Spokane Naval Trophy returns home
The Spokane Naval Trophy is making a brief visit home.
For the past 100 years it has been recognized as the highest award given to a U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet surface vessel. It is a competitive award presented annually to the vessel demonstrating the highest proficiency in overall combat systems readiness and warfare operations. The trophy itself remains housed at the U.S. Pacific Fleet Headquarters in San Diego and a plaque is presented by the Spokane Navy League to the winning ship.
This prestigious trophy – listed first among the historical collections at the U.S. Naval Center, the Navy’s central history office in Washington, D.C., – has returned to Spokane on the occasion of its centennial and so that it could be viewed again by the people in the region where it was first imagined, then crafted and launched into naval tradition.
It will be a guest of honor at today’s All-City Civic Military Luncheon at the Davenport Hotel in advance of the Spokane Lilac Festival Armed Forces Torchlight Parade on Saturday. Navy Capt. Joseph B. Green will speak of its history and importance and in honor of the men and women who serve on the vessels that protect America.
“It is important to reconnect the Spokane community to the trophy and to the Navy,” said Green, the commander of the Defense Intelligence Agency headquarters 1194 in Spokane and director of the Joint Reserve Unit-Western Region.
One hundred years ago the Spokane Chamber of Commerce and Spokane’s United Spanish War Veterans came up with the idea of creating an award to honor sailors. For the cost of $1,500 Spokane Jeweler Leo M. Dornberg painstakingly fashioned the Spokane Naval Trophy out of 400 ounces of sterling silver lined with gold.
Today, the 28-inch-tall trophy carries an appraisal of $4.4 million.
“But its historical value is by far greater,” said Lt. Cmdr. Paul Darling, commanding officer at Spokane’s Naval Operational Support Center.
“When we present the plaque to the winning ship each year, you cannot believe the pride and gratitude this award generates,” said Bruce Rasche, president of the Spokane Navy League, a 170-member nonprofit organization which recognizes and supports all the sea services. “It has been a symbol of American readiness and preparedness at sea for 100 years.”
Those who have seen the trophy remark at its intricacy. Its eight bas relief panels show President Theodore Roosevelt, Secretary of the Navy Victor Metcalf, a replica of the monument to Spokane naval hero John Monaghan, Fort Wright, the old U.S. Post Office in downtown Spokane, Spokane Falls, Mount Spokane and Chief Garry.
“I am intrigued by the detail that’s in the trophy,” said Rasche. “The cranks and gears on the guns at the base are completely realistic, with the barrels actually elevating.”
This past November, Green said he started working with the Spokane Navy League and began approaching officials in the Navy, with letters of support from Spokane’s mayor, Mary Verner, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, to see if the trophy could be brought back to Spokane for its centennial.
“There was a lot of work and coordination and cooperation with Naval Operational Support Center, the Pacific Fleet commander and the Naval Historical Center to make this happen,” said Rasche, “and we didn’t know until maybe a week before whether or not the trophy would be able to be here.”
“The Spokane community can now see that it once did something so wonderful that 100 years later, it’s the best thing that the Navy awards,” he added. “We’re glad that the Navy is letting the trophy come home again and letting us know how proud it is of the trophy – and sharing that with the people who created it in the first place, the people of Spokane.”