A TRIBUTE TO THE CREW & THEIR SHIP
Given by Ed Fournier

At first glance you would have never put them together.
They were all different.  They didn't seem to fit.
Some short, some tall;
Some thin, some - not so thin.
Some baby faced, some with beards,
Some light, some dark.
They came from everywhere in the land.
From the farms, from the factories, from the schools, from the cities.
From the shores, from the mountains, from the plains, from the valleys.
And for twenty-six years they never stopped coming...
       ...coming to a 220 foot long, 890 ton ship we all came to know,
as our home away from home,
the SURFBIRD.
And they did fit together!  They breathed life into a steel ship and it became alive,
and stayed alive.  They were known as the CREW.
In those twenty-six years, this crew served our great nation in three wars - World
War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
They were bold, they were undaunted, they were courageous, they were the best
of America,  when America needed the best.
They got the job done regardless of the odds, regardless of the enemy's
determination that they fail, regardless any short comings they might have had,
they got the job done.
Eighty men and officers, untried at the beginning,  but the world's professionals
at the end.  They got the job done.
Years have passed.
Memories have dimmed.
Buddies have left our presence.
And we are the ones left.  And we are still the CREW.
Today let us remember our departed shipmates, our buddies.
Let us remember:
       We have buried their bodies, but not their great spirit...
       We have buried their hands, but not their great works...
       We have buried their hearts, but not their great love of Country and
                       their fellow shipmates...
And let us all be thankful for that brief moment in our lives when we shared the
greatest of all titles given to mankind, that of SHIPMATES.

USS Surfbird Reunion September 2003