffled from house to house for a while and she didn't have anyone, except me. I'm there for her. It's not like I don't have love in my life, I have a lot of love with this little girl.'"

That's all Mr. Gilchrist will offer. "I'd like to leave it at that because everybody needs someone, and everyone's lost someone," he said. "And it's almost like a great country song. If you can find the emotions and speak to the emotions, you leave the details out. It's more meaningful that way."

••••

Mr. Gilchrist hails from Winsted, Conn., a place he calls the "hillbilly capital of the world."

"I was born in '57," he said, "about two years after a flood took the whole town away.

"All that was left was about 5-6 feet of mud and they never did clean it up. I was born into two-year-old mud, and if that ain't hillbilly, I don't know what is.

"Our joke when we were kids was we all thought we were Ray Charles, because when we would look out, all you would see is nothing."

He now resides in Nashville, balancing his time as an artist, author, songwriter and musician. He got his comics start doing a Muppets comic strip.

Growing up poor, he said Sunday papers given to him by a neighbor were things he cherished.

"You'd lay out the eight giant pages - and just read it all," he said. "You'd have this technicolor carpet in your bedroom."

A Connecticut disc jockey, knowing he was poor, often shared music with him, including Johnny Cash's "At Folsom Prison."

Mr. Gilchrist said Cash's music helped him get on a positive direction in life.

To pay tribute after Cash's death, there was a Nancy strip that shows Aunt Fritzi crying. In the background, Johnny Cash is sing, "Why me Lord."

He was blown away when Kris Kristofferson, the writer of the song, called to thank him for it.

"For anyone that believes we are blessed by the grace of God for everything we have, certainly that song is a very, very simple and incredibly powerful way of thanking Him, and trying to understand all of our blessings," said Mr. Gilchrist.

"Things tend to fall out of the sky and I try to be around and catch them," he said.

••••

Like so many of our readers over so many generations, Nancy and other comics strips are staples in our lives.

How many of you recall comics as one of the first things you read regularly, and perhaps enjoyed alone or with a parent?

"I hear it a lot - a lot," he said. "People will sit down and read it with their kids and grandkids. If they're not reading it in the paper, they're reading it online on a pad or tablet. But they're doing it, they are reading it.

"When I do events, I have people of all ages," he said. "If you ask an adult how old Nancy is, they say, 'I don't know - 70 or 80 or something.' If you ask a little kid, they say, '8.'

"That means I'm doing my job. That means I'm still speaking to that child."

Mr. Bushmiller's readers once and a while reach out to Mr. Gilchrist.

"One time, I had the amazing moment with Brenda Lee," said Mr. Gilchrist.

The child star and teen idol shared with him that as a child she spent time on the tour bus between lessons reading Nancy comic books and drawing the characters, he said.

"Brenda Lee - the Queen of Christmas - she, with her finger through the air, drew me a perfect Nancy head," he said. "All these years later, she was telling me that was a way that she bonded with her parents, and then how she has bonded with her grandchildren."

Another time, he met a woman named after Nancy.

The woman said her mother would clip the strip out daily and mail collections to her father while he was overseas during World War II.

For her, Mr. Gilchrist sketched the soldier, sitting in a foxhole, thinking about Nancy and then a little child of his own.

"It brought me to tears that this meant so much to her," Mr. Gilchrist said. "Right next to her was a little girl, standing there, waiting in line for her to just draw a picture of Nancy for her. So there you go, it's all those generations.

"It's a great blessing and I don't take it for granted at all.

"It's been 80 years, man, and there's a lot of people that the comics touch."

Meeting energy goals: giving power to the people

editor@din.us1.dti — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:03:54 GMT

Originally published in the Delaware State News — Sunday, January 20, 2013

By Andrew West

Delware State News

DOVER — Delaware Gov. Jack Markell only offered about 280 words on energy in his State of the State address on Thursday.

A few of those words echoed comments Delmarva Power President Gary Stockbridge shared with the Delaware State News a day earlier.

"As Sen. Harris McDowell often says," said Gov. Markell in his speech, "the cheapest energy remains the energy we don't use."

Energy efficiency is one of the demands placed on Delmarva Power.

By 2015, there is to be a 15 percent reduction in energy use.

Conservation, perhaps, is one of the simplest messages in the complex, changing world of energy.

In an informal state of energy conversation with the Delaware State News Wednesday, Mr. talked about how customers measured Delmarva Power's service: keeping lights on; restoration; environmental stewardship; and reasonable, stable rates.

The big deal for 2013, he said, is the introduction of smart-meter technology for all of Delmarva Power's electric customers.

It empowers customers to use available data to understand and reduce their usage and bill.

And, it will allow opportunities for rewards to customers who cut back during times of peak demand.

Mr. Stockbridge said Delmarva Power customers will want to utilize the "My Account" online feature that comes with the smart meter advances.

Customers will be able to enter information that considers the number of residents in a home, a home's square footage and more. It will allow you to compare your use to others with similar needs.

It might be as simple as seeing the difference between current lighting and more efficient bulbs or replacing a hot water heater.

Watching hourly usage could help you isolate times of high expenses and the reasons, too.

And, maybe, it could confirm a suspicion.

"If you left kids home for the weekend and wondered if they had a party, you could see that at 7 p.m., all the lights in the house went on," Mr. Stockbridge joked.

Delaware Electric Cooperative has its "Beat the Peak" program, alerting consumers to times when power usage reaches highs.

Cutting back means the co-op can reduce the amount of energy it needs to buy at times when the supply costs are higher.

The smart meter program of Delmarva Power — formally called Advanced Metering Infrastructure — will offer notification programs, with consumers selecting emails, texts or phone calls.

The difference, said Mr. Stockbridge, is that the co-op program leads to an overall benefit to all of its members.

Delmarva Power's program will benefit the individual customer with credits for cutting back, based on comparisons to the customer's normal use.

"It could be anything from a stingy old man going down and shutting off his main breaker and saying, 'we're off until they call me back' to turn my lights off," or turning off an air conditioner or maybe a pool pump," said Mr. Stockbridge. "They can do whatever they want or they could do nothing."

Mr. Stockbridge said Delmarva Power's peak times would only happen for limited hours and days per year. "It may just be five times a year," he said.

"Our message is participate," said Mr. Stockbridge. "Try to save energy because you're more than going to offset those costs."

Delmarva Power also has programs in place to install devices, at a customer's request, to control thermostat settings to help with efficiency.

Energy efficiency is one of two areas Delmarva Power is asked to address by the state.

The other is the use of clean, renewable energy sources - 25 percent by the year 2025.

The goal can be met, Mr. Stockbridge said.

Supply from the Dover solar farm is one example of Delmarva Power's sources, he said. Others are wind farms in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

A big piece of puzzle, he said, is to be met with the Bloom fuel cell project in Newark.

The fuel cells use natural gas, but Delaware has given Delmarva Power permission to include it under the renewable requirement based on economics and the environmentally friendly nature of natural gas.

"Although renewable and clean sources of energy cost more and increase the monthly bill for customers, there are two reasons we believe the policy guidelines for the state make sense," said Delmarva Power spokesman Matt Likovich.

