On our club website we have documented the actual and fictitious history of the vessels bearing the name “Ticonderoga” in our Namesake History section. Basically we love seeing the efforts that other Star Trek fans have completed using the name USS Ticonderoga.
Today, custom model builder and Star Trek fan, Bill Krause, posted these images of a Constitution Class (refit) USS Ticonderoga on his twitter account. We reached out to Mr. Krause and he has graciously given us permission to post the images here for all to enjoy. Thank you.
Captain Erica Stark had the pleasure to represent the USS Ticonderoga at the Commissioning Ceremony of the Nova Class USS Pulsar, NCC-72358 in Utah County.
Captain Joe Coleflesh had launched a chapter-in-training, the Runabout USS St. Lawrence off of the USS Ticonderoga several years ago. He was able to build the chapter-in-training and obtain his rank of Captain with the help of Star Trek fans in Utah County. Thus the St. Lawrence was graduated to full chapter status and the USS Pulsar was launched.
The actual launching ceremony was originally scheduled to take place in 2020, however it had to be delayed until 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic. The official launch date of the full chapter is still listed as March 9, 2020 on the SeventhFleet website.
After the Seventh Feet Commander-in-Chief read off the official orders giving Captain Coleflesh command of the Pulsar, Captain Stark and Captain Corr participated in the christening ceremony by smashing bottles on the “hull” of the ship.
Congratulations to the crew of the USS Pulsar. We are looking forward to hearing about your upcoming adventures for years to come.
Vice-Admiral Carl Stark, the first Commanding officer of the USS Euphrates/USS Ticonderoga was asked to write up some memories for the 25th Anniversary of the Star Trek club now known as the USS Ticonderoga. Here is what he sent in for the newsletter.
What happened Twenty-Five years ago by Carl Stark
Wow, March 2021 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Star Trek fan club known as the USS Ticonderoga. As I look back on how this all came together, I have many fond memories. Some of them good and some not-so-good. But life is dealing with both the good and the bad. I was asked to put down my thoughts on this fan club that I helped to start and grow.
The year was 1995 and it was not a kind one for me while I was living in the Salt Lake valley. I was working as a computer support tech for three different companies. And in that span of a year, I had been laid off three times from those same three companies. I was beat and discouraged. One of the few things that kept my spirits up was my membership in the Star Trek family known as the USS Kelly.
I had been a member of the Kelly since 1991 (on the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek) and I had earned the rank of Lt. Commander in the years that followed. I had also been tasked with being the Chief of Security. Looking back, I’m grateful for the time I spent as a department chief. Running a department is like running a mini-starship. I had to select an assistant department chief, meetings had to be planned and agendas written, I had to keep my members informed and active. We helped each other with our rank advancement goals and special projects. It was a sense of pride to have a good running department because I felt that I was helping to make the chapter a better club.
As it turns out, this was noticed not only by the Kelly CO, Captain Dennis Hollinger and XO, Commander Richard Henline but by the Admiralty at Starfleet Command as well. The performance of my duties had been noted in the USS Kelly chapter reports. I was not aware of this at the time, but my name had been placed on a promotion list of possible future commanding officers within the fleet.
After being laid off from my third IT job in 1995, I didn’t know what I was going to do next. I had several job leads that I was pursuing when I was approached by a former Kelly member, Robert Aswin, who had moved up to Davis County the year before. He was looking for roommates to live in his house in Layton and invited me to move up with him. Another Kelly member, Mark Boone, had started a job at the America Online tech support call center in downtown Ogden and stated he could put in a good word for me. I passed the interview with flying colors and was offered a position that would start in two months. This would give me plenty of time to get things wrapped up in Salt Lake and moved into the new area at the start of 1996. A fresh start after the disastrous year of 1995.
At a Kelly senior officers meeting I let Captain Hollinger and Commander Henline know of my intention to move up to the Ogden-Layton area in a few months. While not a huge distance, I felt it was far enough that I could not give my Chief of Security duties the proper time needed to perform them. They understood my decision to resign my department head position. It was at this time that they let me know that my name had been placed on a promotion list with Starfleet Command. If I wanted to take a Runabout (chapter-in-training) to run in the Ogden/Layton area I had the blessing of the Kelly leadership and the Admiralty at Starfleet Command. As Mark Boone (who was also a Kelly department head) and I were driving away from the senior officers meeting I let him know that I was giving it serious thought. Mark turned to me and said that if I took on this new role, he would join my chapter-in-training despite still living in the Salt Lake valley. My roommate, Robert Aswin, was very supportive as well.
