2005 Bennett reunion, Warrensburg, NY
Highlight of the reunion was a visit to Warrensburg, New York, home town of namesake Floyd Bennett, where the group was greeted by Town Supervisor Jerry Quintal and Historical Society President Steve Parisi, to whom they presented a track chart of Bennett’s Pacific operations in World War II.
Luncheon speakers were Larry Bennett, third cousin of Floyd Bennett and supervisor of the nearby town of Lake Luzerne, and Floyd Bennett, personified by Don Hazlett both of whom gave fine presentations. In return, shipmates told how Mrs. Bennett, Floyd Bennett’s widow, christened the ship and presented the crew with an ice cream maker—possibly the only one on a destroyer in the Pacific in 1943—and continued to make donations to the crew in later years.