It's called a family reunion, but none of the attendees are related by blood or marriage.
Ralph Beck, of Manheim, poses with a photo of the USS Hyman. He served on the
ship in the early 1960s
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The ties that bind them are made of iron and steel.
More than 300 Navy veterans of the USS Hyman (DD-732) Association found their bond upon the destroyer on which they served.
The Hyman saw 25 years of service in three major conflicts in the 20th century.
The veterans from the ship reunite for the 21st time at the Eden Resort Inn & Suites next month.
"It's a 'Band of Brothers' type of thing," said Ralph Beck, a Manheim resident who was an electrician's mate on the ship from 1960 to 1962. "You just feel like you're family."
Beck is the chief organizer of this year's reunion. The last event, in 2006, took place in Seattle. He said the Lancaster reunion is the biggest in recent memory. More than 110 veterans and their families are expected to attend , compared to the 53 that went to the Seattle event.
The Hyman saw action in the Pacific Theater in World War II, the Korean War and flashpoints during the Cold War, including a stint as a support ship for America's first manned spaceflight program, Project Mercury.
It saw its last day of service in late 1969. The military sold the Hyman for $67,000 to a scrap yard in New Orleans.
The Hyman lives on in the memories of the men who served on it. They built a permanent memorial to the ship in New Castle, Ind. The surviving veterans gather there every April 6, the day the ship suffered heavy casualties in a Japanese kamikaze attack off Okinawa.
"You just feel this relationship with guys who volunteered and who happened to live on the same ship," Beck said. "Besides, you always have something derogatory to say about other ships.
"There's commonality."
And it's the memory of the Hyman that has kept the geographically scattered group together, even after its first official reunion more than 50 years ago in New York City.
"We've always been in touch," Beck said.
Three generationsBeck, who left the Hyman as a petty officer second class, is the only Lancaster resident known to have served on the ship.
Now 68, he is one of the youngest to have served on the Hyman.
The Hyman was commissioned in June 1944. It took part in the assaults on the Japanese island strongholds of Iwo Jima and Okinawa in 1945. As Marines invaded Iwo Jima, the destroyer bombarded Japanese positions with its deck guns. Later in the battle, it lit Mount Suribachi with spotlights for Marines fighting up the mountain.
Seven members of the ship's original crew are expected to be at the reunion in September.
Twenty years separate Beck from some of the oldest veterans from the Hyman.
Bob Moldenhauer, 81, was aboard the Hyman when it attacked Okinawa six weeks after Iwo Jima.
Now living in Kenilworth, N.J., he vividly remembers the details of his tour of duty. Moldenhauer was loading powder into the ship's guns when it was attacked by Japanese kamikaze planes.
"We won't forget the guys who were killed there," he said. "I'll never forget that day we got hit."
The Hyman took out six Japanese planes with its guns, but one damaged plane slipped through and crashed between the ship's stacks near the torpedo tubes, killing 12 men.
"We were in battle stations for hours," Moldenhauer said. "But the dedication to the USS Hyman and my skipper kept me going."
It was the worst attack the ship suffered during its service.
Beck attended his first reunion in 1998, when it was held in San Diego.
The age gap between him and the eldest veterans didn't matter.
"Within five minutes, we felt like we were all part of the same family," he said. "It's been like that ever since."
The Hyman was the flagship of the U.S. Navy's 126th destroyer division in World War II. It was named after Capt. Willfred Milton Hyman, who went down with his ship, the USS Sims, at the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942.
The ship also saw service in Korea, where it provided off-shore artillery support for the army.
During the Cold War, and Beck's service, the Hyman was assigned as a station ship west of the Azores for Project Mercury, which was the country's first manned spaceflight program.
Beck, vice president of the memorial association, estimates more than 4,000 served on the Hyman.
"There may be 1,000 [living] crew members over the 25 years of service that the ship was in commission," he said.
"There's a lot of guys who don't bother going," Moldenhauer said of the reunion. "They just want to forget everything."
For the association, it's a different story.
"We're brothers," he said. "Every reunion we go, we shake hands and give each other a hug.
"All of us, we stuck together."
Paul Franz is a Sunday News staff writer. Contact him at pfranz@lnpnews.com or at 295-5063.
