President’s Forum

Communication from the President

Brendan Holmes

Mon, Dec 29, 10:57 PM (20 hours ago)

To: USS Wisconsin Association Members

Seasons Greeting and Happy New Year shipmates. I'd like to take this opportunity to bring our association up to date with a few items as we close out 2025.

As noted we have published a new website and our previous website USSWISCONSIN.ORG will cease on or about year's end. If there is anything that you'd like to visit or view from this website you may want to do so before the New Year. I have backed up the content from this website and we will be incorporating some of this into our new website, USSWISCONSIN.COM over the next few months. Keith Cornelius, our newest member of the Presidential Advisory Board is our new webmaster/historian. He replaced Dom Menta and is working diligently to update the site expeditiously. We appreciate your patience as we address some critical issues. If you'd like to see something on our new website, please reach out to Keith directly (corneliuskeith101@gmail.com)

We have implemented a new software to publish our Badger and due to a learning curve, the current year-end issue was delayed. It was sent to the printer prior to Christmas so you should receive this issue soon. If there is something that you'd like to see or have us mention in upcoming issues please reach out directly to Ray via email (bugster999@yahoo.com) for review and approval. The transition from Microsoft Word to Canva will allow us to use a template and make the job easier for our editor Ray Sandberg. 

If you're not aware we have implemented a lifetime membership for $100 or you can choose to pay the annual membership dues of $25/year. If you have joined our association for multiple years and choose to renew your membership for the lifetime option, any funds received will be credited toward this. Please communicate this directly to our membership chairman. Our membership chairman, Mike Brown, has notified me that there are members who have not renewed their membership and he has tried to reach them via information we have on file. If you have updated contact information, please feel free to reach out to him directly via email (firedogblaze1966@aim.com).

Please be advised that the executive board has made the decision to send hard copies of the Badger only to active members of our association who have paid their dues. If your membership has lapsed or if you need to update your contact information please reach out directly to Mike. The costs to print and mail the Badger exceeds $7/per issue, or just over $21/year for the three issues and we can only anticipate that the costs will steadily increase over the foreseeable future. This is why we are reaching out as a friendly reminder to those members who may have missed these reminders to consider renewing their membership. You can renew your membership directly via our website at: 

https://www.usswisconsin.com/join-us 

Our next issue of the Badger will include information pertaining to our reunion, shirt ordering and hopefully an itinerary for October 8th through the 11th. Our Vice President Leo Kenworthy is in charge of the reunion and he can be reached directly (lkenworthy13@gmail.com). Our reunion has been planned and will take place at the Sandcastle Resort located on Virginia Beach. The executive committee unanimously agreed after countless hours of negotiation with hotels in vicinity to the ship, As such we were not able to secure favorable lodging that would not place our association in jeopardy. Considering that we are entering the twilight of our association, please help us spread the word about our upcoming reunion. We hope to make the final reunions amazing and provide memories that will last a long time. 

Please take a moment to check information from our new website. If your name, rate/rank, time onboard, etc., is incorrect, please let Keith know. As noted we are in the process of updating the new website and will be incorporating information from the previous website. As a work in progress we will work to address your concerns in a professional manner as time permits. 

Warm Regards,

Brendan Holmes

USS Wisconsin Association President

OS2/OI Division Tomahawk DBM 1989-1991