"First, there are many hidden costs of traditional fossil fuels," he said.

"For instance, the health impact of emissions from traditional fossil fuels can cost a great deal for the residents of the state, but they are very difficult to quantify. These costs do not show up on your bill, but they customers. These costs can be reduced though increased use of clean and renewable technology.

"Second, over time, with additional investment in these new technologies, it is hoped that the cost will drop as volumes increase. Like any new technology the cost is high at first, but over time the cost is driven down. These policies are meant to give us time to try and drive down the cost of renewable and clean energy sources."

This year, the General Assembly may revisit legislation that would allow power companies to apply energy efficiency as a measurement to the renewable source goal.

Last year, the bill stalled in committee.

"If you exceed your targets, any excess of that could be used toward your energy goals," said Mr. Stockbridge.

He said Delmarva Power already has programs in place in Maryland - such as appliance rebates and HVAC and insulation programs - that could easily be implemented in Delaware.

The Public Service Commission would be tasked with approving the programs.

Gov. Markell expressed support for the legislation in his address Thursday.

"We can do more to help save money by making efficiency Delaware's 'first fuel,'" he said. "This year, let's pass legislation to encourage our utilities to prioritize energy efficiency when it is cheaper than buying electricity from the grid."

2012 was year of the hurricane, political storms

editor@din.us1.dti — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:56:25 GMT

From the Delaware State News — Sunday, December 30, 2012

By Andrew West
Delaware State News

DOVER — This news business is certainly unique.

News editors and reporters create a new product every day.

We get to capture the moments that create memories - some treasured, some painful.

Certainly, that was true of 2012. After perusing this year's front pages, it will be hard for anyone to pick a top story.

What would you choose as the biggest news?

Take your pick of progress, politics, pedophiles, murder, the death penalty, Frankenstorm, gun control and more.

From the editor's point of view, here are some of the year's top issues and newsmakers:

In late October, Hurricane Sandy interrupted the political storm brewing before the General Election.

As it moved up the Atlantic, forecasters nicknamed it "Frankenstorm" and fears grew that Delaware was in for a direct hit.

It made landfall in Southern New Jersey and spared Delaware its greatest havoc.

Even so, the storm rocked the coast, flooding some homes, businesses and neighborhoods along the Delaware coast.

Hardest hit was the area around the new Indian River Inlet Bridge on Del. 1.

The raging ocean tore through dunes and left several feet of sand and debris across the highway and ripped into the approach areas of the old bridge.

Delaware's state climatologist reported rainfall exceeded 8 inches across Kent and Sussex County. The highest rain total was almost 11 inches and the strongest wind gust, at 47 mph, were recorded at the Indian River Inlet.

The new Indian River Inlet bridge was opened in January.

The beach areas also had a $37.9 million beach and dune replenishment project completed at the start of the year.

After a long, sometimes grueling campaign season, Delaware stayed true to its demographics and supported the Democratic ticket in national and statewide races.

Delaware voted to return Barack Obama and Joe Biden to office.

(Already, there is speculation that Delaware's favorite Joe will run for president in 2016.).

The most high profile of races was the U.S. Senate race, with Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., contending with brash Independent Alex Pires, a lawyer and business owner in Dewey Beach. Mr. Pires questioned Sen. Carper's health and Vietnam service and called him a "parasite" for his career as a politician.

"This is the most bizarre election I've been a part of," Sen. Carper told the State News in October.

Sen. Carper won with 67 percent of the vote.

Republican challenger Kevin Wade received 29 percent. Mr. Pires gained 3.8 percent.

The only national presidential candidate to court Delaware was Newt Gingrich who spent several days in Kent, talking with people at schools, churches and diners. Even so, he didn't come close to challenging Mitt Romney in Delaware's GOP primary.

Delaware's Sher Valenzuela, a candidate for lieutenant governor, got some time on the national stage, speaking about her family's First State Manufacturing business at the Republican National Convention. She lost to incumbent Matt Denn.

The campaign had a few surprising twists and turns, too.

Brad Bennett, D-Dover, announced in June that he was giving up his seat after his second DUI arrest in April, this time after clipping a Wilmington police patrol car. Former Dover City Councilman Bill McGlumphy appeared to be the Democratic candidate for his 32nd District seat, only to be upstaged by Andria Bennett, Brad's wife, in the primary. She went on to win in November.

The other oddity was the late withdrawal of Eric Bodenweiser, a House candidate in Georgetown who knocked off incumbent Joe Booth in the primary. Mr. Bodenweiser was indicted on child sex abuse charges.

Republicans scrambled to replace Mr. Bodenweiser with eventual office winner Brian Pettyjohn, a former Georgetown mayor.

Condemned killer Robert Gattis was scheduled for execution, but his life was spared after the board of pardons and Gov. Markell considered the childhood sexual and physical abuse he had endured.

He will spend life in prison. Delaware, however, proceeded with the execution of Shannon Johnson in April. He died by lethal injection about 3 a.m. April 20 after appeals were exhausted.

Delaware was just one of nine states to hold executions this year.

In October, Kent County Superior Court Judge William L. Witham Jr. sentenced Isiah McCoy to die for the 2010 shooting of a man in a Dover bowling alley parking lot.

McCoy represented himself in a trial that dragged on for a month.

Another high-profile murder conviction was announced this month after Jason O'Neill pleaded guilty to the 2011 slayings of father and son, Howard A. and Howard R. Sheppard at their Governors Avenue home in Dover.

Judge James T. Vaughn Jr. sentenced O'Neill, 29, a neighbor of the victims, to two life terms in prison without parole.

In September, patrons of the Hollywood Diner on U.S. 13 in Dover were shocked to learn owner Michael Gklotsos had been strangled to death at his home.

A Pennsylvania couple - Joshua Lemonick, 20, and his girlfriend Angeline M. Terek, 23 - were arrested for the homicide.

Years from now, historians will look at 2012 as a year of significant growth and change to the landscape of Dover and Kent County.

In the city of Dover, a number of projects were completed or started:

· The $20.8 million Dover Public Library opened in September.

· Bayhealth opened a $150 million Kent General Hospital expansion that includes an emergency and trauma services department, cancer center and parking garage in January.

· Wesley College created a walking campus in time for the start of fall classes. Just recently, the college was handed the keys to the former J. Allen Frear federal building where the school's nursing program will be relocated and expanded.

· The Bayard Plaza rose up on Loockerman Street at the site of the dilapidated Bayard Hotel. It will include apartments, a pharmacy and more.

· Improvements to North Street and the new Loockerman Plaza will provide more attractive and friendlier parking and walking arrangements in Downtown Dover.

"Remember that 50 years from now," said Bill Neaton, Dover's economic development director. "It's been a great revitalization year for the downtown."

In mid-November, public and private backers of the Kent County Regional Sports Complex had a celebratory kick-off ceremony on the edge of an 85-acre county-donated property and welcomed the 1, 000-member Central Delaware Soccer Association as its anchor tenant.

Buoyed by a $3.2 million award from the Delaware New Jobs Infrastructure Fund, the project continues to move forward.

