Aboard USS Lipan At Subic Bay, 1971	Lava Lake Oregon 1997 fishing at Lava Lake near Bend	Lipan II ready to depart 1999 Lava Lake	Lipan II Ready for Morning Trip 1999 Cascade High-Lakes	Connie Maru May 2004 The old Lipan II was retired and replaced with the 17' Connie-Maru in April 2004
New Years Morning 2004 Chiquita looks on as the snow blowing operation starts.

About the Snipe
               

The Snipe, (Donald, (TT) Thomas), was born in Wenatchee, Washington, May 30, 1937.  I was educated, (slightly), and graduated from Wenatchee High School in 1955.  Off to join the Navy and see the world.  After about 14 weeks of Boot Camp followed by another 14 weeks of class "A" electrical school I joined the USS Arikara (ATF 98) in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. From there on the ships and stations are outlined in the "Ships Registry".
My career highlights, (after finally getting off mess cooking on Arikara), were:

	Appointment to Chief Petty Officer in 1963
	Marrying Charlene Y. Codori in 1967, (another career started)
	Appointment to Warrant Machinist in 1968
	Appointment to Lt(jg) in 1971
	Retirement ceremonies from USS Peoria (LST 1183) in 1975

1975 seemed like a good year to retire in and so I did.   After retiring from the Navy I worked at several jobs and finally settled with Fender Musical Instruments.  I worked several years for them in Chula Vista at the string plant, building machines mostly.  In 1992 the string plant moved to Ensenada, Mexico and I moved with it.  In 1994 I retired from Fender.  My wife and I moved to Bend Oregon where I'm currently busy at reducing the Trout population.