Welcome Aboard pamphlet: Insignia
&
Samuel Gompers
Dictionary of
American
Naval Fighting Ships - Decommission Notice -
Rest In Peace - Awards - Patches
- About Destroyer Tenders -
Naval
Vessel Registry information for USS SAMUEL GOMPERS (AD-37)
Biography
of Samuel Gompers - Welcome
Aboard Pamphlet(1989)
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 AD-37 Under Construction |
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 Sitting, waiting to be towed to sea in Portsmouth, VA |
 My final sighting of USS Samuel Gompers 18 July 2003 Photograph taken from the Hampton Roads Bridge (just before the tunnel) |
Additional pictures are available at the USS Samuel Gompers website, as well as a place to meet other members of the crew.
The American eagle represents the strength of the United States and the concept of power for peace.
Superimposed on the eagle is a composite of symbols that represent the major technical skills that comprise the core of the ship's capabilities.
The anchor represents deck services -- boat and crane operations, rigging and cargo handling. The gear depicts those ratings whose members provide machinery and hull repairs for ships. It also represents the people who supply engineering services.
The missile represents the ordnance and weapons support USS Samuel Gompers furnishes to combatant ships.
The electron orbits represent the newest generation of the skills required in the modern Navy -- technicians skilled in electronics.
It is a fitting symbol for a ship whose crew never provides anything less than "Service Supreme."
USS Samuel Gompers (AD-37) is the first ship of the fleet to bear the name of a distinguished labor leader. The destroyer tender was commissioned on 01 July 1967 after a three-year construction period in Bremerton, Washington. She is one of the largest destroyer tenders in the Pacific Fleet and is assigned to Combat Logistics Group 1, which is based at the Naval Supply Center in Oakland.
The ship's primary mission is to provide repair services to afloat combatant units of the U.S. Navy, including nuclear powered surface ships, submarines, and aircraft carriers. In addition to the repair mission, Samuel Gompers can provide logistic and material support to tended units.
She was the first ship in the U. S. Pacific Fleet to have enlisted women serve in her crew. The first women assigned to the ship reported aboard in June 1979.
The Samuel Gompers is 645 feet long, has a beam of 85 feet, displaces 20,289 tons when fully loaded, and has a navigational draft of 26 feet. Her 20,000-shaft-horsepower single-screw propulsion plant produces a top speed in excess of 20 knots.
Designed to be manned by 39 officers and more than 1,200 enlisted crew members, the ship also has accomodations for a flag officer and flag staff.
Known
as "Super Sam," the tender has made 14 deployments as a unit of the U.
S. Pacific Fleet. Port calls have included: Yokosuka and
Sasebo,
Japan; Buckner Bay (Okinawa), Japan; Subic Bay, the Philippines; Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii; Guam; Hong Kong; Singapore; Tiawan; Diego Garcia;
Seychelles;
Port Louis, Mauritius; Melborne, Australia; Mombasa, Kenya; and Danang,
Vietnam.
Father of
American
Labor
Samuel Gompers
USS Samuel Gompers (AD-37) is the first U. S. Ship named for a great
American
who devoted his life to the labor movement and American Ideals.
Samuel Gompers was born in London in 1850 and was apprenticed to a cigar maker in 1863. The following year, at the age of 14, Gompers became associated with the labor movement. He helped organize and became the president of the Cigarmaker's International Union, which became the model for other unions to follow.
In 1881, Gompers served as chairman of an organization that evolved into the "Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada." It was reorganized and renamed the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886. Gompers was elected president of th AFL and served in that capacity for more than four decades as the official head of the American labor movement.
Before the AFL was founded, the labor movement was in the hands of small, individual unions throughout the country, all working without much cooperation. Upon formation of the federation, Gompers took the helm as its president and welded the labor movement into a compact unit that became a power in the political, commercial and indusctrial life of the United States.
Gompers believed in the ideal of America and taught patriotism to all his followers. He kept labor on a conservative footing and free from radicalism. A fearless advocate of tight and a great humanitarian, he was also a great fighter. He fought for peace in industry and setting an example for others to follow. His work for nearly half a century was dedicated to advance the lot of men and women of labor. His firm conviction that labor could never displace management of industry made it possible for him to enter into successful negotiations with industry.
Samuel Gompers' life was a tribute to the contributions that foreign-born Americans have made to the united States. He never forgot the American flag, and the ideals for which is stands, throughout his life.
Transcribed by Patrick Long
Samuel Gompers
Samuel
Gompers, born in London on 27 January 1850, was apprenticed to a cigar
maker at an early age. He emigrated to New York in 1863 and, the
following year, became interested in the labor movement. He
helped
organize Cigarmaker's International Union. As president, he made
it into a model for other unions. In 1881, he helped establish
the
Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions which, five years
later,
was reorganized as the American Federation of Labor. Gompers was
selected as the organization's first president and held that post for
more
than forty years. He was a fearless fighter for humanitarian
rights.
He, more than any other person, deserves credit for winning labor a
place
of respect and power in the nation's economic and social life.
Gompers
became ill in Mexico City while attending the convention of the
Pan-American
Federation of Labor in Mexico City. He was rushed to the United States
by special train, but died some 11 hours after reaching San Antonio,
Tex.,
on 13 December 1924.
(AD-37: d. 20,260: l. 643'; b. 85'; d. 22'6"; s. 20+ k.; cpl. 1,056; a. 1 5"; cl Samuel Gompers)
Samuel Gompers (AD-37) was laid down on 9 July 1964 by the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton Wash.; launched on 14 May 1966; sponsored by Mrs. Joseph Holmes, and commissioned on 1 July 1967, Capt. Harry Risch, Jr., in command.
