Chilton Commissioning Bell

A  regular navy guy station in MO saw your site of the Chilton on the net and got in touch with me. They some how acquired a bell and they where disciplining a couple of guys and they had them chip paint from the bell.

When they got the paint off low and behold the lettering USS Chilton 1943 was clearly visible. This was the ships Commission Bell and one of the pics that you posted has the bell in it.  I now have the bell at a friends house in West Virginia. The thing weighs 320 lbs but does not look it. Boy does it have a nice ring to it, I heard it over the phone.       

John Bottone -July 26, 2004

If you check out number eleven picture on the site, on the left is the boat crew picture and on the right is a picture of the bow of the ship and in the upper left hand corner I believe is this bell. From the looks of the pics its hard to believe that this thing weighs 320lbs but my friend weighed it before he delivered it to my friends house in West Virgina. He said it weighed down the back of his SUV and he got lousy gas mileage from Ohio to West Virginny.

I am going to send him a check for thirty bucks to fill up his tank. One of my grandsons drives a tractor trailer and he sometimes goes thru WV, If I could coordinate some one being at home to help him load it then he could bring it up to the lake as he lives nearby. I have a great place to hang it on my deck overlooking the lake. It would take some doing to mount it  but I have some strong neighbors. I could ring it at noon everyday the sound really travels over the water and it would be heard for miles away.

Speaking of the boat crew picture I got a call from a widow of one of the war time crew of the Chilton and she was looking for information on her husband. I referred her to the site and low and behold she called me all excited as she easily picked him and a friend out of the boatcrew picture.

John Bottone -July 27, 2004