On June 17, 1983, over 400 people gathered at the Naval Security Stations on Nebraska Avenue in Washington, DC for the dedication of a memorial for the On-the-Roof Gang. The Commander of the Naval Security Group Command, Rear Admiral Paul W. Dillingham Jr. hosted the ceremony. Among the gathered crowd were thirty-two of the surviving On-the-Roof Gang members, the largest gathering of roofers ever. Retired Lieutenant James "Jimmy" Pearson, graduate of Class #4 of On-the-Roof Gang training in 1930 and the second eldest surviving member, helped Admiral Dillingham to dedicate the memorial.

The crowd was comprised mostly of the family, friends, and shipmates of the U.S. Navy’s On-the-Roof Gang. Not in the crowd was Chief Radioman Harry Kidder, the recognized leader of the On-the-Roof Gang, who had died of pancreatic cancer in the Philadelphia Navy Home in November 1963. Without any family to send him off, he was buried without fanfare at the Mount Moriah Cemetery Naval Plot. In the Navy Chapel on Nebraska Avenue, Hal Joslin, On-the-Roof Gang graduate of Class #7 and ex-Prisoner of War, gave the invocation and said a prayer for Chief Kidder.

The dedication ceremony was held in the quarterdeck area of the Naval Security Station, where the Commanding Officer, Captain Thomas Herting, welcomed the guests in front of him and those still in the Naval Chapel, where the gathered crowd watched on closed-circuit television. A small group of dignitaries watched from the quarterdeck, including several past Commanders of the Naval Security Group and the Honorable John Stevens, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, who recounted his own experiences at FRUPAC from 1942 to 1945.

The large main memorial, curtained with blue drapes, loomed large, set back between the matching sixty-year-old colonial grand spiral staircases, reaching upward to the right and left.

The main address was delivered by the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Ronald Hays, who summarized the history of the On-the-Roof Gang for the crowd. Several congratulatory letters were read.  Following Admiral Hays' address, the Commander of the Naval Security Group Command, Rear Admiral Paul Dillingham Jr., then officially dedicated the On-The-Roof Gang memorial.

Jimmy Pearson opened the curtains to reveal the gleaming brass plaque with the names of the original 176 On-the-Roof Gang members. After living in secrecy for so long, the On-the-Roof Gang finally had a place to call home.