Silversides Submarine Museum

Bethann Egan, Executive Director of the USS Silversides Submarine Museum joins us to discuss an upcoming Memorial Day weekend event! 

More information can be found at: https://silversidesmuseum.org/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Talk of the Town on news radio with thirteen
hundred and one oh six nine FM, Steve Kelly and
Brett Pakita, who had a mother. Well, your mom still
is a history teacher. She's retired, but you're always a
history teacher. That's right. We've all been to the Silversides
Museum and there's a big event going on next weekend.
Silversidesmuseum dot org for more information. Their executive director is

(00:23):
Bethann Egan on the liveline today, Bethann, thanks for doing
this today.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hey, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
There is powerful Memorial Day weekend event going on. But
let's take a quick step back and for those who
maybe haven't visited this living, floating piece of art, tell
us a little bit about the USS Silver Sides.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, so this is a fantastic piece of history that
we hear have here in West Michigan. This is a
World War two Gato class submarine that you can walk through,
you can sleep aboard, and you can really get a
feel for the fourteen war patrols that it went through

(01:04):
right here on the Muskigan Channel, which is absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And tell us more about the event it's coming up obviously,
Amorial Day weekend which is sneak out up on us
and it's Saturday, May twenty fourth, four pm on the
museum grounds is when it starts. But that's just the
minor details take us through everything else that's going on.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, So you know, when you think about Memorial Day,
it's kind of the first weekend here in Michigan where
everybody loves to either get up and get out on
the water or they like to go up north. And
you know a lot of people do take a moment
though to realize what the weekend is all about, and

(01:43):
especially that Monday, what that Memorial Day is all about.
And so we wanted to kind of change things up
a little bit from a regular Memorial Day event and
just blow the doors wide open. So we are having
a free evening at the museum. So the museum itself

(02:04):
and the submarine are completely free to the public to
come in take a look at, and they can enjoy
a lot of different activities. Four pm to six pm
is our family friendly time, so the kids will be
able to and adults if they want to create a
jump and joe parachute and drop it into the drop
zone off of one of our balconies in the museum,

(02:26):
and that actually has some local history to it. You'll
have to look up the Joe Byerley story.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
He was a.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Paratrooper that lived in Muskegan. He was captured twice after
he jumped on D Day and he has sneaked twice.
But his parents were actually told that he was killed
in action, and so they had a funeral service for
him back in the Skeigon. And meanwhile, he actually linked

(02:56):
up with a Soviet tank unit and he was fighting
with them. He was able to link back up with
the Americans and eventually headed home and his his wife
who he married. They ended up getting married in the
same church that he he had a they had a

(03:17):
funeral for him because they thought he had been killed
in action. And so yeah, just an amazing story. Absolutely
a wonderful exhibit in the museum that you can check out.
But the kids kids can enjoy that and understand a
little bit of the local history here in town as
well and how that is connected. We'll also have the

(03:38):
art of flag folding too, so that they can help
out and learn a little bit about why we fold
the flag the way that we do and also help
us for a retirement ceremony that will be coming up
in June, so we'll have a flag retirement ceremony and
so the kids adults can learn a little bit more
about that. And then of course are underwater robots, so

(03:59):
we have a remotely operated vehicle class that we typically
teach and they will get to take those robots and
bring them into we've got big tubs of water and
they'll be able to use the remotes and kind of
help tool them around and understand how the submarine works

(04:20):
and what that looks like in World War two. So
lots of stuff happening between four pm and six pm,
all the while will be hosting food trucks. Will also
have the preparations for the luminary event going on, so
people can definitely come out and sponsor a bag for
that too. And then of course the big luminary event

(04:42):
starting realistically at six pm. So that's are still continuing
with the free museum and free sub but they will
host a beautiful ceremony will start the engines of this
World War two Ghato class submarine. Have you ever heard
engines started? No? No, it's it's amazing. So some some

(05:07):
amazing power there. You know, you've got six hole of engines.
You have four main engines that were locomotive engines and
two that still function, so uh, you know, it's it's
still extremely powerful and amazing pier and see and feel,
and so we're encouraging the public to come out and

(05:27):
see that. And of course then we will take a
moment to recognize all of our fallen heroes and why
we celebrate the Moral Day the way that we do.
Continuing and in the evening, we'll have music celebration. Brass
is coming out, which is the Patriotic Brass Band, and
so they'll be helping us with that alongside a local

(05:50):
DJ as well. And then uh, you know, the luminaries
will be set out so people will be able to
walk up down the pier as sunset happened, and they'll
be able to see on the submarine fifty two luminary
bags that represent the fifty two lost submarines from World
War Two, kind of an ode to our lost boat
ceremony in the past. And you know, it's just going

(06:14):
to be I think breathtaking and for me, very humbling,
because you'll have over four hundred bags and each one
actually represents over one hundred fallen heroes from the state
of Michigan, which I just think is really hard to
wrap our brain around, right, but they'll be able to

(06:37):
walk through those luminary bags and understand the impact that
Memorial Day really has. And then we will wrap things
up at right around nine o'clock there, eight forty five
ish with taps and a twenty one gun salute, and
people will be able to kind of wrap up their
free time on the sub taking it all in and

(07:00):
looking at a site right on Miskigan channel. So that's
what the day looks like.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
I'm actually doing that right now because you have a
live webcam that looks right on it and beautiful. It's
always a beautiful day. It's in pristine condition. And again
you can find out more at Silversidesmuseum dot org about
the event, which is coming up a Memorial weekend next Saturday.
The executive director of the Silverside Submarine Museum, Bethann Egan

(07:26):
a pleasure. Thanks for your time today.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
This is Talk of the Town on news Radio Wood
thirteen hundred and one oh six nine FM.