[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S301]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO COMMANDER RAY C. SIMMONS, U.S. NAVY

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I wish to take this opportunity to recognize 
and say farewell to an outstanding Naval officer, Commander Ray C. 
Simmons, upon his retirement from the Navy after more than twenty years 
of commissioned service. Throughout his career, Commander Simmons has 
served with distinction, and it is my privilege to recognize his many 
accomplishments and to commend him for the superb service he has 
provided the Navy and the nation.
  Commander Simmons entered the United States Naval Academy from the 
State of New Hampshire in 1973 and was commissioned as an Ensign upon 
graduation in 1977. Since then, Commander Simmons has spent his career 
patrolling the world's oceans as a Naval Flight Officer and 
oceanographer. Following flight training, he began his service in 
Patrol Squadron Four in Barbers Point, Hawaii, making three deployments 
to the western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, including 
operations in support of the 1979-80 Iranian hostage crisis. In 1990, 
he joined the staffs of the United States Sixth Fleet and NATO Strike 
Force South, embarked in USS Belknap, homeported in Gaeta, Italy. 
During the Persian Gulf War, Commander Simmons, as Fleet oceanographer, 
served as a member of the TLAM cruise missile targeting team, planning 
strikes on Iraq from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. He also served as 
Flag Lieutenant and personal aide to the Sixth Fleet Commander.
  When not at sea, Commander Simmons has likewise served with 
distinction on the staffs of Patrol Wing Two and the Chief of Naval 
Operations, in the Naval Western Oceanography Center and as Aide and 
acting Deputy Executive Assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff. He served with the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) as the first Department of Defense liaison 
officer for joint NASA-Defense earth science applications programs. In 
1995, he commanded the United States Naval Ice Center, with additional 
responsibility as Director of the joint Coast Guard, Navy and National 
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration United States National Ice 
Center, and served as the lead Department of Defense lead technical 
advisor to the Russia-United States Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission 
Environmental Working Group. Among Commander Simmons's many awards and 
decorations are the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, four Meritorious 
Service Medals, two Navy Expeditionary Medals and the Southwest Asia 
Service Medal. He is both a qualified Naval Flight Officer and Naval 
oceanographer.
  During his more than twenty year career, Commander Simmons has served 
the United States Navy and the nation with excellence and distinction. 
He has been an integral member of, and contributed greatly to, the 
best-trained, best-equipped and best-prepared naval force in the 
history of the world. Commander Simmons's unflappable leadership, 
integrity, and limitless energy have had a profound and positive impact 
on the United States Navy and the nation.
  Commander Simmons will retire from the United States Navy on March 1, 
1998, after twenty years and nine months of dedicated commissioned 
service. On behalf of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I wish 
Commander Simmons fair winds and following seas. Congratulations on 
completion of an outstanding and successful career.

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