Navy C.O. Retires

AFTER A NAVAL CAREER which stretched over 43 years, Captain Damon E. Cummings, USN, Commanding Officer of the NROTC Unit at Dartmouth, retired to inactive duty on July 1. His relief, Captain Roger E. Nelson, USN, reported aboard last month.

Captain Cummings, who reported for duty here on October 4, 1943, to take over what was then the largest V-12 Training Unit in the nation and later assumed command of the newly-formed NROTC Unit, began a long and distinguished Naval career as a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1906. He was born in St. Cloud, Minn., April 16, 1885.

First important cruise for Captain Cummings following his graduation and commissioning was the famed trip of the Great White Fleet around the world during the years 1907-09. During World War I, he served aboard the USS Dubuque and the USS Shawmut, engaged in laying the North Sea mine fields as a counter measure to the German submarine menace. For exceptional service as executive officer of the Shawmut, the then Lt. Cummings was awarded the Navy Cross.

While serving as commanding officer of the Shawmut on her cruise to Lisbon in connection with the trans-Atlantic flight of the Navy seaplane, NC-4, in 1919, he was awarded the Military Order of Avis, grade of commander, by the Portuguese government.

Following World War I, Captain Cummings served as executive officer and commanding officer of various vessels, including the commands of the battleships Utah and Tennessee. In between tours of sea duty, he completed courses at the Naval War College and the Army War College, and served for a time as a member of the faculty of the latter institution.

In addition to the Portuguese decoration and the Navy Cross, Captain Cummings was decorated by both the Nicaraguan and Peruvian governments, and holds the following American medals: the Cuban Pacification Medal, the Victory Medals (World Wars I and II), the second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal, the American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp and the American Area Campaign Medal.

Captain and Mrs. Cummings now make their home near Newport, R. 1., where the Captain was stationed in earlier years.