The 15 rectangular fields and indoor facility will cost about $17 million to build and will be used to attract soccer, field hockey and lacrosse teams for tournaments.

It is anticipated that 300 new jobs and $18 million in economic impact will result from the facility.

By 2014, they hope the fields will be filled and surrounded by out-of-state players and parents.

Delawareans, still reeling from the child sex abuse crimes of former Lewes pediatrician Earl Bradley, closely followed the trial and conviction of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky.

His case of molestation of young boys continued to highlight worries about rampant child sex abuse in the nation.

In Delaware, the Stewards of Children program was in high gear by mid-April with child protection leaders offering training to adults on how to identify and stop abuse.

The goal is to train 35, 000 Delaware adults, 5 percent of the population to recognize problems and intervene.

There were two big changes the legislature and Gov. Jack Markell approved in 2011: civil unions and medical marijuana.

In January, civil unions became legal in Delaware. Scores of same-sex couples were united.

The new medical marijuana program, on the other hand, stalled.

Gov. Markell put the pot plan on hold after getting jitters about the feds possibly busting state employees who would administer the program.

Dover was in the national spotlight for months, starting last year and continuing into the spring.

At issue was allegations of mis-handling and misplacing remains of fallen service members at the mortuary at the Dover Air Force Base.

Whistleblowers on the staff, who had questioned practices, brought the information to light.

In March, the U.S. Air Force announced it would discipline Col. Robert Edmondson, commander of the military mortuary from January 2009 to October 2010.

Drug abuse never seems to end. In January, Delaware outlawed the sale of "bath salts" - a dangerous, synthetic sold over the counters of some stores.

Heroin and methamphetamine are the latest rages.

Dover's City Council approved the renaming of Court Street, leading to Legislative Hall from U.S. 13, and two streets bordering legislative mall to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on Dec. 10, ending weeks of debate on the proposal.

The original proposal of renaming all of Division Street created a great divide between proponents and residents and business owners on the street.

The story freshest in our minds, of course, is the concerns for children in the wake of the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.

A week after the shootings that left 20 students and six Sandy Hook Elementary staffers dead, Delaware had police officers present at schools, responding to rumors and fears that something may happen.

Gun control, mental health and school safety will be hot topics in the coming weeks and legislative sessions.

"As the father of two, I, like so many others around the country, have spent the last few days thinking about the issues that this awful incident raises. In homes, in businesses and in government, we are having conversations about what this means and what we need to do," said Gov. Markell.

"What is clear is that we have a culture of violence in this country, coupled with ready access to guns, and we continue as a society to fail adolescents struggling with mental illness."

Alas, who is this forgotten hero?

editor@din.us1.dti — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:01:34 GMT

In the Sunday, June 24, edition of the Delaware State News, read about Tom Welch's continued pursuit of information and tributes to Allen McLane, Delaware's unknown hero of the Revolutionary War.

It features Mr. Welch's latest find, a song from 1964 paying tribute to the Smyrna man who led daring raids and spy missions for Gen. George Washington in the War for Independence.

The Delaware Bay Blues: Read and sing along

editor@din.us1.dti — Wed, 30 May 2012 04:58:45 GMT

Author Phil Hoose has an upcoming book called "Moonbird" that tells the story of B-95, a red knot that has made the annual 18,000-mile hemispheric trip so many times that the distance equals a trip to the moon and halfway back.

Mr. Hoose spent considerable time tracking the red knots flights from south of Argentina to the shores of the Delaware Bay to the arctic.

The month of May finds the red knots, and maybe B-95, on the shores of the Mispillion Harbor.

In celebration of their arrival, here's a song Mr. Hoose wrote and performed: The Delaware Bay Blues.

Sing-along while you read the following column that appeared in the Sunday, May 20, edition of the Delaware State News.

(The song is available as an MP3 download at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/philhoose)

By Andrew West
Delaware State News

DELAWARE BAY — Today’s column offers a chance for a sing-along as we welcome the rufa red knots to the shores of the Delaware Bay.

Get a Texas blues rhythm going and read on. One, two ...

I’m a rufa red knot flying north in the middle of May
I’m a rufa red knot flying north in the middle of May
My compass is set for the shores of Delaware Bay
Four days nonstop since I left Maranhão
Four days nonstop since I left Maranhão
I was a fat bird then but I’m flying on empty now

Those are the opening lyrics to Phil Hoose’s “Delaware Bay Blues”.

Mr. Hoose will be in the area for the next few days, trying to spot a superstar in the curious world of the rufa red knots as they arrive for their annual feast on horseshoe crab eggs. The Delaware Bay is one of just a few stops in the birds’ dangerous 18,000-mile annual journey that extends from Tierra del Fuego, south of Argentina, to Northern Canada.

He hopes to see B95, a 20-year-old in a red knot population that has dwindled to around 14,000.

In July, Mr. Hoose’s book — “Moonbird” — will be released. Its main character is B95 or “Moonbird” — a nickname researchers coined after calculating his lifetime flights have covered a distance equivalent to a trip to the moon and halfway back.

Delaware Bay researchers have found that the rufa red knots, which have stocky bodies, short black bills and varied plumage and color depending on age and season, can live 10 to 13 years.

It wears an orange band with B95 on its left leg. So far, B95 has eluded him.

“No, I never saw him,” said Mr. Hoose. “It’s very frustrating. I took part in several captures where nets were shot out over populations of knots, they were banded and weighed. Hundreds of red knots, but I never have seen B95. I’ve been in the presence of people who have seen him an hour before or half hour later, but not me. Not me.”

OK, so here’s the chorus and your chance to join in:
You’ll want to respond with a rousing “I need eggs” when the singer needs an answer from the crowd.

I need eggs (answer: I need eggs) I need eggs (I need eggs)
I need hundreds & hundreds & hundreds & hundreds & hundreds & hundreds of eggs
I need eggs (I need eggs) I need eggs (I need eggs)
I need dillions and scillions and thrillyans, Mispillions and drillions and pillions of eggs
Or else I’m never gonna lose (whoo-ooo) these Delaware Bay Blues

Chances are good that Mr. Hoose will have a chance to spot Moonbird during the Delaware visit.

“B95 was seen on six separate occasions last May at Mispillion Harbor,” said Mr. Hoose. “If you look back in the records of where he has been seen in

Delaware Bay over the years, Mispillion is a favorite place. He seems to like the Delaware side.”

Dawn Webb of the DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor, near Slaughter Beach, said the red knots have arrived.

She was out watching them Friday. Saturday, hundreds of people visited the center for its Peace, Love and Horseshoe Crabs Festival.

The best bet is to go at low tide when the red knots have best access to the eggs. Today’s low tide is at 3:42 p.m.

Mr. Hoose, in his research, said the mid-May visits are a sure bet.

The horseshoe crabs lay eggs above the high tide line when it is at its peak, just after the spring full moon, so subsequent tides do not wash them away.

The red knots do not stay long. They are here just long enough to bulk up and continue to their arctic breeding grounds. Mr. Hoose said each bird needs about 180 grams of eggs for fuel and some reserves.

