It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the USS Will Rogers web site.  I hope you find your time here a great investment in rekindling friendships and re-energizing your soul!

We have all loved and potentially hated our time onboard, but clearly as we have aged we forget the bad times and focus on the good.  The friendships, the port calls, the pranks, and yes even the pride in a job well done! 

The USS Will Rogers was a great ship.  She brought together thousands of men 120 at a time and forced them to become a team of the highest caliber.  A team that could operate one of the Navy’s finest Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines!

Our 2006 Reunion was held in Groton, CT and was special in that it also fell directly on the date of the Ship’s original launching.  Little did most of us know at the time that this Naval Vessel would become one of the lynch pins in our lives shaping us into the men we are today.

I hope you mix and mingle with crew members of all years during your time at the upcoming reunion.  You will find that regardless of whether you personally served at the same time as the person you are speaking with that your Will Rogers experience will instantly display the bond we share in spirit.  You may even find the stories are similar, just occurring a different time!

I am also proud of the USS Will Rogers Veterans Association!  This Association was created to ensure the ongoing success of this and earlier reunions by formalizing and tasking a group of dedicate shipmates to carry on the necessary duties to create opportunities for ongoing activities such as reunions.  

This group, most especially though the efforts of Admiral Larry Marsh also placed and dedicated a Memorial Plaque to the USS Will Rogers at the Navy Memorial in Washington, DC.  Somehow Admiral Marsh secured a most outstanding Plaque location!

You are invited and highly encouraged to join the Association if you have not done so already.  More than two-thirds of the 2006 reunion attendees have joined!  You are also encouraged to participate in the organization.  These events only happen with a dedicate group of volunteers and our planning activities allow us even more time with our shipmates and friends!

I would be remiss not to remember our 2006 reunion coordinator, Arch Achtemeier without whose tireless efforts our 2006 reunion would not have been such a success and the man who suggested the creation of this organization.  Thank you Arch for a job well done.  Your commitment and tireless efforts have provided all of us a great opportunity to renew friendships and get back in touch with our younger selves.  May you rest in peace shipmate!

Please stay in contact with us thru this web site and join the Association today if you are not currently a member!

Best regards,

Rob Fields
STS1(SS)
1982-1986 Blue
President
USS Will Rogers Veterans Association
(781) 507-0106