Our 4th annual Unit Awards Ceremony was held at the Squalus Memorial Park at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Aug. 11th, 2001. It was a beautiful summer day as all hands and their families turned out for a great picnic followed by the awards ceremony right next to the Squalus.

Captain Vernon T. Williams, the shipyard commander, was the guest speaker and left us with a lifetime of wisdom summarized in his discussion of "Priciple Centered Leadership". Captain Williams made it clear to all that, "We get to choose what we do with life and that's an honor and a privilege."

Our Commanding Officer, Lt. Sean Norton, also spoke of his pride in our unit and the success he has seen all of us experience as a result of our participation in the Sea Cadet program.

Many awards were presented to cadets and officers alike for their hard work and contribution to making our unit one of the finest in the country. In fact, one of our female Chief Select cadets was one of only 5 out of 200 national applicants to be selected to go to Japan as a representative of American youth to talk to other teens from all over the world about life in America.

We were also given the honor of retiring a flag again at this years ceremony. When one of our country's flags becomes worn and needs to be disposed of, the stars section must be cut out. The two remaining pieces of the flag are then burned. Our cadets provided the honor guard to perform this ceremony.