“You could arrive there early in June and land on a snow field and could just be sitting there sipping down the fat from what you fed on in Delaware Bay, waiting for the ponds to thaw and release millions of mosquitos which is your next big meal,” he said.

In the months preceding the flights to Delaware Bay, the red knots are found in South America, primarily south of Argentina, where they molt and fatten up on spat — juvenile muscles that cling to ocean floor rocks — during low tides.

Flyin through the rain, pushin through the wind
Bound for the banquet on the beach at the end
I can fill up my tank to reach our breeding land
If a whole lot of crabs’ll get to work in the sand

A friend, ornithologist Charles Duncan, shared the red knots idea some years ago with Mr. Hoose, knowing that he had an interest in birds and extinction.

“I hesitated because I think it is most effective to write about a single character, to center a book about a single character. I kind of held off and looked around.

“But he called back one day and said he had been talking to an Argentine biologist, Patricia González, who told him about a bird, a single red knot who had been banded in 1995 as an adult, meaning that he had been in adult plumage and was at least three years old at the time and was still alive and they had just seen him again. That meant at that time that he was at least 17.

“I hopped on a plane to Tierra del Fuego and hooked up with a team of biologists on the wintering grounds. The team of biologists allowed me to tag along and taught me to band,” Mr. Hoose said. “I became totally intrigued by the biology of the red knot and by the challenges they face in their annual migration and came to admire the adaptability of these creatures.”

Mr. Hoose said he marveled at how the robin-sized birds double their weight when it is time to fly somewhere and how they shrink various parts, such as gizzards and leg muscles, when it is time to move on.

“They’re just incredible birds.”

There are only six to 10 stopping places for the red knots, said Mr. Hoose.

The paths of the birds are fairly predictable, but a date with his story’s hero, B95, will be somewhat by chance.

“There’s no guarantee you’ll meet him because you can’t make an appointment with wildlife,” he said.

Nevertheless, he’ll be looking through a scope from 50-60 yards away, trying to catch a glimpse.

Even though there will be thousands of birds on the shore, Moonbird will stand out.

“He has on his upper left leg the plastic band with the laser inscription B95. So if you’re watching through a spotting scope, and you see a bird with anorange band on his leg, you start getting excited because that narrows the search down quite a bit. And then your job is to see what that number and letter combination is.

“And back in 1995, B95 got banded with a black band because they ran out of orange bands. They softened this black material they had with a camping stove and got it soft enough that they could wrap it around some of the knots they banded on that day long ago. B95 is probably the only one left with a black band.

“If you see that, the black band on the lower right leg, then your heart really starts thumping.”

Mr. Hoose, a Nature Conservancy staff member from Maine, said “Moonbird” can be pre-ordered at amazon.com.

The “face of extinction” is what B95 offers, he said.

“You definitely have a life form that is sliding toward the pit way too rapidly,” said Mr. Hoose. “The hope is that the awareness of the plight of these shorebirds is growing every day.

“I think ‘Moonbird’ will help. It puts a face on a crisis. It’s a valiant, admirable, heroic face.

“That’s the hope — that enough people can be stirred that ways can be found at all these stopover places to help them.”

I’m a rufa red knot flyin’ north through the middle of May
Looking for a meal on the shores of Delaware Bay

MAY 29 UPDATE:

"Moonbird was spotted just before noon Monday, May 28, at Reeds Beach on the Delaware Bay in Cape May County, N.J., by Patricia Gonzalez, the Argentine researcher who originally banded the bird 18 years ago.

A post on Mr. Hoose's blog Monday:

“It is incredible! Were counted some 29,000 red knots in Delaware Bay and I was lucky that B95 decided to settle in front of me a few hours ago at 11:45 PM on the beach of Reed’s Beach, New Jersey.” –Patricia Gonzalez (Translated from Spanish)

Patricia Gonzalez is profiled in Phillip Hoose’s book Moonbird: On the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 about the very bird that she spotted today.

From Charles Duncan on Patricia’s spotting:

“Not only was Patricia part of the team in Tierra del Fuego in 1995 when this bird was first banded –and at least 2 years old at the time–it was she who first suggested that this bird’s story is the one we needed to tell. I told Phil [Hoose] and he turned that idea in to a meticulously researched and beautifully written book.”

So many people including Charles and Patricia are responsible for the protection and education that has continued to protect the great survivor, B95. People across the globe will be celebrating this news tonight.

Society of the Cincinnati stone honors patriotism, valor of Delaware Line

editor@din.us1.dti — Mon, 28 May 2012 22:43:24 GMT

Editor's note: This column appeared in the Sunday, May 27, 2012, edition of the Delaware State News.

By Andrew West

Delaware State News
DOVER — How many of you have read the inscription on the monument across from the Old State House on The Green in Dover?
At first glance, it is a straight-forward message in appreciation of Delawareans who served in the American Revolution.
But if you dig a little deeper, you will learn more about the passion and patriotism of people who never want the names and deeds of American heroes to be forgotten.
This Memorial Day, the Delaware State Society of the Cincinnati will observe a centennial dedication of its monument at noon Monday.
Sam Hoff, who serves as the George Washington Distinguished Professor for the society, is behind the dedication.
Some years ago, he came across a program from the original dedication — on May 30, 1912. The program contains the text of the speakers who roused attendees with speeches lauding the soldiers for their acts, their honor and their patriotism.
“I’m sure there are people that have walked by and thought, ‘What exactly is it? What’s the significance of it?’ I can tell you myself that I took it for granted in the sense that I read it. But I don’t really know if I comprehended it until I found that original program,” said Dr. Hoff.

***

To commemorate and also preserve to posterity the undying fame of the patriotism and valor of the officers and soldiers of the Delaware Line who, in May 1780 were reviewed on this green for the last time immediately prior to marching on their immortal southern campaign in the war of the American Revolution and from which campaign but few survived to return to their native state this monument is erected by the Delaware State Society of the Cincinnati and the patriotic citizens of Delaware.

— Inscription on the monument

***

At the 1912 dedication, Philip Howell White asked then-Delaware Gov. Simeon Pennewill to accept the monument and care for it “so that future Delawareans may have their patriotism stimulated when they recall the memory of those whom this stone is intended to honor.”
Mr. Howell was vice president of the Delaware State Society of the Cincinnati — a group dedicated to keeping the memory of our country’s citizen soldiers alive. He and other descendants of officers of the Continental Army had given a new life to the state society just a few years earlier, pledging to do more to keep the Revolutionary War soldiers’ service in the public mind.
“Theirs are names that shall never be forgotten. Theirs are deeds that shall never cease to challenge the admiration of the world,” said Gov. Pennewill.
“In these days of hurrying events, of gigantic undertakings, of crowded avenues of endeavor, men are so apt to lose sight of sentiment, and to forget those who sacrificed and died that freedom might become man’s birthright; and because of that such societies as yours are a national blessing.
“No land can long endure that has no cherished sentiment, and highest sentiment that can stir the soul is patriotism.”

