Honor Pages Index

Honor Pages

QMCM(SS) Dennis Sulzer • 1952 – 1995

Dennis Sulzer was was born October 26, 1952. He was a QM1(SS) aboard the USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) in the mid-1970's. After his tour on BATES, he served aboard USS RICHARD B. RUSSELL (SSN 687) and was Chief of the Boat aboard USS BOSTON (SSN 703). He retired as a QMCM(SS) after a long and illustrious Naval career.

Dennis passed away on September 7, 1995, in Suffolk County Long Island, New York, after a long illlness.

Submarine Group 2 in Groton annually invokes his memory in honoring deserving sailors with the QMCM(SS) Dennis M. Sulzer Memorial Leadership Award.

 

 

Dennis was a QM on the Bates, part of an enthusiastic, professional group of navigators who were young and learned a lot in tough operational challenges during classified ops and in equally challenging piloting situations, sometimes close to homeport.

Dennis was a family man and a great shipmate to all. His enthusiasm was infectious and his sense of humor never left him. Later on he joined me when I was the Group Commander in Groton.

In a routine blood test during an annual physical, an alert doctor noted one irregularity that wasn't even out of spec, but it turned out to be fatal after a long and tough fight.

Dennis was a physical fitness buff and he always was a great example for kids with respect to taking good care of his body and his appearance, especially in uniform.

He died a very slow death and gave up every inch of his breath grudgingly. He was incredibly brave and again a wonderful example to all who knew him.

His retirement was a double loss for he saw his loss of life ahead of him, as certainly as the end of his naval career. It never affected his moral and mental strength and I loved him for both.

 

William Houley

Commanding Officer
USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) 1975-1978

 

 

Not much more I can say about Dennis Sulzer beyond what Bill Houley stated so well. Dennis was by far the finest QM I ever knew. He always had some special saying; one in particular that that I remember went something like, "Life is but a chowl of bollies." He was a terrific leader who had a great sense of humor. Without a doubt, Dennis was one of the key members that made it so fun and rewarding to be on the Bates.

 

Don Wilson

Former Shipmate
USS WILLIAM H. BATES (SSN 680) 1975-1979

 

 

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Our shipmate has passed on before us.

Whether by enemy action, the remorseless sea, or the ravages of time and age,
we must accept that God has called you to where we cannot yet follow.

We commend your body to the deep, and your soul to God Almighty.

May God grant you fair winds and following seas.

 

Godspeed, shipmate.

 

We will miss you...

 

 

 

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another...

"No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne

Meditation XVII
Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, morieris.
Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.
1572 - 1631

 

 

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