Members,
The March UASC meeting is this Wednesday, March 26th at the new Chicago Maritime Museum location, 1200 West 35th Street, Suite OE5010, Chicago, IL 60609. Free parking is available adjacent to the facility. Use the entrance next to the loading dock on the north side of the building (same side you wil park on). The door is at ground level and the museum is on the lower level down the stairway.
Included on the agenda this month will be the drawing for all new members to win one of three two tank dive trips with an area Dive Charter company. I would like to thank Windy City Diving, Dive Right In Scuba, and Len-Der Charters for donating a spot on an upcoming charter. Your generosity is greatly appreciated andI hope that this effort is beneficial to your charter operations as well to UASC. Thank you.
Our speaker will be Keith Pearson who has been making a living in the waters of the Great Lakes since the 1970s. He is the owner of a Chicago based marine engineering company, tasked as the Salvage Master for Chicago Marine Towing, and is the Lead Recovery Engineer for A and T Recovery. Keith is also long time member and past president of the Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago. Keith will be speaking
Off the shores of Chicago rests many lost ships and airplanes that tell important parts of Chicago’s maritime history. Most of these ships and airplanes remained lost to time until a small company, A&T Recovery, surveyed the floor of the Lake’s southern basin in order to retrieve the historically significant aircraft that had been lost during the aircraft carrier training operations of World War II. Since the late 1980′s, dozens of historic airplanes have been recovered by A&T Recovery for the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida in order that they may be displayed and presented to the American public. One of these airplanes can be found at O’Hare Airport, where a F4F-3 Wildcat fighter is displayed in honor of “Butch” O’Hare. In the process of locating the airplanes, A&T Recovery located the early Holocene Forest and significant shipwrecks including: the Wells Burt, the Wings of the Wind, the Rotarian, and the former German World War I U-boat UC-97.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting.
Bob Rushman
UASC President