Ship Ceremonies
COMMISSIONING CEREMONY
The third and most important ceremony in the history of a ship admits her to the U.S. Navy. The essence of the ceremony is her acceptance by the Navy, entitling her thereafter to fly the commission pennant and to be designated a U.S. Ship.
There are two major steps in the commissioning process. Initially, the builder turns the ship over to the senior Navy official. The latter, who is the intermediary between builder and prospective commanding officer, receives the ship and commissions her. The Navy official then turns the ship over to the prospective commanding officer who accepts her, assumes command, and proceeds to act as host for the remainder of the ceremony.
Invitation. There are two forms which commissioning invitations commonly take. The principal difference between lies in the consideration of who is the host for the ceremony and in whose name, therefore, invitations are extended. In practice, the first portion of the ceremony, including the commissioning itself, is the responsibility of the senior Navy official (i.e., Fleet Commander, Type Commander, etc.).
For this reason, invitations citing the senior Navy official as one of multiple hosts are often used; however, those tendered in the name of the commanding officer, officers and men are the least equally traditional.
Although acceptance as a U.S. Ship does not occur until midway in the ceremony, invitations customarily use the designation USS (without periods) with the ship’s name.
The invitation may be engraved on fill size, heavy white paper, similar in style to a wedding invitation, or as is more usual, on a white invitation card which is entirely plain or topped with a replica of the commission pennant.
Example 1:
| The Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet The Commanding Officer and Ship’s Companyg request the honor of your presence at the commissioning of 9 USSNEVERSAIL(DD2215) at the Norfolk, Naval Shipyard, Norfolk Virginia on Monday, the fifteenth of August two thousand and one at half-past one o’clock |
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| R.S.V.P. (757) 255-5812 |
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Example 2:
| The Captain, Officers and Crew of UNITED STATES SHIP NEVERSAIL request the honor of your presence on the occasion of the commissioning of UNITED STATES SHIP NEVERSAIL Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday, the tenth of May two thousand and one at three o’clock |
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| Please present this card At the Henley Street Gate |
10 | |
8 The “Commanding Officer, Officers and Crew” is an acceptable alternate second line, It is unnecessarily exclusive to extend the invitation to the ceremony in the name of only the “Commanding Officer and Officers,” as it is sometimes done.
9 It is incorrect to use the definite article before a ship’s name inasmuch as there is but one of the name in
commission at any given time.
10 The desired uniform maybe specified here, or such other information as “Cameras not permitted.”
Program. An annotated sample program for commissioning is shown below:
| Band Selections | ||
| Invocation | Chaplain | |
| Welcome and introduction of the Senior Navy Official |
Builder or Shipyard Commander | |
| Introduction of distinguished guests | Senior Navy Official | |
| Reading of commissioning directive | Senior Navy Official | |
| Ship commissioning | Commanding Officer | |
| Raising of Colors, Union Jack and Commissioning Pennant | ||
| National Anthem | ||
| Acceptance of command, reading of orders and assumption of command | Commanding Officer | |
| Setting the watch | Commanding Officer and Executive Officer | |
| Rendering of honors/personal flag of VIP/SOP broken | Commanding Officer orders | |
| Introduction of Principal Speaker | Commanding Officer | |
| Address | Principal Speaker | |
| Remarks | Commanding Officer | |
| Presentation of gift(s)11 | ||
| Benediction | Chaplain | |
| Band selections |
11 At this point in the ceremony, gifts are often presented to the ship by the sponsor, by state, city or community officials, or by the shipbuilder.