In the United States Navy, there is an honor that money can't buy and rank doesn't grant. It belongs to the sailor who was there when the ship first became a ship — who stood on that deck before anyone else did, who watched the commissioning pennant break at the masthead for the very first time, who received a piece of the plank. The title is Plank Owner, and if you have it, you have it for life.
What a Plank Owner Is
A Plank Owner is a member of the original commissioning crew of a Navy vessel. The tradition holds that every member of the crew at commissioning is entitled to a literal plank of the ship's deck — a piece of the wood that formed the original deck of the vessel. On modern steel ships that have no wooden decks, the tradition has evolved: plank owners receive certificates, coins, and commemorative items, but the status and the meaning are unchanged. You were there. From the first moment that ship existed as a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy, you were one of her people.
The commissioning ceremony is when it all becomes official. Before commissioning, the hull is a construction project. It has a name and a hull number, but it is not yet a ship in the Navy's legal and operational sense. At the commissioning ceremony, the order is given to "man the ship and bring her to life" — the crew races aboard, takes their stations, and at the command the commissioning pennant is broken at the masthead. In that moment, the ship exists. The sailors standing on her at that moment become Plank Owners.
The History of the Tradition
The Plank Owner tradition is old, predating the modern Navy by centuries. In the age of wooden ships, a crew member who served from the commissioning of a vessel had a legitimate claim to a share of the wood when the ship was eventually broken up or decommissioned. The plank was tangible — a piece of the ship itself, something you could hold. It was your piece of the vessel you helped bring to life.
As Navy ships transitioned to iron and then steel hulls, the literal plank became a ceremonial one, but the underlying meaning never changed. The Plank Owner is distinguished from every other sailor who serves aboard that ship by a fact of timing that cannot be replicated: you were first. Every sailor who comes after you boards a ship that already has a history. Your history and the ship's history began on the same day.
What It Means to Be a Plank Owner
The Plank Owner distinction matters most on ships with long, storied careers. A sailor who was a Plank Owner on USS Enterprise (CVN-65) — commissioned in 1961 and the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — owns a piece of what became 51 years of history. A Plank Owner on USS Nimitz (CVN-68), commissioned in 1975, was present at the beginning of a ship that would deploy for decades and stand watches in nearly every crisis of the late Cold War and post-Cold War eras.
The distinction also creates a particular bond among the original crew that persists long after the commissioning. Plank Owners recognize each other at reunions in a specific way. Being a Plank Owner is not a rank or a rating — it's a relationship with the ship itself, a statement about your place in her story. It is one of the few honors in the Navy that is entirely about when you were there rather than what you did while you were there.
Plank Owner Certificates and Gear
At most commissioning ceremonies, the crew receives Plank Owner certificates — official documents signed by the commanding officer that attest to their commissioning crew status. These certificates have become significant collectibles and family heirlooms. A Plank Owner certificate from a carrier like USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), commissioned in 1961, is a piece of Navy history that connects directly to the moment that ship entered the fleet.
Over the decades, commissioning memorabilia has expanded to include challenge coins, patches, and other commemorative gear specific to each ship's commissioning. For sailors who came after the commissioning, cruise gear and deployment items serve a similar function — connecting them to their specific ship and their specific time aboard. No two tours are the same, and the gear that marks a tour is the physical memory of it.
A Tradition That Endures
The Navy commissions new ships regularly, and with each commissioning, a new group of sailors becomes Plank Owners. The ceremony is the same in its essentials whether the vessel is a nuclear carrier or a coastal patrol craft: the commissioning pennant breaks, the crew mans the ship, and the people standing on that deck at that moment are its Plank Owners forever.
It is one of the Navy's simplest and most durable traditions — not because of any official policy, but because sailors have found it meaningful for as long as there have been Navy ships. The sea is vast, the deployments are long, and the ship you serve on becomes your home in a way that landlocked people find difficult to understand. Being the person who was there at the beginning of that home, who helped bring it to life — that is something worth honoring.
If you served aboard any vessel and want to honor that service, browse The Ship's Store for cruise shirts, license plate frames, and gear for your ship and your deployment. Whether you were a Plank Owner or a sailor who joined the crew mid-career, your time aboard was your own — and worth remembering.