In July of 1976, the USS Ouellet (FF-1077) crossed the equator. I am not sure what to add here. I was a BT2 aboard the Quellet operating in the Indian Ocean in the summer of 1976. I participated in my ship's Shellback Ceremony and was awarded with a beautiful Shellback Certificate which I had framed and displayed on my wall until we moved. I took a new job. packed up all my things and drove to Detroit. The first night I was there, everything I own was stolen with the rental truck. I have been trying to replace my lost Shellbackt certificate ever since. I found a company that will reproduce it for me but I have t have the information to put on the Certificate. I need to obtain the date and longitude of the crossing as a minimum. It would be very helpful if I could find out information as to who were the original signatories. I am hoping for someone out there - someone with access to the ship's long or better yet one of my old shipmates who has their original certificate.
Thank you in advance for anything you might do.
James McCann
Hey James - I ran across this while trying to figure out the dates of our stopover in Guam during the 1976 WestPac. Anyway, you may already know the answer to your question by now, but looking at my Certificate: We crossed on 7July1976, and JS Ekstrom signed the cert on 8July. The Longitude was 105E.