***

The society of the Cincinnati chose The Green for its historical significance.
It was there that the 800 men of the Delaware Regiment, under the command of Col. John Haslet, gathered before heading north to join Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army in 1776.
Four years later, the Delaware Line assembled there under Col. David Hall before a Southern campaign that included the Battle of Camden in South Carolina. Well more than half of the Delaware Regiment was killed or wounded in the battle.
“One hundred and thirty-six years ago this month,” said Delaware Supreme Court Justice Henry C. Conrad in an address at the 1912 ceremony, “the first men enlisted from Delaware in the great cause of American Independence were mustered in on Dover Green.
“This, then, was the place at which a memorial in granite should be set up in honor of the brave men who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the cause of American Liberty; men, whose every energy and ambition were exerted that there should be a veritable ‘land of the free and home of the brave.’”
The Society of the Cincinnati was founded in 1783 by a group of Continental Army officers who wanted to perpetuate the memory of the War for Independence and establish a fraternity of officers. Additionally, the officers sought to preserve the liberties for which they had fought and benevolently support members and their families.
The original Delaware society had 37 members, including Col. Hall.
The society, which takes its name from Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus who twice left his farm to lead Rome against enemies, was only open to officers who served in the Continental Army or their survivors.
Joseph Haslet, son of Col. Haslet, was eligible as a surviving son. His father was killed in the Battle of Princeton in 1777.
“This monument to the officers and men of the Delaware Line has not been raised because they needed it, for their valor and patriotism will be remembered as long as the country lasts, but it will be an object lesson to those who come after them, stimulating them to grand and noble actions when they reflect on these men who gave all that they had, and in many cases, life itself, that their country might live,” said society Vice President Howell at the 1912 ceremony.

***

Dr. Hoff said a centennial wreath will be placed at the monument Monday by Thomas Welch, a historic interpreter of Revolutionary War hero Allen McLane, one of the original members of the society.
Observers will include reenactors from the Delaware 1st Regiment. Presenters will include Forrest Pragoff, a past president of the state and national societies of the Cincinnati; Dave Skocik, reading the Declaration of Independence; Gov. Jack Markell; Jack and Nancy Gardner; and Chris Mlynarczyk, 1st Delaware Regiment president.
The event is free and open to the public.
“The more the better in the sense that people can at least remember,” said Dr. Hoff. “The next time they go by, it will be more than just some large stone monument.”

Heroes of American Revolution

editor@din.us1.dti — Fri, 25 May 2012 02:39:03 GMT

Sam Hoff, a George Washington Distinguished Professor, has put together a unique Memorial Day program for the Delaware State Society of the Cincinnati.

A centennial dedication of a monument on The Green in Dover will be observed.

The stone was first placed on Memorial Day 1912. A program published after that event served as the inspiration, Dr. Hoff said.

The Society of the Cincinnati is dedicated to preserving the memory of soldiers who fought in the American Revolution. There were 37 original members of the Delaware state society, formed in 1783. Among them was Delaware war hero Allen McLane. His story appears below.

The lineup for Monday's event:

CENTENNIAL DEDICATION OF MONUMENT TO DELAWARE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS

Noon-1 p.m. Monday, May 28, at The Green, Dover.

Opening Welcome - Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor for Delaware State Society of the Cincinnati

Invocation - Dr. Kim Warfield

Presentation of Colors - Dover High School Junior Air Force ROTC Detachment (Directed by Eric Herriman, Senior Master Sergeant, USAF, Ret.)

Star Spangled Banner - Played by Dr. Patrick Hoffman, DSU Music Department

Statement of the Occasion - Forrest Pragoff, Past President, Society of the Cincinnati, Past President, Delaware State Society of the Cincinnati

Reading of Declaration of Independence - Dave Skocik, President, Delaware Veterans Coalition

Other Readings - Dr. Jack Gardner, Nancy Gardner

Battle Hymn of the Republic - Played by Jeffrey Heilman, Bugles Across America

Address - Chris Mlynarczyk, President, 1^st Delaware Regiment Group

Address - Jack Markell, Governor, State of Delaware

Placing of Centennial Wreath - Tom Welch, Historical Interpreter of Colonel Allen McLane

Taps - Played by Brooke Tucker, Student, W.T. Chipman Middle School, Harrington

Witness Signing Ceremony - All Attendees As Desired

Paying tribute to Delaware's unknown hero -- Allen McLane

By Andrew West

Delaware State News (Dover, DE) - Sunday, July 3, 2011

DOVER - George Washington loved the bold and daring nature of Delawarean Allen McLane.

Allen who?

Allen McLane - rascal, patriot, spy, fearless fighter.

Many of you probably have never heard the wild tales of this Revolutionary War hero.

"What I've discovered is that no one really knows him," said Tom Welch . "Very few people know. But we're going to try to fix that." Mr. Welch , historical interpreter for the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, has been determined to raise Maj. McLane's profile since Sept. 2008.

At the time, Mr. Welch was asked to participate in a living history performance of Delaware's U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787. The lead role of Gunning Bedford Jr. had been given to Curt Stickel.

Mr. Welch, who asked to take on the role of a delegate, was asked to choose one. He had just been by the Golden Fleece historical marker and remembered reading the name of Allen McLane, Speaker of the House.

Mr. Welch turned to Google to get the McLane biography. One of his first hits was a piece titled, "Unknown hero of the Revolution." It well describes the Smyrna patriot's rise from Continental Army volunteer to trusted captain to war hero.

Said Mr. Welch, "I went back to Curt and said, "Let me tell you about this guy we picked. He ain't a nobody." Mr. Thomas said he has spent more than 500 hours researching Maj. McLane, mostly on his own time and own dime. He has been to New York, Washington, Virginia and elsewhere in search of documents and letters, and read numerous books.

Some months ago, Mr. Welch put down a master plan to boost the McLane image in Delaware. His goals included a one-man play, a state resolution to honor him, have something named for him, have his gravesite moved to a better place, and write a book for children and another for adults.

On the final night of the General Assembly on Thursday, the House passed Senate Joint Resolution 7 which urges Delawareans to consider ways to honor him in a lasting way and to share those ideas with members of the General Assembly, Smyrna Council and Kent County Levy Court.

The McLane story starts in the Village of Duck Creek, now known as Smyrna.

Allen McLane, son of a Scottish immigrant and Philadelphia businessman, moved to Delaware to start his own business.

In his 20s when the revolution was building, he grabbed a gun and headed for Virginia to join the fight. In 1775, he secured a commission as a lieutenant in Gen.

Caesar Rodney's Kent County Militia who later recommended his transfer to Gen. Washington's Continental Army.

In battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton and Princeton, then-Lt. McLane caught Gen. Washington's eye.

Said Mr. Welch , "Washington was asking, 'Who is that young man over there?

He seems to be going toward the enemy when most people seem to be going the other way.'" Gen. Washington made him a captain and asked him to recruit a company.

Capt. McLane returned to Duck Creek and recruited 94 men, putting together a light calvary with his own money.

Under direct orders of Gen. Washington, Capt. McLane and his men were asked to scout British activities in and around Philadelphia. Learning of plans for a surprise attack on Gen. Washington's camp, Capt. McLane made daring raids and foiled British advances, allowing the Continental Army to move to Valley Forge for winter quarters.