The Ogden/Layton region had originally been the home of a Star Trek fan club called the USS Dominion. It had operated from 1989 to 1994 before disbanding due to a lack of recruiting new members and several members moving away. But it had a lot of good remaining members who had enjoyed their time with the club. There had been several other attempts at starting Star Trek clubs, but they hardly lasted after a year or two. It was easy to start a club, but to keep a club going and growing took a lot of work. While seeing those in uniforms with recruiting booths and having fun at meetings may look easy from the outside, on the inside it was a lot of time and energy. As people found out after starting a club, this work could be exhausting if you were not prepared for it. So, these Star Trek clubs never got very far. But the USS Dominion had set the groundwork for the fans in the area to join the newly launched USS Euphrates.
The Euphrates was one of two Runabouts available to launch from the USS Kelly. A chapter-in-training allows newly minted commanding officers and crew to walk-the-walk of a Star Trek club, but still make mistakes. Learning from these mistakes with help from the mothership allowed the club to grow and eventually graduate into full chapter status. On Saturday, March 9, 1996 at a ceremony at the Davis County North Library in Clearfield, Captain Dennis Hollinger presided over the launching of the USS Euphrates under command of Lt. Commander Carl Stark with Lt. Robert Aswin as the Executive Officer and Lt. Mark Boone as the Second Officer. After the ceremony the first official activity was touring the Hill Air Force Base Museum as a group and going to dinner soon afterwards. You know a meal had to be involved in there as we always seem to get together with friends for a meal.
Running the USS Euphrates did take a lot of hard work. There was even one meeting where the only people who showed up are those that came in the CO’s car. But there were other times when the persistence and hard work paid off. The Euphrates lead the group of volunteers who helped at a Salt Lake appearance of William Shatner at a Star Trek convention. Shatner was so impressed with the volunteers that he complimented them the next day at another Star Trek convention put on by the same organizer.
After going through the growing pains of a year and a half I had been promoted to the rank of Commander and the Admiralty at Starfleet Command informed me that we were nearing the end of their chapter-in-training phase. I was instructed to decide upon a final chapter name and class. A list of several chapter names and classes were provided to me to select from. After looking over the list I narrowed it down to three possible choices. The Nebula-Class USS Virginia, the Cheyenne-Class USS Black Hawk or the Intrepid-Class USS Ticonderoga. These names were presented to the crew and the majority of them voted to become the USS Ticonderoga. The primary reason this name was selected was because of the history of vessels named Ticonderoga. Apparently, this decision had shocked Captain Hollinger and Commander Henline as they thought the larger Nebula-Class would have been selected. They even had a schematic poster of the USS Virginia printed up in anticipation of the decision.
On October 25, 1997 the friends of the USS Euphrates: The USS Kelly, USS Rendezvous, USS Zambezi (i.e., the future USS Retributor), Rebel’s Associated (a local Star Wars fan club), the IRW Falcon (a local Romulan club) and other friends got together for a meal and the launching ceremony of the USS Ticonderoga. This was held at a banquet center in Kaysville. There I was promoted to the rank of Captain and given command of the USS Ticonderoga, NCC-74676.
However, the changes were not stopping there. Our parent organization, Starfleet Command and the Admiralty based out of Baltimore, MD after running the organization for over eighteen years had decided to disband at the end of 1997. After finding ourselves without a parent organization I had to decide what to do with the USS Ticonderoga. We could have joined another existing parent organization out there. But most of them charged dues to join and we had a lot of success being a dues-free organization. I didn’t want to turn away a fellow Star Trek fan and his family because they couldn’t afford $15 or more in dues. We could have proceeded as an independent club, but life is better when you share it with friends. So, the USS Ticonderoga joined up with the USS Kelly, the USS Retributor (both of Starfleet Command) and the USS Rendezvous (an ex-SFI chapter who had gone independent years ago) to form Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet. When we had told Starfleet Command of our intention to band together, the Admiralty gave us permission to use the name “Starfleet Command” in our title and promoted Captain Dennis Hollinger to Admiral just before disbanding. Thus, making the USS Ticonderoga a plank holder with Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet. I’m happy to say that this new beginning has allowed us to grow and meet more friends as new chapters have joined in on the fun.