After her commissioning, Samuel Gompers spent the next several months in initial outfitting, with acceptance trials taking place from 28 August to 1 September. On 3 October, she got underway for her designated home port, San Diego.
The next month, the destroyer tender underwent various inspections as she was to be deployed to the western Pacific without the benefit of a prior shakedown cruise. This necessitated that a high degree of readiness be attained in a short period of time. All inspections showed that the ship was ready for sea, and she departed San Diego on 10 November for Pearl Harbor.
Following a weapons transfer there, from Prairie (AD-15), Samuel Gompers stood out of Pearl Harbor on 20 November bound for Yokosuka. Upon arriving there on 30 November 1967, she began providing fleet repair support to the operating forces of the Pacific Fleet. In the first month of availability, her repair department accomplished job orders for 54 different ships and other activities.
Samuel Gompers departed Yokosuka for Sasebo on 13 January 1968. Her "in port" period there was originally scheduled on the 25th. However, the capture of Pueblo (AGER-2) by North Korea brought increased activity by the Pacific Fleet in the Sea of Japan. The destroyer tender's services were required to maintain the destroyer screen for the five aircraft carriers then alternating port visits to Sasebo. Seventy-one ships were serviced there before the AD departed.
On 18 March, Samuel Gompers sailed to Kaohsiung Taiwan, for three weeks. She anchored in mid-stream and serviced 17 ships before departing for Hong Kong B.C.C.; Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines, and San Diego. Her first deployment ended on 8 May when she arrived at her home port. One month later, she moved to Bremerton for a period of yard availability. She embarked over 200 dependents to make the voyage up the west coast.
On 27 July, Samuel Gompers stood out of Bremerton, with the dependents aboard, and returned to San Diego. From 30 July to 15 November, she serviced ships there. On the 15th, the tender departed San Diego, with Task Unit (TU) 15.8.2, bound for Subic Bay, via Pearl Harbor, and her second WestPac deployment. From 8 December 1968 to 13 May 1969, she performed fleet repair services in Subic Bay. The period was broken by one five-day visit to Hong Kong. On 13 May, the AD sailed to Yokosuka for a short period of rest and recreation, from whence she sailed to the west coast, arriving on 4 June.
Samuel Gompers operated in the San Diego area until 13 March 1970 when she again deployed to the western Pacific. Subic Bay was her base of operations for servicing fleet units until returning to San Diego on 13 September 1970. She remained there until 2 November 1971 when she steamed west on another deployment. After making port calls at Pearl Harbor and Yokosuka, she moored at Subic Bay on 24 November. The tender operated out of that port until 12 July 1972 when she sailed for Pearl Harbor and San Diego. During the seven month deployment period, Samuel Gompers made two trips to Danang, South Vietnam from 9 to 16 April, and from 22 to 30 April. When she reached her home port on 31 July, she remained there to provide repair services to fleet units until mid-July 1973. At this time, she moved up the coast to Portland Oreg., and operated there until returning to San Diego in early December.
In January 1974, Samuel Gompers departed her home port for another tour in the western Pacific and into June 1974, still serves with the Pacific Fleet.
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The Navy Public Affairs Library (NAVPALIB) A service of the Navy Office of Information, Washington DC Send feedback/questions to navpalib@opnav-emh.navy.mil ---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 11:34:00 -0500 From: Naval Media Center Publishing <pubs@media.mediacen.navy.mil> Subject: Navy Wire Service A -- 30 October 1995 NWSA1207.
USS Samuel
Gompers decommissioned |
On 21 July 2003 in a SINKEX operation by the US Navy, Samuel Gompers (ex-AD-37) and two other ships were sent to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean off the coast of North Carolina. The ships involved in the SINKEX included the famed USS Cole.
Of the three ships destroyed, Samuel Gompers was the last to be sunk and slipped beneath the waves at 0006 22 July 2003. The first Harpoon missile to strike Samuel Gompers was from USS Cole, designation: Cole 4. Reports indicate it took 16 Harpoon missiles (400 lbs each) and over 40,000 pounds of ordnance to sink the Gompers.
When the Harpoons finished, a squadron of bombers dropped 2,000-pound bombs on her to sink her.
Samuel
Gompers lies at 31°
17' N 073° 51' W
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 Navy Expeditionary Service Medal |
(IRAN/INDIAN OCEAN (21 NOV 79 - 20 OCT 81) |
 Humanitarian Service Medal |
CYCLONE DISASTER RELIEF VITI LEVU, FIJI ISLANDS (9-26 MAR 83) |
 Meritorious Unit Commendation |
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 Navy "E" Ribbon |
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 Navy Unit Commendation |
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 Southwest Asia Service Medal |
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Letter of Commendation |
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 Vietnam Service Medal |
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 Scan of a patch found via e-Bay
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Despite their title, destroyer tenders service a variety of ships besides destroyers. The Gompers class destroyer tenders could provide battle damage repair, maintenance and logistics support to ships at anchor or moored to a pier, in a wartime environment. The Gompers class could accommodate ships up to and including the highly complex nuclear-powered missile cruisers. The crews were formed mainly of technicians and repair crews. These Destroyer Tenders had a helicopter platform and hangar, and were equipped with two 30 ton and two 6 ton cranes. They could provide simultaneous services to as many as five ships moored along side.
Because of the advent of nuclear power and the phenomenal advancement in electronics and weaponry, AD capabilities had to be vastly increased. The Gompers class was the first of post-World War II design. More than 15 years elapsed between the launching of the second of the Gompers class, Puget Sound (AD 38), and first of the subsequent class, the USS Yellowstone (AD 41).
USS Samuel Gompers (AD-37) was named in honor of the noted U.S. labor leader Samuel Gompers (1850-1924), who was the first President of the American Federation of Labor and served in that capacity for several decades.
Under Construction
