Commissioning

Commissioned June 16th, 1962 @ 1513 hours, Boston Naval Shipyard

No commissioning event pictures available, except in the early part of the 1963 "Year One" cruise book.

Invitation...

Commissioning Booklet...

<Click here to open Commissioning Booklet> 

(Courtesy of Todd Creekman, LTJG, 69-71)

Schedule of events taken from the Commissioning Booklet....

Last Commissioning Pennant  

         (Courtesy of Craig Cardell, YN2(SW), NX Div, 1988-Decomm)


NOTE: Not the original pennant.   Since it is flown close to the #1 stack it gets dirty real quick and has to be replaced.

Traditions of Ship Commissionings...

The Navy’s use of the word “commission” means the placing of a ship in active service. 

The commissioning ceremony is one of the most significant milestones in the life of a ship as it marks her acceptance as a unit of the operating forces of the United States Navy. 

Brought to life after ship naming, keel laying, christening and launching, time-honored Naval customs and traditions help welcome a warship into the fleet.

The commissioning ceremony has been a tradition in the U.S. Navy since December 1775, when the Alfred, the first ship of the Continental Navy, was commissioned at Philadelphia. 

Derived from British naval custom, these early commissionings were not public affairs and no written procedure for commissioning was laid down in Navy’s early days. 

The first specific references to commissioning located in naval records is a letter dated Nov. 6, 1863, from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to all navy yards and stations. 

The Secretary directed: “Hereafter the commandants of navy yards and stations will inform the Department, by special report of the date when each vessel preparing for sea service at their respective commands, is placed in commission.”

A commissioning ceremony is usually filled with speeches from flag officers, civil leaders and other distinguished visitors. 

The Navy leader who delivers one of the final speeches usually places the ship into commission by announcing it to the crowd. 

At the completion of the speech, the prospective commanding officer orders the prospective executive officer to hoist the colors and the commissioning pennant.

At the moment when the commissioning pennant is broken at the masthead, a ship becomes a Navy command in her own right, and takes her place alongside the other active ships of the fleet. 

The American pennant is a long streamer that is blue at the hoist, bearing seven white stars.

The rest of the pennant consists of single longitudinal stripes of red and white. 

The pennant is flown at all times as long as a ship is in commissioned status, except when a flag officer or civilian official is embarked and flies his personal flag in its place.

After the pennant is hoisted, it is customary for the prospective commanding officer to formally read the orders appointing him to command. 

Understanding that the ship is now a fighting member of the fleet, the now commanding officer orders the executive officer to set the watch.

The final part of the ceremony is also the most iconic. 

In a time-honored Navy tradition, the ship’s sponsor gives the order, “Man our ship and bring her to life!” 

The crew responds by saying “Aye, aye, ma’am” and runs toward the brow to man the ship as “Anchors Aweigh” is played. 

Crew members take their places, side-by-side, manning the rails as the ship’s systems came online. 

Radars, weapon systems and other parts of the ship begin to move, symbolizing the ship “coming to life.”