History- USS George Washington

The USS George Washington started out as a chapter of STARFLEET. The chapter was launched on June 20, 2014, with the USS Helen Pawlowski NCC-8494 as the Support Ship.

The ship’s name “George Washington” is named in honor of the first President of the United States of America and Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

The initial crew were prior crewmembers of the USS Helen Pawlowski and these crewmembers decided to start a new chapter called the USS George Washington which would be based from Jacksonville, NC area and that there was a need for a correspondence chapter that has as its primary theme of a STARFLEET Marine Corps affiliated chapter. Currently of the crew is scattered across the United States such as Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia. Major James Nelson was elected to lead the chapter as the Commanding Officer and Major General Michael Timko III as the First Officer.

During the first nine months the chapter grew from 10 to 32 crewmembers. The chapter participated in charity events such as the Toys for Tots, Angel Tree, and recycling to name just a few. In March 2015, another chapter was launched from the USS Helen Pawlowski called the USS Panther and members from the USS George Washington volunteered to help the USS Panther to organize and help build a foundation for the new chapter. With this, Major General Timko accepted the First Officer’s position on the USS Panther and now promoted to the rank of Colonel, Colonel James Nelson appointed Major Paul Peffer Sr as the new First Officer and Officer in Charge of the 130th Marine Strike Group.

In April 2015 the USS George Washington was awarded the Region One Best Shakedown Award and then in August 2015 the USS George Washington was awarded the STARFLEET Best Shakedown Award.

In October 2015 the USS George Washington affiliated herself with a group of chapters called Task Force Carolinas, which was a group of STARFLEET Chapters operating in North and South Carolina. This group would become the foundation of a new group called STARFLEET TASK FORCE 31.

On May 8, 2016, a sad day for the crewmembers of the USS George Washington! Colonel James Eric Nelson had passed on to the Final Frontier. Several of her crewmembers were present at his funeral to say their goodbye to a great friend and Commanding Officer.

On May 9, 2016, First Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Peffer Sr assumes command of the USS George Washington and appoints Lieutenant Colonel David Richards as the First Officer. Lieutenant Colonel Peffer Sr is promoted to Colonel.

On September 9, 2016, the USS George Washington was transferred to Region Fifteen and began operating in the Newport, Rhode Island area.

On February 1, 2018, the chapter held its election for a new chapter CO with the results returns in, Captain David Richards was elected.

In the years following, crewmembers become dissatisfied with the STARFLEET regional leadership for not consulting chapters about policies and changes that affect chapters and individual members, severe lack of communications and unaccountable status of regional funds. All this plus wrong doings at the international level such as a deliberate none-filing of annual tax forms that caused STARFLEET to lose their tax exemption status, misuse of funds from a botched IC with not informing the membership until much later after the fact. This is just to name a few.

In August 2022, the crew of the USS George Washington voted to leave STARFLEET International and to continue as a chapter of Task Force 31.

THE FUTURE?

USS George Washington Shuttle Bay Launches