Also just finishing a book about my grandfather who was the only Issei exempted from internment camp during WWII, which I fully discovered during the Japanese Redress era. It's quite an amazing story - he was naturalized in 1919 with the help of the Navy and following 30 years service, Captains and Admirals got him exempted through the U.S. Atty and General DeWitt of the Western Defense Command."

Forgive me for having a "senior moment" if I make a mistake with names.
This was a reunion of OI Division organized by Curtis Miley and held in the mid 80's in Long Beach.
Left to Right - J.W. Cropper, Curtis Miley, Cliff Tejada, Marvin Klaar, J.V. Clark (Pappy), Phil Carter, Clem Proud, Tom Santanello (spent his entire career in the Navy as the Captain's driver) and John Sporleder.

A good time was had by all.  The two funniest things came from the reaction of wives and family.  First of all some of the wives were a bit bent because they thought TJ was showing off with a new, and very young wife.  Turns out it was the same incredibly beautiful and still young looking woman he had married in 1967!  After that, the best thing was the sudden dawning on the faces of everyone when they figured out that all the stories we had been telling all those years were not lies.  We had all been telling the same stories.

In 1990 while in San Diego on business, Phil Carter called GRIDLEY one weekend and asked the CDO if he could visit the ship on a Sunday.  The crew were most hospitable and somewhat curious about "the old days".  

Even the officers seemed to know little of the history of the ship.  That is one of the things we would like to correct in this site.