Still, for her, the reunions have an increasing poignance. She chuckles as she remembers one old salt's definition of the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story: A fairy tale begins, "Once upon a time …" A sea story starts out, more or less, with "Now, this is no bull …" "They absolutely love to talk about the ship," Ramsey said. More than 50 of the veterans' group's 400 members are expected to be on hand, and at least some of them will be chatting with visitors. Her appearance will coincide with the annual reunion of the USS North Carolina Battleship Association. On Saturday, she'll sign copies of her book from 1 to 4 p.m. Ramsey - who now works for Isothermal Community College up in Polk County - is back in the area this week. Blair, $19.95), an oral history of the warship known as "The Showboat," from the perspective of the ordinary swabbies in the crew. Now, she's paying them back with a salute: The Boys of the Battleship North Carolina (John F. Many of them, she said, became like family. "I spent six days with the guys, helping with the oral history interviews," she said.Įventually, she talked with more than 100 of the veteran sailors and Marines, in person or by phone. She attended her first reunion of the North Carolina's crew in 2001. As a schoolchild, she contributed spare change to help bring the battleship to Wilmington. Ramsey, a former editor-publisher of The Pender Post, grew up on the Black River, just 15 miles north of the Battleship North Carolina Memorial's berth on Eagles Island. They were members of the "Greatest Generation," and some 7,000 of them would spend at least part of World War II aboard the battleship USS North Carolina.Ĭindy Ramsey knows their stories - at least a lot of them. Paul, Minn., Newport, Neb., Pasadena, Calif., and Charlotte. They were boys, really, mostly in their teens, from places like Baltimore, Salem, Mass., St.
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