Pearl Harbor to get another USS Missouri — this one’s a sub
COURTESY U.S. NAVY / 2010
Sailors salute during the commissioning ceremony for the Virginia-class attack submarine USS Missouri (SSN 780). Missouri is the seventh Virginia-class submarine and will be home-ported in Hawaii.
Pearl Harbor will soon have two warships named USS Missouri.
The Navy said the attack submarine USS Missouri will arrive Friday to become the sixth Virginia-class submarine to be home-ported in Hawaii — the only location for Virginia subs in the Pacific.
The 377-foot submarine has a crew of 140 whose families began arriving on island in November, Submarine Force U.S. Pacific Fleet said.
On Friday afternoon, the submarine USS Missouri will pass the battleship Missouri, now a memorial and museum, and render honors, the Navy said.
The battleship Missouri, moored bow-to-bow with the sunken USS Arizona, fought in World War II, the Korean War and Persian Gulf War.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz were on the Missouri’s teak decks for Japan’s surrender to the United States on Sept. 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay.
In Operation Desert Storm in early 1991, the Missouri launched 27 Tomahawk cruise missiles and hurled 305 shells at Iraqi forces from its 16-inch guns.
The submarine USS Missouri is the fifth Navy ship to be named in honor of the “show-me” state, the Navy said.
The Missouri was commissioned in 2010 as the seventh Virginia-class submarine. It returned to Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., on Oct. 4 following a Europe deployment. Missouri sailed 40,277 miles and conducted port visits to Haakonsvern, Norway, and Faslane, Scotland.
