Fall 2018Newsletter of the Battleship Texas Foundation

In this issue . . .

The Director's Chair Pg1

Crewmember Harrison Pg2

Crewmember Schramm Pg3

FTV Report Pg4

OEP Report Pg5

Curators Corner Pg6

In Memory Of Pg7

Membership Forms Pg8

From The Director's Chair

Navy Poster . . .

Battleship TEXAS Foundation

Come and Save It. That has been themission of The Battleship TexasFoundation since our beginning. Wehave turned that into a state-wide effortto raise public awareness and educatethe public of the plight of The Texas.

I wanted to pass on more information to you regarding this effortsince we maywell be coming to a locationnear youverysoon.Our firststop was Houston on July. Thanks to Karbach Brewing for hosting us.

Come And Save It is acompetition between Houston,Austin, Dallas, and San Antonioto determine which city willprovide the most signatures forour petition to save The Texas.

Everyone that came out had agreat time. A few of the highlightsfor the evening were our life sizeBattleship Game and our ice sculpture of The Texas. We also hadour walk on water booth where you can walk across a ten-footstretch of water but don’t stop moving, because if you do, you willsink. In addition, our 20mm gun trailer made an appearancecomplete with sound effects.

Our next stop is Austin, Texas were Friends and Allies Brewingwill be our host on August 18th. San Antonio will be ourSeptember stop on the 22nd. We will wrap up the road show atRevolver Brewing in October on a date to be determined. All theevents start at 5 P.M. and go until 9 P.M.

For a great time and a lot of fun please plan to come on out andjoin us. For more information please visit our site atwww.comeandsaveit.com

If you can’t make it out you can still help by going to our site andsigning the petition. It only takes a minute. I will be at all the eventsand I would love to meet you so please make plans to attend.

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Advisory Directors

Hon. James A. Baker, III61st Secretary of State

ADM. James L. Holloway, IIIUSN (Ret.), Former CNO

Ned S. HolmesCommissioner, Texas

Transportation Commission

Board of Trustees

Anthony K. GregoryChairman

Thomas J. PerichVice Chairman

Donald H. Fischer, Treasurer

Rey Gonzales, Jr., Secretary

Brad Bouillion

Jimmy Burke

Penny H. Butler

David Dewhurst

Theordore S. Hirtz

RADM. J. Weldon Koenig,

USN (Ret.)

John O’Neil

Michael N. Pearson

CAPT. Clifford H. Royal,

USN (Ret.)

Thomas C. Wright

Bruce D. BramlettExecutive Director;

bruce@battleshiptexas.org

TPWD Ship Staff

Andy SmithShip Superintendent

Stephanie CroattAssistant Superintendent

Mike StovallMaintenance and Restoration

Sarah ConlonCurator

Crewmember Harrison Boards the TEXAS

Battleship TEXAS staffgot a wonderful surprisevisit in late July fromformer crew-memberSteven Harrison andmembers of his family.Mr. Harrison currentlylives in New Mexico andcomes to the ship everytwo years to share hisNavy stories with visitors.Seaman 2nd classHarrison was part of the20mm gunner divisionand served fromSeptember 18, 1944 untilJanuary 15, 1946. He wasthe only Native Americansailor to serve aboardTEXAS. While serving on board Mr. Harrison went to IwoJima, Okinawa, the Panama Canal, Long Beach, CA,Philippines, Pearl Harbor, and San Francisco, CA. Mr.Harrison is ninety-six but he told staff his age wouldn’t stophim and he would be back in two years for another visit. Welook forward to seeing him again!

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Passing of TEXAS Crewmember SchrammIt is with sad heart that we announce the passing of Battleship TEXAS crewmember Mr.Raymond C. Schramm who passed away peacefully in his hometown of Springfield, New Jerseyon May 17th, 2018. Ray, as he was known by his family and friends lived in Springfield formost of his ninety-six years. His is a life that reaches back to the Roaring Twenties, who feltthe hardship of the Great Depression, and was greatly affected by World War II. Like mostyoung men of that time he signed up for military duty and saw combat in both Europe and thePacific.

He was born in Summit, New Jersey on August 26, 1922. He attended Jonathan Dayton HighSchool where he was a member of the track team, the basketball team and the band. On thetrack team he did the pole vault and high jump and on the basketball team he was a forward.For the band, he played the clarinet and tenor sax. During his senior year he was the StudentLeader of the band. Most of his time in the Springfield school system was during the GreatDepression, which he remembers as “hard times”.

In 1942, he joined the Navy just as his brothers did. For the first seven months of duty he waspart of a ship’s com-pany and played in a band. Then he was assigned to the TEXAS and servedon it for two years. He was a leading Petty Officer and often stood watch in the crow’s nest.When General Dwight D. Eisenhower boarded the TEXAS he would play in a band for theGeneral.

He was an eighty year member of the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield and a seventy-two year member of the Springfield American Legion. He was a retired tool- and-die makerwith Victory Optical in Newark, New Jer-sey. He was predeceased by his beloved wife,Katharine Schramm and was the loving father of Linda Maas and husband, David, andcherished grandfather of Jessica Maas and her fiancé, Seth Eggermann, and Ashley Taylor andher husband, Jeff. Taylor and his brother, Russell Schramm and sister, Edith Perry, and manynieces and nephews.