Now there are a ton of different events, memories, and happy times that I could write down for this article. However, I know our poor editors only have so much space allotted in this issue. So, I’d like to wrap up with how I ended my term as the Commanding Officer of the USS Ticonderoga. One of the philosophies that we try to live by within this organization is “train your replacement”. As a volunteer organization we understand that real life comes first. Real life has given our friends opportunities in their lives that may cause them to move to other areas. There have also been times that other issues have caused some members to cut back on the amount of participating that they can dedicate. And unfortunately, a few of them have entered the final frontier beyond this life. Thus, we have attempted to teach our leaders to give opportunities to those under their command to expand their leadership roles. This way when real life rears its ugly head, we can tell the affected individual to take care what they need to and that the club will still be here upon their return. So, in the early 2010’s I had initiated the “Captain for a Month” program on the Ticonderoga. Any member who had reached the rank of Lt. (j.g.) or higher could volunteer to be the acting CO of the Ticonderoga for the month. They would be responsible for conducting the monthly meeting, writing up the senior officer meeting agenda, preparing the report for Admiral Hollinger and (if it happened during the month they were acting CO) attend the quarterly Seventh Fleet Council meeting with myself and the XO. This would give a ton of leadership experience to the volunteer and allow the chapter to see how they would handle command. I had four different members participate in this program before I had been approached by Admiral Hollinger. The growth of the Seventh Fleet had reached a point where he needed more than himself to run the organization. He had been thinking of asking one of the chapter CO’s about taking a position with the Admiralty, but he didn’t want to leave a chapter without a commanding officer. The question he asked me was “If I gave you a promotion, is there anyone you feel confident in taking over the center seat of the Ticonderoga?” Because I had done the “Captain for a Month” program, I felt confident that one of the four candidates could fill the position. Both the Seventh Fleet Council and the crew of the USS Ticonderoga accepted Lt. Erica Abner-Stark as the new CO. She was given a field promotion to Captain (don’t worry, she still went through and completed the rank requirements adopted for the fleet) and took over as the Ticonderoga CO in 2011. I will let her tell her adventures as the Tico CO in her own article.
To my friends who joined this Star Trek fan club and just came to hang out, to those who volunteered as department chiefs and senior officers. To those who served as executive officers, newsletter editors and more. And especially to the spouses of those who volunteered, I say thank you to you all. The USS Ticonderoga would not be celebrating it’s 25th Anniversary without your dedication, hard work and effort. I’m looking forward to 25 more years of friendship, adventures, and family.
Greetings, all! And happy new year!
I hope the first weeks of 2019 have been treating you well. We have a great opportunity to truly show off what the otters can do, when we host the annual Fleet Banquet on the 26th. I have full faith that we can blow it out of the water – we’ve pulled together and made great things happen many times in the past.
Thank you, all, for a great 2018. I know we can make 2019 even better.
A short note on chain of command, both within the club and within the fleet. There has been much discussion concerning observing the chain of command, which is also the chain of communication.
When we’re talking about official communications, there is a very specific trail to follow: department chief > first officer > commanding officer > fleet council > admiralty board. If you truly feel as though you have an issue that you can’t discuss with your department chief, your first option should be another department chief, or the assistant department chief, who can then bring it to the X.O., who can then take it to the C.O. Ideally, we are close enough that we can take care of issues quickly and between the involved parties. If, for whatever reason, you feel as though you can’t speak directly to the necessary party, there are workarounds to solve any issues.
There have been occasions within the fleet wherein members of a ship have gone either directly to the admiralty, or to members of a different ship, disrespecting and disregarding the official chain of command, blowing problems completely out of proportion, and blindsiding their COs and XOs when the issues are brought up at fleet council meetings. Keep in mind that this is *only* for official fleet business or issues. Chatting with other members of our fleet-wide family is welcomed and encouraged.
Thank you all for your time. See you next time!
-=/\=- Erica
Happy October!
I hope everyone had a great summer! It’s been very busy few months. Happily, things are slowing down, but we still have a bunch of fun things to close out the year.
Next Saturday, October 7th, we are taking our annual trip to Black Island Farms corn maze. On October 28th, we’re having a costume party for Halloween.
Coming up in November, we will be going to Seaquest Aquarium inside Layton Hills mall. The following weekend we will be participating in an away team with the Order of the Ba’tleth, going to check out the Viking display at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
In December, we will be having our annual Mugato gift exchange – this year he is cobalt blue – and our annual mid-winter barbecue on New Year’s Eve.
