Welcome to our Farfaners' Comments and Bulletin Board. Please feel free to Contact us with your comments and pictures regarding NBA duty. Or, anything you believe might be of interest to our group. Suggestions: current photos, old photos, comments about your current activities or hobbies, etc. We encourage you all to participate. This is our space on the web, about all of us. Please consider being an NBAers' Playground Site Supporter.

Ralph & Ella Ouellet

Post: 009  Date:Tuesday, November 25, 2008 4:16 PM From: Ralph Ouellet “Ralph & Ella Ouellet – Still smiling after 36 years together” I have to look through my old pictures and those on my work and home computers to see what I can put together for the NBAers Photos area. I sure hope I can find them! Ralph Respond to this post Responses to this Post: NONE

RM1 Renzy Stepp 1955

Post: 008   Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:18:34 From: Renzy Stepp Hi, I served at Farfan from Jan 1954 to Jan 1956, two whole years of the best duty of my four years in the Navy. I left Farfan and was assigned to the USS Siboney, CVE-112 out of Norfolk, Va. I joined the Navy in July of 1952, went to boot camp at San Diego, then attended Class A Radio School in San Diego right after boot camp. I first served aboard the USS Howard W. Gilmore, AS-16 out of Key West, Fla. I was transferred from the Gilmore to Farfan. After I was discharged from the Navy, I returned to San Diego for a year, attended the San diego Junior College, then went to Tennessee for a short while, and wound up in Chicago, where I attended DeVry Technical Institute studying electronics. I obtained a job at GTE manufacturing plant in Northlake, Il and worked as an electronic technician for about ten years then was promoted to engineer. I retired from GTE in 1987 and worked for about 8 years at a small company called Olympic Controls in Elgin, Ill. During my first 3 years in chicago, I met my wife Rose Marie and married her in 1960. She brought 3 children into the marriage, and we had two more. We have 9 grandchildren in all. My wife, Rose, passed away last year, May 30, 2006. I am now living alone with my two Yorkie dogs in Davis, Ill at a place called Lake Summerset where I have lived for 10 years. It is about 20 miles northwest of Rockford. My hobbies are Ham radio, KC9IOZ, I have a General License, and the other hobby is playing the musical keyboard. I am active in the LDS church and Masonry, AF&AM. At Farfan, some of the guys that I remember, were Bob Cressey, Melvin Sydow, Dewey burton, Henderson, Ed Durovic, Bryant, Willie Stoller, Chief Keaton, and later Chief Ritter who I also served with on the Gilmore. Also Evattek, Vic Butler, who taught me how to use the bug. I left Farfan as a RM1. Yours truly, Renzy Stepp, RM1 KC9IOZ Respond to this post Responses to this Post: NONE

Dick Murphy and Vic Behan '08 Reunion Meeting Place? Murph with Vic's Camper

Post: 007   Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:09:31 EDT From: Vic Behan Dick Murphy and I, at Lake Wales, FL.  We had a one day bike event this weekend. So, I took my little camper, towing my bike and headed for Lake Wales, which is about 15 miles from Murph's house. Just before I left I emailed him I was heading his way. We hooked up and did a lot of riding through the back roads, weaving through farms and citrus orchards for a good long ride. What great fun! We spent a lot of time together, gabbing and hanging out. Met more of Murph's friends and family and an altogether fabulous time. I missed everyone so much by not being at the last reunion in Orlando, so this visit was especially good for me. Vic Behan Respond to this post Responses to this Post: NONE

Jerry Mader Bill Kerr

Post: 006   Date:July 05, 2007 12:50 PM From: Jerry Mader & Bill Kerr Vic, I contacted you through the NBA web site not to long ago and you were able to give me Bill Kerr's email address. We had not seen or had communication with each other in 40 years since leaving Farfan. He is on the west coast and I'm in Maryland. By a real twist of fate Bill was arriving in MD for a relatives wedding only a couple of days after we made contact and we were able to have a reunion on July 1. After more then a few beers we were making grandiose plans to return to the CZ at a future date [who knows maybe] in any event we will look for any news of future NBA reunions. If it had not been for your help this would have never happened. I want to thank you again for your excellent help. Ain't technology wonderful... ...Regards Jerry Mader [taller one] Bill Kerr [shorter guy] Farfan [NBA] 1966-1968 Respond to this post Responses to this Post: NONE

No Image Available	Post: 005 Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:56:56 AM From: Jerry Mader Subject: Your 2007 Reunion Page Damn I see I missed another one. Was directed to this url from Vic whom I located on classmates.com. I just retired at the end of April so it would have been a great beginning of my next life. Will have to check out this site for the next reunion. Jerry Mader Farfan 1966-1968 Respond to this post
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1952 Joe Smith 2005

