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Sammis/Waterman Athletic Complex Memorial Dedication

Sunday, October 23, 2011

A dedication ceremony was held on Sunday, October 23 for the memorial at the Sammis football field and Waterman baseball/softball diamond at the athletic complex on Peck Street. The beautiful memorial park was constructed through the combined fundraising efforts of the Dighton-Rehoboth Pop Warner organization and the Rehoboth Youth Baseball and Softball Association under the direction of Jeff Potter who organized a brigade of volunteers.

    “We had a lot of fun doing this,” said Potter at the ceremony, thanking all the volunteers who worked on the memorial to the two Rehoboth men who were killed in action while serving the country, First Lieutenant Craig Houston Waterman

who died on July 30, 1967 in Vietnam and Captain Benjamin Wilson Sammis who died in Iraq on April 5, 2003.

    Combining nautical elements and paved walkways, the memorial features a donated mast that was modified with two gold stars to signify the Waterman and Sammis families and their loss of a member serving in the military. The American flag flying from the mast during the dedication was flown only weeks before at Camp Alamo in Baghdad, Iraq.  It will be stored safely and flown for special occasions such as Memorial Day.

First Lieutenant

Craig Houston Waterman

U.S. Marine Corps

Born: October 14, 1943

Died: July 30, 1967

Hometown: Rehoboth, Massachusetts

Graduated:  DRRHS, June 1961

Specialty: 7562, Pilot Medium Helicopter Killed in Action: 30 July 1967 in Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam

Repatriated: 8/3/92

Vietnam Wall: Panel 24E, Line 053

Marker: Arlington National Cemetery

Final Burial: Rehoboth Village Cemetery

Captain Benjamin Wilson Sammis

Born: March 18, 1974

Died:  April 5, 2003

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown: Rehoboth, Massachusetts

Graduated:  DRRHS, June 1992

Parents:  Steven and Beth Sammis

Widow:  Stacey D. Sammis

Specialty: 7565, Pilot, fixed/rotary wing

Killed in Action: Ali Aziziyal, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom

Final Burial: Area 60, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia

    Acting as master of ceremonies, town moderator William Cute began by quoting Abraham Lincoln’s famous address at Gettysburg when he came to dedicate “a portion of that field” in the memory of “those who gave their lives that the national might live.” 

     “As Lincoln said, it is ‘altogether fitting and proper that we should do this’,” began Cute as the ceremonies began with the National Anthem sung by a Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School student.

     Both Waterman, born in 1943, and Sammis, born in 1974, shared similar traits.  They were both goal-oriented young men raised in Rehoboth who voluntarily joined the U.S. Marine Corps. They were both driven to become pilots. 

     Waterman was described as being a math whiz who was into cars and motorcycles before enlisting to serve in Vietnam where he first trained as a jet pilot before volunteering to switch to helicopters were the need was greater.

    Sammis was remembered by Cute, his teacher at DRRHS, as being “one of the most intensively driven kids I ever had.”

     Marine Corps Lt. Col. Aaron Marks, a friend of Sammis, said that his friend Ben would be proud knowing “the kids of Rehoboth have a place to play and learn” the many life lessons offered through organized sports.

Sammis/Waterman Memorial organizer, Jeff Potter who managed the construction and a force of volunteers who built the beautiful, nautical-themed memorial in honor of Craig Waterman and Ben Sammis

Marine Corps Lt. Col. Aaron Marks at podium (left photo)

Captain Steve Sammis at podium (right photo)

William Cute, Rehoboth Town Moderator (seated both photos)