| In Memoriam Captain Zeb D. Alford |
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Zeb was born in McComb, Mississippi, in 1925.
After graduating from McComb High School in January 1943, he joined the Navy
the next day and attended LSU for one semester. He started his Navy career
as a seaman apprentice in the V-12program at Tulane University on July 1,
1943, and entered the Naval Academy in 1944.
After graduation inl947, he served as an
Ensign aboard USS Charles R. Ware, an Atlantic Fleet destroyer. After
graduation from Submarine School in 1949, he served aboard three diesel
submarines and three nuclear submarines.
Zeb joined the nuclear Navy in 1958when selected by Admiral
Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy. After nuclear school, his first
nuclear assignment, as Executive Officer, was building and commissioning a new
nuclear prototype in Connecticut. He was Executive Officer and commissioned the
first nuclear submarine designed to find and kill other nuclear submarines, USS
Tullibee. Every new class of nuclear attack submarines built since then has
included updated versions of the active and passive sonar systems and the sound
quieting methods of Tullibee. He attended Charm School (Admiral Rickover’s
staff) for six months; then, as a Lieutenant Commander, here reported in 1962 as
Commanding Officer of the nuclear attack submarine USS Shark. Shark was the
first class of single screw, whale-shaped, high-speed, nuclear submarines. She
was the fastest submarine ever built at that time.
As a Navy Commander in 1965, he became the Commanding Officer of the
Polaris nuclear submarine USS Sam Houston. He became Executive Assistant to the
Undersecretary of the Navy (now Senator John Warner [R-Va.]).
Zeb attended the National War College in 1970-71 and reported as
Commanding Officer, Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba, in 1971.
Zeb retired from the Navy in September 1973. Zeb’s second career has
been in energy. Since entering this field he has become President of three
different energy companies. In 1984 Zeb married Joan Chasan of Houston, Texas,
and Long Island, New York. He has four grown daughters from a previous marriage.
In 1985 he started a new company, Dolphin Energy, Inc., and began to
market natural gas to major utilities on both coasts.
Zeb was active in tennis, the Navy League, the Naval Academy Alumni
Association, the Naval Order, and the Republican Party. He was elected a
delegate to the state party conventions in 1996, 2000, and 2004. He was elected
a member of the Texas Electoral College that met in Austin, Texas, in
December 1996.
In 1999 Zeb became Chairman of the Cavalla Historical Foundation,
which raised money to restore the WW-II submarine USS Cavalla (SSK 244) and
the DE-238 USS Stewart, both located at SEAWOLF PARK, Galveston Bay, Texas. Today
they both have been restored and are open to the public for visits.
Tuesday evening, Aug 4, Capt. Zeb passed away after he suffered a
heart attack Sunday evening and hitting his head on the tennis court.
Zeb had just returned from attending the Change of Command of the
USS TEXAS and delivering the eulogy at Dave Hinkles (Sonalysts founder)
funeral. Zeb and Dave had served together on Cavalla SSK. Zeb also served as aid
to Warner and Lehman. He remained an active and cheerful individual frequently
speaking about Submarines, keeping up to date on Submarine technology and when
he spoke, he always pointed out that the true Capital Ship of the U.S. Navy was
the submarine, not some target.
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