Post: 004 Date: Thu, Oct 27, 2005, 7:36 AM From: Joe Smith Hi there all you old RMs, ETs, TMs and assorted twigets, I have often pondered how things changed at old NBA in the years following my tenure (1952-1954). If you will indulge me for a moment, let me tell you how it wuz then and if you will tell me how it changed over the following years. It seems from your pictures that the facilities, barracks, swimming pool, etc. are the same except for some of the vegetation. (We kept it pushed back with a small bulldozer). As for ships company, the OINC was a Lt Cmdr and lived in the quarters just above the swimming pool. Caretakers for the facilites were an assortment of bosun, quarter master and deck hand ratings ( about 5 or 6) headed by a Chief bosun. We had two cooks-both 2nd class ,who would cook anything within reason for you. A Chief Hospital Corpsman. Three Chief Radiomen and usually 16 to 18 Radiomen (seaman to 1st class). A Chief Teleman and 3 -4 ratings. A Chief ET and 3 ratings. 1-2 Yoemen who manned the office. The Bombproof was manned by watches. We enjoyed a 4 section watch. That is, a watch would go to work at 1200 hrs to 1800 hrs then again at 2400 -0600 then off from 0600 to 1800. Back to work at 1800 to 2400, then back on at 0600 to 1200. Then off for 48 hours when the process was repeted ad infinitum. Each watch consisted of a Supervisor (chief or 1st class Radioman), one teleman, and four radiomen. One radioman manned the commercial circuits, two radiomen manned the Navy circuits, and one radioman operated the sidband system. This was an old Western Electric suppressed carrier system used in all the primary relay stations for constant communications with Washington (NSS). On one sideband seven RTTY signals were multiplexed (resonant reed relays were used as demultiplexers ) and the other sideband was used for voice communications between the operators and priority telephone calls. It relied on E layer skip to maintain communications and frequencies were constantly changed to remain in contact. Failure of the SB system brought up an FM multiplex system of about ten times the power.( what a headache) And the worst part was that if you were out of contact with NSS for more than 30 minutes, the operator had to personally call the commandant of the naval district and explain why. We swapped positions about one each month. Uniform changes for all watch standers kept us and the laundry busy. Fresh Dungarees with a T-shirt were worn on the evening and mid watch. White pants and a white T-shirt (we had no shirts with collars in those days) for the morning and afternoon watch. Kaki shorts and white T-shirts were optinal for afternoon watches or any where else. The barracks had a rec room to the left of the main intrance with a barber shop ( barber came one each week). The bar and lounge were to the right of the main entrance. A civilian bartender came in at 1800 to 2400 hrs. Beer was 5 cents and was always Panamanian, Cervesa Balboa, it would have been free but the old man said we abused it. The second deck contained the Chow Hall, Sick Bay, and MA shack. The third deck was divided into rooms for the crew with two men to the room. We who lived on the third deck had a house boy who kept our rooms neat and clean along with shined shoes in exchange for a small stipend from each of us along with good old Navy clothing and a bunk of his own. His name was Jose Carvahal and a great kid. We had a party once a month to which we brought dates. There were lots of unmarried girls in the range of 17 to 22 years living in most of the military housing. About one third of our ships company was married an lived elsewhere. Few men had cars and motorcycles were verboten. We relied on Panamanian "Chivas" for transportation and some military busses. We had an open gangway when not on watch and could go anywhere without a pass. This made the Army guys envious, they had to be in by midnight. We were also a pain in the side to the Marines at Rodman. The taboo area of Panama City was Rio Abajo where most of the crew could often be found. We too had a baseball team and a tag football team. I am sure that as technology changed, old NBA changed. Please let me know how. Regards Joe Smith, dah di dit dah di di dit di dit dah Respond to this post

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No Image Available

Post: 003 Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 07:22 EST From: Albert Sharpton Hey, just visited your site and it sure brought back memories. Though I saw no one I recognized, since I was never stationed at Receivers........but did a tour of duty as AOIC Summit and AEMO at Balboa. We lived in the area though and swam in the pool many times.... Thanks and keep it going. ...Albert Sharpton, Master Chief ET USN, Retired. Respond to this post

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Tom Meggers & Linda

Post: 002 Date: Sept. 08, 2005 6:55 AM From: Joe Cosgrove it just goes to show you how small the world really is. I hadn't seen Tom Meggers in over 35 years before our reunion last year and then lo and behold, he gets his picture in the Denver newspaper. Even more ironic is the fact that the area he is looking in for property is really close to where Gail and I are building our home in North Carolina. I hope he found something to his liking and it will be a lot of fun catching up with him as we become neighbors. ...Joe Cosgrove Respond to this post

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Art & Sybil Binford	Post: 001 Date: June 11, 2005 4:25 PM From: Vic Behan Here's a fairly recent picture of Art Binford and his beautiful wife, Sybil. Art asked us to post this particular photo onto the website somewhere. I can see why he chose it. He looks pretty good here. Respond to this post
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