Remember that at our January meeting, we will be filling out our activity calendar for 2018. Please bring your ideas, your suggestions, and have an idea of which month you would like to see it held. Your suggestions can be for activities that we’ve done before, or activities we’ve never tried. If you can have information regarding costs, as well, that would be awesome!
Our Klingon department just held it’s first activity and meeting, and will be holding another soon. Annie Stephens has jumped on the chance to run the Star Wars department, so be looking for some more information regarding activities in this group. 2018 will see the introduction of the Harry Potter department, and hopefully other special interest departments following. If you’d like to run a special interest department, please be sure to let your department chief know, and they will pass that info along to myself and our inimitable XO.
Thank you, all, for your time and attention. Hope to wee you all, out and about!
Greetings, All! And happy August. The summer has been so filled with events and occurrences (some good, some sad, some irritating) that it just got away from us.
We still have a LOT of activities coming up, so we’re not done yet. First up is the “We Can’t go to Star Trek: Las Vegas” trip to Wendover, NV. There are still some spaces left on the fun bus. (Follow link for details)
August 12th is Fleet day! Come join other members of the fleet for a day of games, food and fun! Please RSVP to me by Saturday, Aug 5th, if you are planning on partaking of the lunch provided. (Follow link for details)
Fleet Day info
Also, if you are able, please remember to bring a small donation for the command project:
(We will have a box at the August meeting if you wish to donate, but won’t be attending Fleet day.)
August 21st is the Solar Eclipse party. Join us as we check out this super rare event. (Most of us will only get to experience a full solar eclipse once or twice in our lifetimes!) (Follow link for details)
Wow we were so busy with March with our activities and the Salt Lake Comic Con FanX booth that we blinked and March was over. Many thanks to the volunteers who helped out at the booth. We had several compliments on how relaxed our “Ten Forward Lounge Theme” was set up. So here is what we have coming up in April.
Wednesday, April 12th is our monthly meeting. However our regular meeting location, the Roy Library, is booked for this month. Luckily Ticonderoga crewmembers Damon and Amanda Ricks were able to set us up with a temporary location for this month. So we will be meeting at the Marshall White Community Center located at 222 28th Street in Ogden. The Ricks have set up a special event for our meeting so be on time for some prizes. The meeting starts at 7:00pm and feel free to bring a friend. In May we will be back at the Roy Library.
The Ticonderoga Senior Officer’s meeting will be held on Friday, April 14th at Starbase 40. Please let the Captain know if you will be attending so she can make sure there is enough food for dinner.
April 21-23 are the dates for the StarFest convention in Denver. This is the 40th Anniversary of the convention and a lot of Seventh Fleet members are attending. (especially if we missed the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention last August) We have a discount ticket code from our friends on the USS Pioneer. If you are interested in going, contact the Captain. A few members may still have spots open for rides and/or rooms. Walter Koenig and Rene Auberjonois are two Star Trek actors who will be in attendance at the convention. This would also count as an out-of-state convention for those working towards the ‘command grade’ ranks. Additional details can be found at www.StarFestDenver.com
We have a free event for Saturday, April 29th. We will be visiting the Hill AFB Museum. However instead of just wandering between exhibits as we have done before, we have a guided tour. Please be at the museum lobby before noon in order to go on the tour. We may have several visitors from other chapters joining us for this event.
Just a week later will be our May activity on Saturday the 6th. We will be meeting at a park in Clearfield or Layton for a rocket launch and drone races. This will run from 11:30am-3:30pm. Bring your own picnic lunch for the event.
Wow, November 2016 already? We dive into the holiday season with a variety of different activities and events.
Saturday, November 5th starting at 2:00pm the crew of the USS Ticonderoga will be gathering at the home of Kathy Campbell in Ogden (contact the Captain for the address). We will be watching episodes or movies and working on rank advancement ADVOTs. This is also a pot-luck so bring a dish to share (and your own drinks).
Tuesday, November 8th is Election Day. To make this world a better place, we would like to encourage you to vote for the candidates of your choice. On your duty report that you turn in at the start of December just note that you have voted and you will earn Leadership promotional merit points.
