The U.S. Navy will name a new oceangoing tugboat after Solomon “Sol” Atkinson, a Metlakatla man who was a member of the Navy’s first SEAL team and trained astronauts for their return to Earth.
The decision was announced last week by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro on Metlakatla’s Founders’ Day holiday, Aug. 7.
U.S. Sen Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, praised the decision, calling Atkinson “a legendary Alaskan and an American hero” who led “an extraordinary life of honor and distinction.”
Born in 1930, Atkinson enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1952, becoming the first Alaska Native to join the Underwater Demolition Teams, the predecessor to the SEALs, which were created in 1962. Atkinson was a member of the inaugural SEAL Team 1.
He served in the Vietnam War, earning a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, and trained astronauts, including the first men to walk on the Moon, in underwater simulations.
After retiring from the Navy in 1973, he returned to Metlakatla — Alaska’s sole Native reservation — and became a community organizer, mayor, and founder of the island community’s first veterans organization.
Atkinson’s name will be attached to the USNS Solomon Atkinson, a Navajo-class oceangoing tug and rescue ship whose vessels are named for American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and individuals.
The first ship of the class, the USNS Navajo, was launched in March and has yet to be commissioned. The Solomon Atkinson will be the seventh ship of the class. It is under construction in Alabama, and no completion date has been announced.
When completed, the Solomon Atkinson will join the under-construction destroyer USS Ted Stevens as the only Navy ships named after individual Alaskans.
The naming of the Solomon Atkinson was sponsored by his daughters, Michele Gunyah and Maria Hayward.
“There exists a long-held Tsimshian tradition, ‘akadi lip a’algyaga sm’ooygit,’ loosely translated ‘a chief never speaks for himself’,” Hayward said in a written statement released by the Navy. “Through all of his time as a U.S. Navy UDT and SEAL, as well as a leader of veterans and Native Alaskans, Sol lived this ethos. And, here today, in the shadow of Sol’s death, he holds to it still. Thank you to the U.S. Navy for speaking to Solomon’s honor and helping his family and fellow Frogmen shout his legacy to the seven seas!”
This story originally appeared in the Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.
