U.S.S. Allen M. Sumner DD-692
by Mrs. Katherine Williamson on occasion of Sumner’s 22nd birthday - 1966

Over a score of years mark her as the matriarch of the seas,
And as she cuts the sapphire waters into white ribbon-like strips,
Her proud bow just a little higher than her sister ships,
The ghosts of all who strode her decks were piped aboard, or her innards cursed
In silent, unseen attention stand and give a smart salute
As the Sumner passes by in review; enroute
To serve her country for her twenty-second year,
In time of war, in time of peace and in time of fear
The Sumner reassures us all and she remembers other years;

In some half-forgotten shipyard another keel was laid,
Just another keel it was that unmarked day in ’44,
And yet, when as a ship she slid down the ways,
It was a proud name that she bore,
For the name, Allen M. Sumner, was on another ship,
An old “four-stacker”, A Pearl Harbor survivor,
She went on to glory and final battle in Pacific Action
And so the Sumner, World War II model, fitted out,
Armed, ready to go, had a name to live up to,
The commissioning, a ceremony to remember,
The shakedown cruise, manned by experience and sea-sickness,
The very decks vibrating with readiness,
And so the inevitable and soon to the Pacific War
“Action in the Pacific” and those words meant these:
The blazing guns, the cacophony of battle,
The rolling depth charges, the planes, the tracers,
The terrible beauty of a night action at sea,
The typhoons, the back-water lagoons,
Warm beer rations, months-old letters from home re-read to tatters,
Endless drills, the violence of death in war,
Confrontations of the enemy and the fearless action,
and the score for Sumner settled with this reports finality:
Sunk: One Japanese destroyer; assisted on another,
But fate had still not played her final card,
For out of the searing skies hurtled something heretofore unknown,
A Kamikaze pilot, a peculiarity of the Japanese,
Intent on taking the Sumner with him to meet his ancestors,
The Sumner took a hit for one made it past her guns
And burst in flames on through the deck,
Casualties ran high but a gallant ship refused to go down,
Pennants streaming she steamed home in the after-glow of victory,
Her men knowing yet that the war years aboard
were years they would cherish all their lives,
Behind a desk, a plow, delivering the mail,
Or standing on other steel-plated decks,
The men would remember those years and this ship
With something akin to a nostalgic love affair!
For time can soften harsh realities, and boredom, routine,
Even hell, can eventually be remembered as rather comforting,
Men came and went all the long, post war years,
Battleships went to where battleships go to die,
And smaller ships tied up row upon row of silent heroines,
Preserved in cocoon-like shrouds, forever waiting in suspension,
But the Tin Can, the Sumner, still throbbed with engines full,
and then Korea came and she was ready,
More men became “born sailors”
And the Sumner added another battle ribbon,
Was it peace time again? Everyone said it was,
But it was time to learn new technologies,
Anti-submarine warfare became the thing to learn
And men were primed for all the new techniques,
Rockets, sonar, and the Sumner got “Frammed”
And old salts would not recognize her silhouette!
And in between the drills, the studies, the reports,
Annapolis men came aboard for summer cruises
The future officers getting their sea legs,
Cruises, training, drills, operations, seemingly monotonous,
Endless routine making crews restless,
But the reason for the readiness came soon enough,
Russian missile sites in Cuba . . . on our very doorstep!
The little homeport of Mayport became a scene right out of history,
All the paraphernalia of war was spread on piers,
And stacked on decks and readiness crackled like electricity,
And all men know the routine had been for a moment like this,
Suddenly the ships got up steam and with them the Sumner
Steamed out of the basin, her flag snapping in the breeze,
Ready to confront any ship, to challenge on Presidential order,
But the confrontation did not come and it was over,
And the Sumner adds another ribbon to an impressive row,
And then another crisis, another Caribbean Island,
And the Sumner was there off Santo Domingo, boilers going
And full steam ahead, guns trained and loaded,
The reality of war, or revolution was all around,
And the Sumner served her country well,
Back to Mayport where wives, children, friends forever wait
To welcome back their men,
And did the older men who served in World War II
Remember other years and other days?
The Sumner now lies an ocean away, a unit of the Sixth Fleet,
On a “Med Cruise”, for perfume, cameos, souvenirs, “bargains”,
Or will it be more serious, a crisis perhaps?
Whatever comes, the Sumner will be there, her ribbons proudly worn,
Her emblem shines for all to see, “Sui Generis”,
First of its kind is what the emblem means,
Twenty years ago a super destroyer and here on this cruise
In the Fall and Winter of 1965
Still first of her kind . . . and last of her kind,
The oldest destroyer of her class in active service in the U.S. Navy,
Twenty-two years when January 26, 1966 rolls around,
A salute to a gallant lady!
A salute to a gallant crew!
A salute to all men who served aboard,
The men in Navy Blue! . . . . . .

(Webmaster's note: Katherine was EMC John Williamson's wife)