Navy LWT Crew Representatives

Mark Hamilton Christening

1987 Lightweight Team Captain

On April 24, 2004 the Navy Lightweight Crew christened their new eight-oared racing shell in honor of Mark Hamilton ’87. Mark Hamilton was the Lightweight Team Captain in his graduating year and was awarded the “Spirit of the Lightweights”, the most prestigious award for a lightweight oarsman. LT Hamilton was killed in an aircraft accident on March 21, 1991 while flying a training mission off the coast of Southern California. His family donated a boat in Mark’s honor for the first time in 1993. Afterwards, the family set up an endowment fund to provide future shells to the Navy fleet. In 2001, the second Hamilton was christened and this year we are presenting the third boat in Mark’s honor.

Mark graduated with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and left for flight school soon after. He earned his Naval Flight Officer wings on February 7, 1989 and was assigned to VP-50 NAS Moffett Field in September 1989. He made one deployment to the Philippines and held various division officer jobs such as aviation life support systems branch officer, training schedules officer, and patrol plane navigator/communicator.

Mark started rowing lightweight crew his Plebe year and rowed all eight semesters while at the Academy. His senior year found him rowing in the “engine room” of the 1st Varsity (1V) boat. This boat completed the regular season with a record of 2-4 with wins over Columbia and Pennsylvania and losses to Cornell, Rutgers, Princeton and Harvard. Mark’s boat won the Varsity Petite Finals with a time of 6:10.9 with a 5.4 second margin over Columbia and a 9.4 second margin over MIT.

Mark will always be remembered as a true leader of men whose sense of humor and astute view of the world kept us all thinking about how we can make a difference. Although Mark’s time with the program was only four years long, he has continued to support the program by being our “ninth rower in the boat.”

All three of the racing shells named after Mark have had huge success. Just last year, the Plebe Lightweight first boat won the Eastern Sprints in the Hamilton, which was the first win in that event since 1980.

Mark's father and his sister, Anne, were on hand for the christening in Annapolis. Many friends and classmates of Mark's were also in attendance.