Capt. McLane became a major thorn in the side of British Gen. William Howe.

There were times when Capt. McLane enjoyed toying with the British. On one occasion, the McLane riders created a ruckus with gunpowder, camp pots and scrap metals and interrupted a British social party.

"For obvious reasons, they thought they were being attacked," said Mr. Welch.

For his one-man play, Mr. Welch wrote the Capt. McLane line, "Well, we returned back to camp and we received a scolding for taking such a risk, but also some backslaps and expressions of appreciation."

The bold trips into Philadelphia were times when Capt. McLane employed a number of disguises.

"He went into the British areas as a woman, as a British officer or as a country bumpkin," said Mr. Welch. "He was fearless, absolutely fearless."

His ability to fit in was perhaps most useful to the Continental Army in 1779 when he posed as a country bumpkin who escorted a woman to see her sons at a fort the British had seized on the Hudson River.

While inside, he took notes on the enemy and later took part in a bloody, surprise assault with Light-Horse Harry Lee. "They took it in 25 minutes," said Mr. Welch .

Mr. Welch said that Capt. McLane's most important assignment came in July 1781 when Gen. Washington personally sent him to the West Indies to meet with Count de Grasse, the French admiral, where Capt.

McLane made a convincing presentation.

The French fleet headed to the Lower Chesapeake, allowing Gen. Washington to move forces to Virginia and set up the successful defeat of Gen. Cornwallis' British Army in Yorktown. Capt. McLane was there when the British surrendered.

For all his heroics, Capt. McLane's brash side often did not win him recognition or favor, Mr. Welch said.

He was in particular trouble with Gen. Washington at one point for raising suspicions about Benedict Arnold, long before he was labeled a traitor.

Writer Fred J. Cook once noted, "Ever a good hater, McLane was an emotional patriot.

This fervor was both his weakness and his strength. It made him a stormy petrel whom superiors could not always placate, but the same quality, in the field, resulted in such dash and daring that Washington once remarked to a friend: "I would not do without him in the light corps - no, not for a thousand pounds.'" The McLane historical era did not end with the war.

In 1782, he resigned from the military with the rank of major. He returned to Delaware to resume business, but he and his family struggled with poverty. Even so, he remained active in politics and causes.

In 1787, he was a delegate to Delaware's Ratification Convention for the new Constitution of the United States. He served two terms in the Delaware Assembly and was Speaker in 1791. From 1790 to 1797 he was United States Marshal for Delaware, and in 1797 President Washington appointed him Collector for the Port of Wilmington, a position he held until his death at age 82 in 1829.

He was buried in a Methodist cemetery at Second and Market streets in Wilmington.

Got the Delaware Bay Blues? A seasonal song about the red knots

editor@din.us1.dti — Sat, 19 May 2012 00:35:10 GMT

Author Phil Hoose has an upcoming book called "Moonbird" that tells the story of B-95, a red knot that has made the annual 18,000-mile hemispheric trip so many times that the distance equals a trip to the moon and halfway back.

Mr. Hoose spent considerable time tracking the red knots flights from south of Argentina to the shores of the Delaware Bay to the arctic.

The month of May finds the red knots, and maybe B-95, on the shores of the Mispillion Harbor.

In celebration of their arrival, here's a song Mr. Hoose wrote and performed: The Delaware Bay Blues.

Sing-along while you read a column on this in the Sunday, May 20, edition of the Delaware State News.

The song is available as an MP3 download at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/philhoose

Remember Saturday, May 19, is the DuPont Nature Center's annual Peace, Love and Horseshoe Crab Festival. The red knots are on the beach today and will be for a few more days if you want to catch a glimpse.

Former Dover, Delaware, man on the move with 'Big Mo' barrel

editor@din.us1.dti — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:34:24 GMT

This column appeared in the April 15 edition of the Delaware State News.

By Andrew West
Delaware State News

DOVER — A big gun barrel from "Big Mo" has generated quite a bit of local attention on its way to Fort Miles in the Cape Henlopen State Park.

Last weekend, it had a steady stream of visitors during its rest stop at a Harrington rail yard.

Many had no idea what it was. But there were several who knew its significance as a USS Missouri silent witness to the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay during World War II. The barrel was one of three on the battleship's first turret.

This editor had several people ask about it over the course of the past week.

One of the great things about newspaper work is that there always seems to be a little more to every story. Bill Winters, of Dover, asked if we knew about the local tie to the company contracted to move the 130-ton barrel from Portsmouth, Va., to Lewes.

It turns out that Mr. Winters' Holy Cross High School classmate, Daniel K. Clark, is the man on the move.

Mr. Clark is project manager for Lockwood Brothers, a company that specializes in moving extraordinarily large cargo.

"This whole project has a personal thing to me with my father's affiliation with the Navy and being involved in World War II," said Mr. Clark. "And it's kind of neat that it's for Delaware."

Mr. Clark said his father, James, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, recalled seeing the USS Missouri during the invasion of Iwo Jima.

The barrel, which will be a centerpiece at the growing Fort Miles military museum, is like two that were positioned on the Cape Henlopen beach to guard the Delaware Bay. The gun barrel is 66 feet long with a 16-inch bore.

***

Mr. Clark's family moved to Dover in 1964, he said. His father, James, was among those who moved from Boston when General Foods (now Kraft) consolidated a number of its manufacturing operations in Dover.

He started the fifth grade at Holy Cross and graduated from the high school in 1972.

Mr. Clark stayed in Dover to continue his education, getting an Associate of Arts degree from Wesley College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Delaware State University in 1977.

It was through a friendship gained while working for insurance company Cigna in Washington, some years later that led him his current career.
"The owner said, 'I need someone like you to join my company.' I said, 'You're crazy.' I knew nothing about cranes and tugboats and barges and trailers," Mr. Clark said.

The owner said he could teach the moving business, but what he needed immediately was Mr. Clark's marketing and sales skill. He has been with Lockwood Brothers for 25 years now.

The company ships heavy cargo, such as nuclear steam generators, that weighs up to 700 tons.

The most extensive of Mr. Clark's time with the company was the movement of dozens of 77-foot long beer fermentation tanks that arrived at the Port of Virginia and then had to be trucked through the mountains.

"That took about four months of utility work, raising wires for about 105 miles from Fredericksburg to the brewery in Elkton, Va.," he said. "It cost about a million and half dollars."

Moving heavy cargo involves quite a bit of technical precision — centers of gravity, riggings, ground pressures, etc. — so each move requires patience and safety considerations, Mr. Clark said.

"Fortunately, we've been doing this a long time," he said. "It kind of gets routine for us but you don't take anything for granted. There is a lot of engineering and logistical details that you have to watch very closely. You have to be very safe because one accident in this business can be disastrous."

***

The USS Missouri gun barrel was one of eight that have been at a U.S. Navy storage depot at St. Julien's Creek Annex, near Portsmouth, Va., for decades.

"There were eight of these 16-inch barrels lined up in a row in a big open field," said Mr. Clark.

Besides the barrel bound for Fort Miles, there were two others from the USS Missouri that Lockwood hauled out of St. Juliens in early March.

One went to St. Charles, Va., and another to Arizona for display.

