USS Daniel Inouye reaches home port at Pearl Harbor

The U.S. Navy’s newest warship, the USS Daniel Inouye, arrived Thursday at its home port at Pearl Harbor. The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer is named for the late Hawaii senator and war hero.

Friends and family of the ship’s crew waited on the pier as the ship approached, eager to reunite with loved ones they hadn’t seen for months while the crew worked in Maine to train for operations and finally sail the ship to the islands.

For Information Systems Technician 1st Class Chace Bee, the voyage was a return home. Born and raised in Hilo, Bee has served in the Navy 11 years. After two previous duty stations and years of trying to get stationed back in the islands, he was excited to finally return aboard the namesake of a Hawaii legend.

Bee said his grandfather once worked with Inouye.

“He brought him up a few times, saying how he was a senator and just how important and how big of a deal he actually was, and why certain things were named after him,” Bee said. “I personally have great pride and I cherish pretty much every day being on board something with that namesake.”

Inouye was a member of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II, a unit made up mostly of Japanese American service members. He was seriously wounded in battle in Italy, losing his right arm below the elbow. In June 2000 Inouye retroactively was awarded the Medal of Honor for his wartime valor.

He went on to become Hawaii’s first full member of the U.S. House of Representatives upon statehood and then a senator in 1962, an office he would hold until his death in 2012. A powerful figure in both state and national politics, Inouye directed substantial federal funding to Hawaii, particularly in high-priced defense and military contracts.

In May, the Navy awarded Hawaii-based Pacific Shipyards International a $49.7 million contract to service the new ship along with the USS Carl Levin and USS Frank Petersen, which are currently under construction.

USS Daniel Inouye Cmdr. Donann Gilmore said she’s excited to lead “the Navy’s newest warship, named after one of our heroes, both in Capitol Hill and on the battlefield, and we’re just truly honored and blessed to be here.”

The Inouye is the eighth Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be based at Pearl Harbor as part of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet. Gilmore said the destroyers are “the workhorse of the Navy.”

The warships have been kept busy in recent years as the military steps up operations in the Pacific amid tensions between China and neighboring countries over control of critical trade routes and fisheries. The Pentagon has designated the Pacific as its top-priority theater of operations.

The new destroyer was christened in a 2019 ceremony at the Bath Iron Works in Maine attended by the late senator’s widow, Irene Inouye, and Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono. The vessel had a longer-than-expected journey to Hawaii as it weathered production setbacks. The pandemic caused a major slowdown in shipbuilding operations across the country, and last summer Bath Iron Works workers went on a nine-week strike.

The USS Inouye finally set sail from Maine for Hawaii in October.

For some sailors on the ship, it was their first time operating at sea. “There were a few bumps in the road, but after a few days, maybe a week, everything got ironed out,” Bee said.

The USS Inouye arrived in Hawaii in time for the 80th anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. The Navy will be holding an official ship commissioning a day later on Dec. 8.

Among those present for the vessel’s arrival were members of the U.S. Army 25th Infantry Division’s Hui Ha‘a Team, who greeted the ship and its crew with a traditional ha‘a warrior chant. Team member Sgt. Michael Morrow, who grew up in Aiea, said it was an honor to welcome the destroyer to Oahu.

“(Inouye) represented our state throughout my entire lifetime until he passed away,” Morrow said. “He’s buried in the same location as my grandfather and my father and my grandmother as well, too, over at Punchbowl crater.”

Bee, who got married not quite a year ago, said he was most excited about seeing his wife again, but had lots of other things on his Hawaii to-do list.

“I think the next thing after being with her for a little bit and leaving base would probably be getting a manapua and a Spam musubi,” Bee said.