USS Newport News Museum and Memorial Foundation

As most of you probably know, a sizeable number of our fellow shipmates have spent a number of years building a remarkably nice museum in honor of the ship and crew of our beloved 'Thunder'. In addition to filling up a berthing compartment on our sister and host ship, the USS Salem CA-139, (the world's only preserved heavy gun cruiser) berthed in the Fore River Shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts, our museum crew has restored the interior and exterior of Turret #2, which is dedicated as a memorial to our mates who lost their life in the turret explosion of October, 1972 off the coast of Viet Nam. We also maintain several other spaces and areas which have been placed in our care by the U.S. Navy Shipbuilding Museum, which operates the USS Salem as a museum ship.

All of this takes money to properly maintain, so as you have probably guessed, that's the reason we're sending this note out to all of our fellow shipmates. We'd like for all of our Newport News shipmates to become "Members" of the USS Newport News CA-148 Museum & Memorial Foundation, Inc., coughing up enough money in the process to properly maintain our museum and support our working parties throughout the year. To pay our fair share of the USS Salem maintenance cost (sort of like our museum space "rent") we hope to be able to give a generous cash donation to the Salem each year to help cover heat and electricity costs. In addition, volunteers have ongoing needs for cleaning supplies, replacement light bulbs, repairing damaged items and upgrades to our audiovisual displays. We also support working parties with paint, food & water, brushes, needle guns, protective gear, and the like. Between all of those needs, it adds up to several thousand dollars a year just to keep our museum open for the public.

So we are looking for your help, and are asking you all to become Supporting Members of YOUR museum. Annual dues are just $15 per person or $25 for a family membership (more would be certainly appreciated.) In return, you'll receive a handsome membership card, free admission to the USS Salem any time you're in the area, and your fellow shipmate's heartfelt thanks.

You can donate by sending a check through the mail or with PayPal/Credit Card. All donations are tax deductible.

Thanks for your help, shipmate!!!

The below links are where you can see what has been donated so far, or make your donation offer, and a history of items donated for the USS NEWPORT NEWS MUSEUM/MEMORIAL

Do you have something to Display?	Go here if you have items to donate to our museum, let us know what you have to offer. We will check to see if the museum needs these items, or maybe we already have too many of the and will let you know our status and our need for your gracious offer.
New Memorabilia Donations Made	List of items items donations made for the time period starting Aug. 2001 through March 2006
Memorabilia Donations Made	Original Donations. List of items and their donators for the Museum that were donated before Aug 2001 .
History of financial contributions made	Income and Expense history of our project. Were is the money coming from and where is it going?