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On Saturday, October 1st we once again welcomed the surviving members who crewed BB-35 during the war years. The turnout was a little less than expected, and could be due to news of Hurricane Rita hitting about 9O miles east the weekend before.

Shot from atop the #2 turret during the ceremony.

Veterans Frank Pelalia, Lou Pecora and Emil Saul stop while coming up the gangway for a group shot. These three gentlemen served together aboard ship and attend the runions together as well.

We even had a band!

After the main ceremony, it was time for the ribbon-cutting to open our most-recently restored space, the Senior Officer's Stateroom hallway and the stateroom of Dr. Mcardle. This is just proir to the cutting, in the Officer's Wardroom. Volunteer Chuck Moore is talking with veteran Harold Long.

And then the official ribbon cutting, performed by ship veteran Julio Zacagni.

The veterans and thier families are the first group of the general public allowed into this space since sometime in the 196O's. Many of the vets were glad to see McArdle's stateroom as the one chosen to be restored, as some were cared for aboard ship by him and spke quite highly of him. Also, most of them had never seen this space when they were aboard; it was off limits to enlisted personnel and was "officer's country". That can be noted by the green paint.

After the opening of the space, it was time for Mess Call. Vets and thier families, State ship's workers & park rangers, Battleship Texas Foundation members and the band were served catered barbeque from the Galley. HEY! How did the band warrant a free lunch?! They didn't do anything! The volunteers were below deck eating pizza!!

SHip's worker Gaspar and veteran Dalton Lewis fill thier plates in the buffet line running through the ship's Galley. The USS Texas was one of the last US battleships built with the Galley on the Main Deck.

Veterans take advantage of a shady spot to have lunch, using the armored ammo boxes as tables. Yes, they said they (during the war) had tables set up below decks, but would often eat like this on the Main Deck.

Then it was time to visit different compartments and telltales of days gone past. Here, Dalton Lewis is in the Main Radio Station, down on 3rd Deck, explaining what equipment was where.

This is Howard Mills, exiting the starboard 14-inch gun compartment in the #1 Turret.

This is Harold Long again, on 2nd Deck back near the #5 Turret. He was pointing out his bunk and his locker, which is three lockers over from the locker I use.

Great pics, Spike Mike. The vets and the ship looking good. I like the pic of the galley on the main deck. So much work has been done on the ship in the past three years! You should post some of the 'before' photos - or a link to the picture gallery here.