I wrote the Adams website and here is the response I received:
My name is Richard Cooper, and I was a corpsman aboard the USS Cochrane, DDG-21 from 1965-1967. I had served two Wespac cruises aboard the Cochrane and feel that the DDG is beyond a doubt the finest ship ever designed. I am convinced that you believe this too.
I came across your site via a link from the Cochrane website. It is too late for us, since many of us met the Cochrane in Brownsville, TX. shortly before they cut her up. This was very painful to see her in her state of disrepair, but we know that she served with dignity during her active service and we were very happy to be there to say goodbye to her.
This brings me to why I am writing to you. I want you to know that the Charles F. Adams will represent all of us that served aboard a DDG, and when you dedicate her new home in Michigan, I would very much ask if you could remember all of the other DDGs that followed her in a glorious service to their country.
response:
Hi Richard,
Just wanted to say thank you for the fantastic, uplifting note. I'm going to forward this to Mike Kegley, the president of the SVNSM committee because I'm sure he is going to want to see it too.
At 11:54 PM 10/6/01 -0700, you wrote:
This brings me to why I am writing to you. I want you to know that the Charles F. Adams will represent all of us that served aboard a DDG, and when you dedicate her new home in Michigan, I would very much ask if you could remember all of the other DDGs that followed her in a glorious service to their country.
While we are keying on the Adams, the intent of the museum is to honor all of the Adams class DDG's and the men (and maybe women) who sailed them. We have already been offered a lot of material from other Adams class DDG's and plan to display that material in the actual museum building - when we have it. This is still a long ways into the future, we have to get the Adams here first, but I can see a time when we would have a museum building near the Adams herself, with a section set aside for each of the other Adams class ships. The Cochrane and the others will not be forgotten!
Thanks again for writing.
Jim
Jim Bosworth - Webmaster
Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum Committee
Bay City, Michigan
www.cfadams.org