This past week, Lockwood also moved one from the USS Arizona to be sent to Phoenix for its World War II memorial project.

The USS Arizona barrel was one that was taken off the battleship more than a year before it was sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor. After maintenance, it went to the USS Nevada and saw action in World War II, Mr. Clark said.

The remaining barrels at St. Juliens may also find new homes, Mr. Clark said.

"They're going to preserved for future historical benefit," he said. "And I think is outstanding because they were scheduled to be scrapped. They were going to be cut up, sometime this year probably."

***

In a few days, the "Big Mo" barrel will arrive at its final destination at Fort Miles.

It was lifted by crane onto a massive trailer and trucked from St. Juliens Creek to the Dominion power plant and transferred to a rail car. From there, it crossed the Chesapeake Bay on a barge and then resumed its rail journey north through Delmarva to Harrington, then to Milford and down to Georgetown where it stops Monday for a big welcome ceremony from 2 to 5 p.m. on The Circle.

Mr. Clark said Lockwood considered bringing the barrel up the coast on a barge to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal. The ferry landing area, however, was not a good match.

In a few days, it will make the final mile journey from its rail stop in Lewes into the park.

"I've been told to expect an army of people the day we're unloading this thing," Mr. Clark said.

The Fort Miles Historical Association has had hopes of receiving a 16-inch gun for about 10 years as the museum project has taken shape, according to its president, Gary D. Wray. More than $120,000 was raised to make their dream come true.

"It's a great place for one of these barrels to end up," said Mr. Clark. "Personally, I think it's kind of neat that my home state is getting one of them."

Andrew West is managing editor of the Delaware State News.
Email awest@newszap.com.

Big gun will make a big Delaware entrance

editor@din.us1.dti — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:31:43 GMT

This column appeared in the April 8 edition of the Delaware State News.

By Andrew West
Delaware State News

LEWES — A silent witness to World War II history will spend the Easter weekend in the shadows of the Delaware State Fair in Harrington.

It’s a 66-foot, 116-ton barrel from the USS Missouri, upon which the Japanese surrendered to the Allied Forces on Sept. 2, 1945, on Tokyo Bay.

The 16-inch gun barrel is on the final legs of a long historical journey that almost suffered the fate of scrap metal.

Thanks to the determination and donations of Delawareans who rescued it, it will become the centerpiece of the Fort Miles military museum and displays at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes.

Fort Miles will get Barrel 371, from the center gun of Turret 1 of the USS Missouri. The battleship had nine big guns.

“When (the Japanese) got off the long boat, they had to walk right past our barrel to go up on the deck to surrender to Gen. McArthur and all the allied powers,” said Gary D. Wray, president of the Fort Miles Historical Association.

A 16-inch gun — like one of two that were in beach bunkers on the Delaware coastal fort during World War II — has been the coveted prize of the historical association founders and its members.

“We’ve been trying to get a 16-inch gun ever since we got started about 10 years ago,” Mr. Wray said.

***

Mr. Wray said the Navy scrapped 15 such barrels that were in Nevada in 2010, never getting a chance to obtain one.

The barrels were cut up into 8-foot chunks of scrap metal and sold by the Navy for $380,000.

“That really lit us up,” said Mr. Wray.

The search intensified. It turned out that the association had a great friend in Jim Poyner of Dahlgren, Va. He located eight barrels, lying side by side, outside the Norfolk Naval Base in St. Julien’s Annex.

Research on identification numbers for the barrels showed that they were from the USS Missouri, the USS New Jersey and the USS Iowa.

“We quickly realized that these weren’t just any barrels,” said Mr. Wray.

Mr. Wray said his group contacted the U.S. Navy right away. That was in May.

The Navy first said they had until September to get together logistical and funding plans or the barrels would be scrapped. But a deal was worked out to postpone the deadline until February.

“We had no money and needed $110,000 to move the gun,” said Mr. Wray.

The association put together a fundraising committee, chaired by Nick Carter.

By December, $122,000 was raised.

Mr. Wray said there were more than 100 donors — including two boys, ages 4 and 6, who brought in $9.

The General Motors Foundation gave $25,000, Sussex County Council and anonymous donor each added $10,000. Several people, including Fort Miles Historical Association board members, donated $1,000.

“People told us bad economic times and all that, but I tell you, we live in a good community here,” Mr. Wray said. “With people around here, and generally in the state of Delaware, if you’ve got credibility and people see the project as worth doing, they’ll open their pocketbooks up. And that’s exactly what happened.”

***

The move of the barrel from Virginia to Delaware started Monday.

Lockwood Brothers of Hampton, Va., started the process of moving it by crane to the railroad. A barge brought it across the Chesapeake and then a Norfolk Southern train brought it northward.

Mr. Wray said Norfolk Southern is donating the costs of the rail trip.

From Harrington, the big gun will follow the railroad tracks to Georgetown for a big celebration 2-5 p.m. Monday, April 16.

The train will stop at the crossing on Market Street near The Circle in Georgetown.

There will be a parade, featuring WWII reenactors and the Sussex Tech High School marching band.

An honored guest for the ceremony will be U.S. Army Air Corps Col. Newt Tyndall, 93, of Georgetown.

Like the prized gun barrel, Mr. Tyndall was another witness to the surrender on the Missouri.

He had a birds-eye view during a flyover of the USS Missouri that day, piloting a B-29 that had been used in the bombing of Japan.
The photo with the article today gives an idea of what the planes looked like from the deck of the battleship.

Mr. Wray proudly points out that the barrel pointing up in the center of the photo is the one coming to the Fort Miles museum.

***

From Georgetown, the Delaware Coastline Railroad will deliver the barrel to Lewes.

By Cape Shores, the Lockwood Brothers will have a truck with 12 axles and 96 wheels ready for the barrel’s final mile-and-a-half journey to Fort Miles.
Fort Miles will have a welcome celebration at 1 p.m. April 28.

***

In case you’re wondering, the other two USS Missouri barrels are also en route to future homes.

One is going Phoenix, where it will be part of a WWII memorial. The other will reside on Delmarva in St. Charles, Va.

***

Mr. Wray said there are four additional pieces needed to finish the static display of the big gun. All are available from Dahlgren, but more funds — about $250,000 is the goal — need to be raised, Mr. Wray said.

This barrel is going to become the centerpiece of our Fort Miles museum inside Battery 519, Mr. Wray said.

There are about 6,000 tours a year now at the battery museum, which is 420 feet long and in the Great Dune at Cape Henlopen State Park.

Mr. Wray said he and three other men — the late Lee Jennings, David Main and Bob Frederick — started the Fort Miles Historical Association a decade ago.
In the association’s spring newsletter, Mr. Wray wrote, “We have gone from a dark, dank, musty, critter-infested casement to a wonderful museum with a great gun park.”

For more information on the Fort Miles Historical Association, visit http://www.fortmilesha.org/

Follow the train’s path by GPS tracking at http://home.comcast.net/~denniskarol/BigGUN.htm.

Delaware.newszap.com offers new look and feel

editor@din.us1.dti — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:28:07 GMT

This column appeared in the April 1 edition of the Delaware State News.

