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Welcome Aboard!
If you
ever served aboard the USS enry WHenry W. Tucker DD/DDR 875,
this is your website. We hope
you will find the information in the site interesting and useful. More importantly, we hope that the
site will help you reconnect with your shipmates and bring you to a
reunion.
The USS Henry W. Tucker was in
commission in the US Navy from 1945 to 1973 and saw service in World War
II, the Korean Conflict, the “Cold War” and Vietnam. Through much of her career she was a
DDR (Radar Picket Ship) and was involved in many activities, such as the
atomic bomb tests in the Pacific, the NASA Apollo program, and the U-2
flights. To read about these
and other activities of the ship, click “history” at the top of any page. In 1973, she was sold to the
Brazilian Navy and became the Marcilio
Dias D25. She was in
commission from 1973 to 1992.
After
nearly 50 years continuous service, she was decommissioned and was sunk in
target practice by a torpedo of Brazilian design fired from a submarine of
Brazilian design, which was an historic event. One of her officers sent us a
newspaper article and photos of the sinking. To see the photos and a translation,
please click here. Thanks to Mike McDermott (LTJG, 68-69) for translating the article from
Portuguese to English.
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Asbestos & Agent Orange Exposure
Many of
our shipmates have illnesses related to asbestos exposure while serving on
the Tucker and other Navy ships.
Some Vietnam
era shipmates may have been exposed to Agent Orange as well. We have created a page devoted to
providing information about Asbestos and Agent Orange
exposure.
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Newsletters
The
June 2009 newsletter is now on
the website. Please click
here to view the newsletter and all
previous newsletters.
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Crew Information
The
Crew Pages have been updated
as
of May 19, 2009.
Please
click on “her crew” at the top of any page to access the crew
pages. Please check your name,
rate/rank and years for accuracy and contact Bob Miller with
corrections.
If this
is your first visit to the site and you are a crew member, please contact Bob Miller (MM3, 62-65), our Crew Locator, so
you can be added to the database and mailing list and begin receiving
newsletters. Bob has worked
tirelessly since 1999 to find “missing” shipmates. Without Bob, I’m sure we would
have just a handful of shipmates on our crew list. If you know the whereabouts of
anyone on the “Missing” Crew List, or hear of the passing of a
shipmate, please contact Bob with that information.
We have
created a crew page for Marcilio Dias
shipmates. If you served
aboard the Marcilio Dias, please contact Bob Miller with your name, email address,
your rate or rank and the years you were aboard. All crew members of Marcilio Dias
are part of this organization and you are welcome to participate fully,
including attending reunions.
Bob is
also looking for historical information and “diaries”. If you have information, please contact
Bob. Also, if you have a cruise
book, he is looking for copies to be scanned to include on the
website. Please contact him if
you can help with that.
If your address or email address
has changed, please email Pat Siler as soon as possible so you won’t miss any newsletters.
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History
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The History
files have been updated
as of June 2, 2009
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Many
shipmates have contributed to the history of the ship and Gary O’Neil
has done a fantastic job compiling the information and verifying
accuracy. The history is
separated into five-year segments.
There are also segments on the Marcilio Dias, statistics of the
ship, medals the ship earned, the plankowners’ list, and the history
of Henry Warren Tucker, for whom the ship was named. Click on “History” at the top of any page to access these
documents. Please visit often
as it is updated often.
If you
would like to contribute to the history project, please email Gary O’Neil.
Copies
of the history are available on CD. Please contact Gary to order a CD.
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Pictures
Tom Byrne (RM2, 60-62) has created pages for
photographs on the site. He has
created an index to make them easy to find. Please click on “pictures” at the top of any
page. And be sure to check
often to see new photos. They
have been updated as of February 2009.
If you
have photos that you would like to contribute, please send them to Tom Byrne.
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Cruise Books
Bob
Miller is in the process of having cruise books reproduced on CD. If you would be interested in
getting a CD of the cruise book from your time aboard ship, please click here for Bob’s letter about the
cruise books and to see images of the cover of the books.
If you
would like to order a cruise book CD, please email Bob Miller.
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Baseball Caps
We have baseball caps available for sale. They are navy blue with a ship
profile in grey and the ship’s name and hull number in gold. The price is $12.00, which includes
postage. If you would like to
purchase a cap, please contact Bill
Siler for ordering information.
Due to the fact that the profile of the ship changed several times
over the nearly 30 years she was in commission, it may not match what you
remember when you were aboard.
We have
solid cloth caps and caps with mesh backs. When ordering please specify which
you prefer.
Jackets
and shirts are also available.
Please contact Bill Siler
for ordering information. We
don’t keep them on hand but they can be ordered directly from the
company. They are of excellent
quality.
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Veteran Information
Please
visit the Veteran Information
page for information that is of interest to all veterans.
RAO Bulletins, which are newsletters full of
useful veterans’ information will be linked from this page. These are compiled by James Tichacek USN (Ret) who does
an excellent job of collecting information and getting it out to a wide
audience of veterans. We thank
Jim for giving permission to post his bulletins.
There
is a link to a page of documents on Agent Orange Exposure and other health
issues which were contributed by Jim Alvarez (GMG1, 69-70).
If you
need a replacement DD 214 Form
(needed to apply for VA benefits), there is a link to the form and
instruction sheet.
Please
visit this page often. If you
know of any information and/or benefits for veterans that could be included
in this section of the site, please contact Pat Siler.
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Website Information
Our Web site is maintained by Pat Siler, wife of James W. “Bill” Siler, Jr.
(BT3, 62-64). Pat also
compiles the USS Henry W. Tucker
Newsletter. Please email Pat with any information for the website or
newsletter.
The original website was created by Terry Williams (SK3, 69-71). We all owe a debt of gratitude to
Terry. If he hadn't created this site in 1997, there would be no reunions
and most of us would be still wondering whatever happened to the ship and
our shipmates. Due to business obligations, Terry had to step down from his
position as webmaster in 2002.
The current “second generation” of the website was
created in 2003 by Kevin B. Skislock,
son of the late John F. Skislock
(SN1/c, 45-47). Thanks to
Kevin for creating this wonderful site.
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This website is neither authorized,
endorsed by, nor approved by the United States Department of the Navy. The sole purpose of this site is to
reunite former shipmates, provide reunion information and is a collection
of their memories.
This page was updated: 8-Jun-09
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USS
Henry W. Tucker
DD 875
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