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includes photo of replica
Sub gives ill kids lift
Stephen Wall, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/14/2008 10:08:01 PM PDT
LOMA LINDA - It wasn't an illusion.
There was a submarine docked in this land-locked town Thursday afternoon.
A 40-foot-long replica of the USS Catfish SS-339 anchored in front of Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.
The visit was courtesy of five local bases of the U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc., a nonprofit military charitable organization.
Navy veterans in the group shared stories of voyages to faraway lands with pediatric cancer patients and other ill children.
The shipmates handed out pink and blue baseball caps to children who have lost their hair because of a medical procedure. They also gave the kids certificates attesting to their status as "honorary submariners" and showed pictures of U.S. submarines.
"For them, this is better than the circus," said Michael Bircumshaw, Western District 6 commander of the submarine veterans group, which has 12,700 members and 154 chapters nationwide. "Some of these kids have spent their whole lives in the hospital."
Bircumshaw founded KapSS for KidSS, a program that has provided 1,600 caps to kids in the past two years.
"If you can do one thing to make them smile, that's all that counts," said 31-year Navy veteran J.J. Lynch, a San Diego resident.
The replica sub arrived at the hospital in the back of an open trailer pulled by a pickup. When it's not on display, the vessel is stored on the property of a World War II veteran who lives in Fallbrook. It
belongs to the submariners' Scamp Base in Escondido.
The actual 312-foot-long USS Catfish served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. After it was decommissioned by the Navy, it was sold to the government of Argentina, which renamed it the Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe was hit and sunk by the British during the Falklands War in 1982.
John Robinson, a 9-year-old patient from Grand Terrace, listened intently as Navy vet Jerry Cornelison talked about his experiences on the high seas.
"It's awesome," John said as he gazed at the black sub. "It's an old submarine, and I like catfish."
includes photo of replica
Sub gives ill kids lift
Stephen Wall, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 08/14/2008 10:08:01 PM PDT
LOMA LINDA - It wasn't an illusion.
There was a submarine docked in this land-locked town Thursday afternoon.
A 40-foot-long replica of the USS Catfish SS-339 anchored in front of Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.
The visit was courtesy of five local bases of the U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc., a nonprofit military charitable organization.
Navy veterans in the group shared stories of voyages to faraway lands with pediatric cancer patients and other ill children.
The shipmates handed out pink and blue baseball caps to children who have lost their hair because of a medical procedure. They also gave the kids certificates attesting to their status as "honorary submariners" and showed pictures of U.S. submarines.
"For them, this is better than the circus," said Michael Bircumshaw, Western District 6 commander of the submarine veterans group, which has 12,700 members and 154 chapters nationwide. "Some of these kids have spent their whole lives in the hospital."
Bircumshaw founded KapSS for KidSS, a program that has provided 1,600 caps to kids in the past two years.
"If you can do one thing to make them smile, that's all that counts," said 31-year Navy veteran J.J. Lynch, a San Diego resident.
The replica sub arrived at the hospital in the back of an open trailer pulled by a pickup. When it's not on display, the vessel is stored on the property of a World War II veteran who lives in Fallbrook. It
belongs to the submariners' Scamp Base in Escondido.
The actual 312-foot-long USS Catfish served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. After it was decommissioned by the Navy, it was sold to the government of Argentina, which renamed it the Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe was hit and sunk by the British during the Falklands War in 1982.
John Robinson, a 9-year-old patient from Grand Terrace, listened intently as Navy vet Jerry Cornelison talked about his experiences on the high seas.
"It's awesome," John said as he gazed at the black sub. "It's an old submarine, and I like catfish."