By Andrew West
Delaware State News

DOVER — When you finish with today's print edition, go online.

We've got much more to offer.

Anyone looking for a online community devoted exclusively to Central and Downstate Delaware now has a new destination.

The Delaware State News recently debuted its newly redesigned web site, newszap.com.

The site, found on the web at http://delaware.newszap.com, now features daily news updates, sports briefs and scores, an easy-to-use calendar for community events, and tips and advice on where to find live entertainment.

Photos and videos help to round out the content mix.

"Posting news and information on current events is a big step on the way to making our online community broader and more inclusive," said Darel La Prade, the company's senior vice president for new media.

Now that it has been redesigned, the site overall has a whole new look and feel. For simplicity, the new design consolidates many pages that were on the old site. No longer will a visitor find numerous, static "community home pages" – rather each state site now focuses on larger communities of interest.
The emphasis is on interactive features. Visitors can participate in polls and post events to the events calendars.

Comments on stories are also encouraged. As the site grows, a line-up of local bloggers will be added to stimulate discussion and to provide different points of view and perspective.

In addition, the site accepts free online classified ads, and all the retail ads from the Delaware State News and its sister newspapers, Sussex County Post, Milford Chronicle and The Journal also appear on the site, along with an online Yellow Pages business directory.

The mainstay of the restructured site remains the public issue and opinion forums that were prominently featured on the old site. The forums, however, no longer stand alone and now are closely integrated with the rest of Newszap. This makes it easy for visitors to navigate between the forums and the rest of the site, including the news updates.

"Linking news and current events to ready access to the forums should stimulate and inform the public discussion and debate that our members are conducting in our forums," Mr. La Prade said.

The forums on newszap.com have always been driven and controlled by the members, who pledge to exercise their right to free speech with civility. Personal attacks that stray away from the issue being discussed seem to be the biggest problem for our webmaster team (and for a civil society).

"The forums are a remarkable example of a cohesive, though sometimes rambunctious, online community," Mr. La Prade said. "Our approach with the forums has not changed, nor will it, but it is our intention to extend and grow the newszap.com community.

"A website is never finished; it is always a work in progress," Mr. La Prade added. "We sincerely hope that those who visit the site will take the time to join and become a member of the delaware.newszap.com community."

We welcome suggestions.

***

As you click your way around delaware.newszap.com, you might want to make a special visit to the photo galleries in the Central Delaware section where we recently featured the beautiful display of tulips in Dover and the festive atmosphere of the city's St. Patrick's Day parade.

Sometimes, delaware.newszap.com will be able to give you bonus fun with videos, like the Dover, Caesar Rodney and Polytech performances showcased in the Entertainment section.

COMING SUNDAY, APRIL 1: HOMELESS SERIES

editor@din.us1.dti — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 05:58:55 GMT

We're editing and packaging a special series on homelessness in Delaware that will start Sunday, April 1.

With the help of area shelters, we have put together an interesting package of stories on the issues that go with homelessness in the area.

One of the stories you'll read on Day One is a touching account of a man who overcame some health issues with the help of the folks at Dover's Interfaith Mission shelter.

The man behind the March 27 crossword

editor@din.us1.dti — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:07:13 GMT

In my quest to solve the difficult Crossword in Saturday's Delaware State News, I turned to the web for help.

Purely by accident, I stumbled onto an interesting blog -- L.A. Times Crossword Corner -- in which writers have fun providing fellow puzzlers with background and answers to the clues.

The Delaware State News Crossword is provided by the Los Angeles Times, and appears in the Delaware State News by contract with Tribune Media Services.

With the Tuesday, March 27, blog entry, there is mention of the puzzle author, Gary Steinmehl, with the dates 1937-2012. Mr. Steinmehl passed away in January.

The blog provided a link to a 2010 interview with Mr. Steinmehl who shared some of his thought process in building puzzles:

"Typically, everyday news, advertisements, phrases, movies, events and names provide my inspiration - involving these elements and interesting words in clever ways. Sometimes my “cleverness” is so obscure that my editor wife doesn’t know what I’m talking about. They get discarded or seriously reworked.

"I constantly am on the lookout for theme ideas in newspapers, literature, trivia sources, and I scribble notes of “good stuff” on little pieces of paper that clutter my pockets, and I mentally stack letter groupings for future use. My wife often kids me about staring off into space at inappropriate times, working on thematic ideas. It’s true, all quite puzzling. Since I am retired (now 73 years old) I have plenty of time to work on my creations. So far, the ideas just keep coming from deep inside somewhere. I don’t question or analyze the process, I’m just happy it happens."

12 reasons to subscribe to the Delaware State News in 2012

editor@din.us1.dti — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:37:49 GMT

In a recent "From the Editor" column, Delaware State News Managing Editor Andrew West shared 12 Ways to Enjoy Your Newspaper in 2012.

· Clip and save: As coupon enthusiast Candy Carey explained in a January "From the Editor" column, the newspaper is a great source of savings and consumer information. Clip those coupons and review the sales flyers. A newspaper habit pays for itself and then some if you use it wisely.

· Get involved: TheDelawareState News is chock full of things to do and ways to enjoy services offered in Kent and Sussex counties.

· Find a job/post a job: As the news reports continue to remind us, there are many people still struggling to find work in the state. Our Classified pages are a great place for workers and companies to find a great match.

· Campaign insights: Sort out the candidates in an important election year. With stories like those in today's Delaware State News, you can stay current on the issues.

· Perspectives: Read points of view about the campaigns and other issues. And, do so with the assurance that there will not be more than one commentator or guest trying to shout louder than another.

· Express yourself: Our Public Forum is open to you, the reader, to share your views on local and statewide issues.

· Read to your children: Sharing the comics with your children has always been a great way to connect with your kids. The next time you see Marmaduke sitting in his master's chair watching television, share that with your child and see if you don't get a smile.

· Fresh air: On a cold morning, a quick jaunt to the end of the drive or to the newspaper box across the road is a great way to get the blood flowing in the morning. The fresh air will do you good. And, think about this on the way out, what other product can be delivered to your home every day?

· Healthy habit: One of our most loyal groups of readers is the puzzle solvers. The Jumble, Wonderword, Crossword and Soduku can easily become habit forming. Back when Sudoku first started getting hot in the late 1990s, a friend from theBostonarea remarked, "Solve the Sudoku in the morning and you'll feel 'smart-ah' in the afternoon."

· Priceless memories: We still enjoy publishing "refrigerator" journalism. You'll want to clip out the great moments in your life and post on the refrigerator door or collect in a scrapbook. A reader recently shared with this editor that his family became faithful newspaper readers once the children started high school sports - clipping and saving articles and photos about their teams.

· Quality time: There is always something nice about a quiet morning, a cup of coffee and the warmth of newsprint. It's nice to have moments when nothing is popping up, pinging, flashing or redirecting you.

· Sex appeal: As the Newspaper Association of America has been promoting in the past year, "Smart is the new sexy." The promotion says: "It's time to make a stand for the one place you can still get 'news news.' The kind with substance. The kind that makes you feel smarter when you finish reading it."