Fifty-eight years ago, a young, newly commissioned Navy Ensign Sam Francis purchased
his ceremonial sword and set off for duty on a destroyer. Recently, the long-time Chatham
Emergency Squad member presented that sword to another young, just-commissioned ensign,
about to leave for duty, and just like Francis, on a destroyer.
The recipient is Gavin Mayes, 23, a six-year member of the Chatham Emergency Squad,
and for much of that time a member of Francis’ Thursday Chatham Emergency Squad crew. Said
Francis, age 79, “I watched Gavin’s Navy ROTC journey at Rutgers and admired his devotion in
pursuing a Navy career. As a token of my respect, I wanted to pass along my sword.” Francis
bought his sword in 1964 when commissioned at Yale University as a Navy ROTC graduate.
“It is an incredible honor, said Mayes. “Sam’s sword is a decades old family heirloom,
imbedded with a lot of tradition.”
The sword, with a 31-inch steel blade, today is used in the Navy for ceremonial
occasions. Also, it is used in Navy weddings where the just-married bride and groom walk
through the familiar “Arch of Swords,” held high by fellow Navy officers. The ceremonial sword
is a very distant relative of the shorter and lighter Navy cutlass, which centuries ago was used
by sailors in hand-to-hand combat, when clambering aboard enemy ships.
In May, Vice Admiral John Muston, chief of US Navy Reserve Operations, commissioned
Mayes and other Rutgers-Princeton Navy ROTC graduates. Francis said he asked Admiral
Muston whether new officers today are required to have ceremonial swords. “Muston replied
‘No,’ Frances said, “but that it would be a useful gift to Mayes for formal occasions or to lend
another officer.” Added Francis, “Gavin was honored to receive the sword, and I was honored
to give it.”
Mayes is a lifelong resident of the Green Village section of Chatham Township and a
2018 Chatham High School graduate. At Rutgers, he was elected student body president and
also served as an EMT for Rutgers Emergency Services.
Mayes joined the Chatham Emergency Squad in 2016 as part of the squad’s high school
cadet program. Mayes is one of a number of Chatham Scout Troop 8 Eagle Scouts who in recent
years joined the squad’s cadet program, then studied to become licensed EMTs, and worked
through the squad’s rigorous training program to become full members of Chatham Emergency
Squad.
Mayes’ interest in the Navy was inspired by his grandfather, a career naval officer, and
also his great grandfather, who served in the Navy as an enlisted man.
For his five-year Navy service obligation Mayes elected to join the Navy’s “surface
community,” which means serving aboard ships. “I was attracted to serving on a ship because it
gives me the chance to be leader in a challenging ‘ecosystem,’ with hundreds of folks working in
tandem to make the ship’s operation proficient.”
Recently Mayes traveled to San Diego to begin a seven-month officer training program,
including training on the Tomahawk missile system, a low altitude missile launched from Navy
guided missile destroyers. Afterward, Mayes will be a watch officer for that system on the USS
Spruance, a guided missile destroyer based in San Diego, assigned to the Navy’s Seventh Fleet.
When deployed, The Spruance will be part of a Seventh Fleet carrier attack group, an
aircraft carrier surrounded by a contingent of other naval ships, including destroyers, sailing in
the Pacific, primarily offSoutheast Asia.
