Captain Philip M. Palmer, USN

Class of 1955

Captain Palmer graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in both Chemical Engineering and Naval Science.

He served as the Chief engineer, CIC and OPS officers on the USS HISSEM, and instructed at the University of Michigan NROTC unit. He served as the Commanding Officer on the USS MEADOWLARK in 1960-1962 and under his command the ship received the Minesweeping "M" in Battle Efficiency Drills. After receiving his MS in Chemistry from OSU, he went through Nuclear Power Training where he was first in his class to qualify. On the USS ENTERPRISE he served as the Assistant Engineer and qualified as Engineer Officer of the Watch. At the Marine Physical Laboratory, he was the ASW officer managing research into underwater acoustics.

He was the Commanding Officer during the build-up to round-the-clock operations in support of the 7th Fleet at Naval Magazine, Subic Bay. He was the assistant Department Head in the Research and the Advanced Weapons Department at the Naval Surface Weapons Center. Captain Palmer was the first Systems Acquisition Manager responsible for procuring the weapons system for the Combat System Engineering Development Site and the combat system for the first AEGIS cruiser. He was the Commanding Officer of Naval Weapons Station Earle; and in 1982-1984 he was responsible for administration of all Navy contracts with the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University.

After his retirement in 1984, Captain Palmer worked as a project manager for Vitro Corporation in Foreign Sales and Marketing and a senior engineer working on the NATO Sea Sparrow. Afterwards, he moved into AEGIS Shipbuilding support and built a Vitro successor BAES. He continued TBMD support as a consulting principal Engineer.

He met his wife Nancy in Ann Arbor, Michigan while on instructor duty there.