Wednesday, November 9th is the date of the USS Ticonderoga general meeting. PLEASE NOTE: because the Roy Library was booked, we will be meeting at the Layton Library (Address: 155 Wasatch Dr near Layton High School). Because we have to be done with the meeting at 8:30pm we will be skipping the 30 min “catch up” time that we usually have (in other words we will be starting right at 7:00pm instead of 7:30). We don’t know if we will have time for show in tell but Admiral Stark will have the latest copy of the new Star Trek Encyclopedia to show off.
Friday, November 11 the Ticonderoga Senior Officers will be meeting. Senior Officers please talk with the CO or XO for details.
Airing on the NBC network the night of Thursday, September 8, 1966 at 7:30pm the world was officially introduced to Star Trek. It took two pilots, several recasting and the support of the Desilu studios (then owned by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) to finally get the USS Enterprise off the ground and into television history.
Do you recall the first time you saw Star Trek? Was it during the original run in the 60’s? The re-runs of the 70’s or the movies of the 80’s? Perhaps it was one of the many spin offs or even the new Kelvin-timeline based movies. No matter what introduced you to our favorite franchise, being a Star Trek fan automatically makes you a friend that we want to talk to. We tip our hat to the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek and look forward to many more years to come of new movies, TV series, conventions, comics, books, games and more.
As most of you know, part of our charter is to provide community service. We are trying to make our world a better place as seen in the 24th century. In early September at Salt Lake Comic Con (and with the help of the Seventh Fleet) we raised about $300 for the Best Friends Animal Society of Utah. This is a no-kill shelter that has helped hundreds of dogs and cats (and other animals) find good homes. Thank you to everyone who helped put the Borg Alcove together, helped man the booth or even just stopped by to donate. A special thank you goes out to Dan Farr, Bryan Brandenburg and all of the Salt Lake Comic Con volunteers for putting on such a wonderful event.
Wednesday, September 14th at 7:00pm we will be holding our monthly meeting. This will be at the Weber County Library Southwest Branch in Roy (2039 West 4000 South). This meeting is open to the general public so feel free to invite any friends who may be interested in checking out our free Star Trek fan club. Don’t forget your Star Trek/SF show and tell items.
Department Heads we will be holding a staff meeting on Friday, September 16th at 7:00pm. This will be at Starbase 40. Please RSVP with the CO.
We will be holding our 50th Anniversary Party on Saturday, September 17th from 6pm-9pm at the home of Captain Stark (Starbase 40) in Clearfield. Bring light snacks to share as we watch the first several episodes of Star Trek.
The next Saturday, September 24th also at Starbase 40 we will be holding a Star Trek game night. from 6pm-9pm we will be watching Star Trek Scene It and answering the trivia questions. Again bring light snacks for this event.
Don’t forget that in October we are planning to visit the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake.
If you are checking out our website after meeting us at the Star Trek Beyond promotion, welcome. We hope that you find information on our Star Trek family interesting. We look forward to meeting you and your family/friends at any of our upcoming meetings or activities. We loved watching the new movie and we would like to thank the Layton Cinemark for hosting our promotion. They were very accommodating.
Our first event in August will be our regular monthly meeting on Wednesday the 10th. We will be meeting at the new Weber County Library – Southwest Branch (2039 West 4000 South, Roy, UT 84067). This will be at 7:00pm in the large auditorium. We will be discussing the movie, Star Trek/Sci-Fi Show and Tell and the upcoming events at the Salt Lake Comic Con (see below).
For our monthly activity the crew has decided to beat the heat and take in a swimming activity at the Roy Aquatic Center (2977 W 5200 S, Roy, UT 84067). We will be enjoying the fun from Noon to 5:00pm on Saturday, August 20th. You can bring in your own lunches. Make sure you bring sunscreen and lawn chairs.
Salt Lake Comic Con will be held on Thurs-Sat, September 1-3. The USS Ticonderoga is heading up the Seventh Fleet booth at the convention with our life size Borg Regeneration Alcove. The Ticonderoga is also heading up a Star Trek panel at the convention. William Shatner will be appearing on Thursday. Other Star Trek guests are lined up for the event. For details visit www.SaltLakeComicCon.con
Some news from the Fleet, Captain Roger Taylor has moved from Bountiful, Utah to Idaho Falls, Idaho. He is taking the USS Essex up to it’s new patrol area and will be building a new crew. The previous crew of the Essex have transferred to the new chapter-in-training, the PCU Protecteur. Congratulations to the new chapter-in-training and good luck to Captain Taylor in Idaho.
Proud chapter of Starfleet Command's Seventh Fleet