Activities

In July 2005, about 50 shipmates and their 35 guests attended the first "official" reunion of the USS Coontz. Those in attendance included crew members who served aboard both the DLG-9 and the DDG-40 versions of the ship. The reunion began on a Friday night, with a "meet and greet" in the Presidential Suite of the Norfolk Airport Hilton. The shipmates partied until the wee hours of the morning, and woke up a couple of hours later to board the motor coaches for tours of historic downtown Norfolk, the MacArthur Memorial Museum, the Nauticus Maritime Museum and the USS Wisconsin. After the tours, everybody boarded the Victory Rover harbor cruise boat for a two-hour tour of the Norfolk Navy Base. They were able to take photos of submarines, aircraft carriers and the new Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers. From there, it was back to the Hilton for the reunion banquet. Former USS Coontz commanding officer Charles Gnerlich gave an eloquent speech about what it was like to serve aboard the ship, and that even though the shipmates came from different eras, they were all members of one crew. The reunion gave the shipmates a chance to renew old friendships, and pay tribute to a ship many considered to be their favorite duty assignment.