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By Don Fischer

RestorationThe First Texas Volunteers has madesignificant strides in the restoration of theCombat Information Center (CIC). With theresurgence of activity following the postHurricane Harvey hiatus, a great deal of workhas gone into this project. Currently, withthe exception of detail touch-up, allbulkheads and the overhead have beenprimed and new insulation installed andpainted. The detail work on fixtures andfurnishings are soon to start. This will beexacting and time consuming work, but theend result will be exciting. This project, inparticular, has become a new focal point forinterpretation during future Hard Hat Tours.

Work continues on the restoration of thestern 40mm anti-aircraft guns. This followsthe recent completion of the port, waist40mm mount. As this work continues, theteam members gain ever more knowledge ofthe intricacies of construction and operationof these guns. This work, which sprang tolife after certain members found themselvesshocked by the condition in which the gunshad slipped, is highly beneficial, not only forthe guns’ preservation, but also for thehands-on enjoyment and appreciation by thegeneral public.

The 3” magazines refurbishment is currentlytaking a recess due to loss of its teammembers. Hopefully, this project will be ableto take off again shortly.

Future work, which will begin as teamsbecome available, will be the restoration ofStateroom D.

Hart Hat ToursThe final Hard Hat Tour of the season tookplace on Saturday, May 19. It was a completesuccess, earning FTV almost $3,400.00. Thefirst Hard Hat Tour of the new season will beheld on Saturday, October 20, 2018. Formore information or to make reservations,please visit firsttexasvolunteers.org.

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Battleship TEXAS OvernightYouth Education Program

By Kandace Trujillo

We are having a busy Summer at the youthovernight education program. We thank the25 groups and 542 campers that participatedthrough the months of May through July.Our program is expanding to host differentgroups. Traditionally our program has beenutilized by Scout groups. While we still hostmany scout groups, we are now hostingmany different groups as well.

Last year we were fortunate to host a schoolgroup from South Korea. One June 6th, wehosted a group from Taiwan. They werevisiting the United States through a Summercamp in connection with the GreaterHouston Convention and Visitor Bureau.Fifteen students were given a tour and eventaught some of my tour guides some Chinesephrases!

We also hosted a group of Gold Star teensthrough the Travis Manion Foundation. Agold star family is the immediate familymember of a fallen service member who diedwhile serving in a conflict. The teens wereparticipating in a World Servants missiontrip. World Servants is an organization thatthrough training and short-term missionexperiences help people become servantsand leaders in their community. The teen’smission was to restore a Harvey damagedhome. As a reward for all their hard work,they participated in our overnight program.The teens were from all over the country.The states represented were Utah, Florida,Hawaii, North Carolina, New York and Texas.It was an honor to host these great youngmen and women who have sacrificed somuch for us.

If you would like to participate in anovernight program, please contact me at281-542-0684 or at overnight@battleshiptexas.org. We are starting to book for thefall. These dates fill up quickly.

overnight@battleshiptexas.orgor (281) 542-0684 (office)

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By Sarah Conlon, Curator

This summer, San Jacinto Battleground/Battleship TEXAS Complex staff workedclosely with Luminosa Research, a firmheadquartered in Austin, to develop anddistribute a visitor survey. Visitor surveysare a powerful tool for historic sites andmuseums to learn more about the groupsthat frequent a site and identify ways toimprove visitor experiences. The goal of thisparticular survey is to learn more aboutvisitors that spend time at the battleshipand/or battleground, including theirmotivations for visiting and their likes anddislikes about the site. We seek to improvevisitor experience for those groups thatalready visit the complex, but we also hopeto gain insight into ways that we can appealto and meet the needs of underrepresentedgroups. This survey will be particularlybeneficial as we move forward with long-term plans for preservation of BattleshipTEXAS and the San Jacinto Battleground.

During the survey period of June 4, 2018through July 31, 2018, park staff informedvisitors about the survey and distributedpromotional cards with the survey’s websiteaddress. We also promoted the surveythrough our site’s Facebook and Instagramaccounts. The target audience for the surveyincluded all visitors, 13 years old and older,with a limit of one survey per individual. Asa thank you for participation, surveyrespondents had the option to provide theircontact information to be entered into adrawing to win one of four $50 gift cards.Luminosa ensured that all survey responsesand contact information submitted remains

confidential and will destroy all respondentinformation after the survey is completed.Near the end of July 2018, Luminosareported having received more than 725survey responses, surpassing our goal. Withthe survey now complete, complex staff isexcited to view the report that will be issuedlater in August. We are confident that thisreport will be an invaluable tool as wedevelop a strategic plan for the future of thecomplex.

Visitor Survey

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Condelario P. Torres

Carl E. Vogler, Sr.

Bryan Studer

Cyrus L. Smith, Sherman TX QMICU.SS. Mizar, 1943-u5

Ernest A Uptmore

Norman J. Deichsel

Mack R. Ball

Alfred W. Negley