Words from the Semmes Captain's

NAME	CO of Semmes
CDR Richard G. Alexander, USN CDR Robert O. Welander, USN CDR Dave Emerson CDR R. A. Dickens, USN CDR W. G. Fisher, Jr., USN CDR R. A. Hatch, USN CDR H.H. Mauz, Jr. USN CDR J. W. Nyquist, USN CDR F. M. Williamson, USN CDR Raynor A.K. Taylor CDR D. G. Clark, USN CDR Jay McDonald CDR Gilbert P. Lauzon CDR William H. Sadler III CDR Francis B. Grubb Jr Hellenic Navy: HS Kimon D-218 Capt. D. Kallergis	10 Dec. 1962 - 12 June 1964 12 June 1964 - 17 December 1965 17 December 1965 - 11 August 1967 11 August 1967 - 10 June 1969 10 June 1969 - 10 April 1971 10 April 1971 - 23 June 1972 23 June 1972 - 18 December 1973 18 December 1973 - 19 December 1975 19 December 1975 - 7 January 1978 7 January 1978 - 10 December 1979 10 December 1979 - 19 February 1982 19 February 1982 - 20 July 1984 20 July 1984 - 15 September 1986 15 September 1986 - 4 January 1989 4 January 1989 to 12 September 1991 12 September 1991

23 Oct, 2002

Forty years have passed since we stood proudly at attention and placed USS
SEMMES in commission. This seems like a very long time ago. Many of us have
not seen each other since the short time we were together as shipmates. The
fact that so many of us are here for this reunion, and that we still have
such high regard for our old ship and for one another, is strong testament to
the bonds that can only be forged by service together at sea in a happy and
successful ship. It is a unique reward for sea duty that is not understood by
landsmen, and is envied by everyone who observes it.

USS SEMMES was not delivered to us on that cold day in Charleston in 1962 as
a happy and successful ship. She was placed in our charge as a fine example
of the shipbuilder's art of the day, without a personality, with no
reputation in the fleet, with nothing in her log. But along with her came a
very heavy responsibility that we all shared: to bring her to life, to make
her succeed, to give her a shining reputation, to make her a happy ship. All
of us today, forty years after that responsibility was laid on our shoulders
at the moment of her commissioning, can be proud that we succeeded so well.
We can honestly claim that nobody could have done it any better!

Our fine ship went on to serve the Navy for a great many years, with such
distinction that wise old salts who admired her agreed that somebody had
gotten her off to the right start. Those old salts were talking about the
commissioning crew, the plankowners, and the crewmen who came aboard in those
first few years of the ship's career. They were talking about you!

That's what happens when a group of strangers join together and Dare to Excel!

Dick Alexander
Captain USN (Ret.)
CO USS SEMMES December 1962 to June 1964.