To provide a background for our guests who may not understand the significance of our ceremony of "Tolling the Bell," let me give you a brief explanation of this solemn remembrance of our Shipmates: the officers and enlisted men who sacrificed their lives aboard submarines in the service of our country.
John F. Kennedy said, "A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers."
It has always been true that the sea takes its toll of seamen. This is especially true for those who sail the dark ocean depths; the submariner. Over the years, over four thousand young men have lost their lives while serving our country in the U.S. Submarine Service. In all, a total of sixty-five American submarines have been lost in war and in peace.
It is also true that no maritime power has ever survived unless its men have been willing to fight back with successively better ships manned by professional seamen who have profited by the lessons learned from the past. Those of us who go to sea in today’s submarines and those who will do so in the future are forever indebted to those submarine sailors who gave their lives testing different innovations in submarine warfare during times of peace.
These losses, while tragic, have served to provide us with invaluable knowledge to enable us to improve succeeding classes of submarines and are gallant extensions of the traditions of duty, professional competence and self-sacrifice which have always been the hallmark of the U.S. Submarine Force.
It is our duty to publically honor them so that their gallant service and sacrifice is never forgotten.

We now Toll the Bell for our shipmates of the USS RAY (both SS-271 & SSN-653) who have passed on to Eternal Patrol since the 2025 RAYunion in Charleston, South Carolina:

We also Toll the Bell once more for our USS Ray shipmates who passed on to Eternal Patrol prior to the 2025 RAYunion that were recognized at previous reunions.

Finally, we Toll the Bell once more in memory of those lost on the 65 U.S. submarines that never returned home and the sub sailors whose boats may have survived but who themselves departed on Eternal Patrol while in service to our nation.