Navy to Commission Attack Submarine Jimmy Ca
 

The Navy will commission the newest nuclear-powered attack submarine Jimmy Carter on Saturday, Feb. 19, during an 11 a.m. EST ceremony at Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Conn.



The attack submarine Jimmy Carter honors the 39th president of the United States.



President Carter is the only U.S. president to have qualified in submarines. He has distinguished himself by a lifetime of public service, and has long ties to the Navy and the submarine force. Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served as a commissioned officer aboard submarines, and served as commander-in-chief from 1977 to 1981. Carter's statesmanship, philanthropy and sense of humanity earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.



Retired Navy Adm. Stansfield Turner, a classmate of the president who served in the Carter administration as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will deliver the ceremony's principal address. Rosalynn Carter is the sponsor for the ship named for her husband, with daughter Amy serving as matron of honor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, Rosalynn Carter will give the first order to "man our ship and bring her to life!"



The Jimmy Carter is the third and final submarine of the Seawolf class. As the most advanced submarine in the class, the Jimmy Carter will have built-in flexibility and an array of new warfighting features that will enable it to prevail in any scenario, against any threat – from beneath Artic ice to shallow water. Differentiating the Jimmy Carter from all other undersea vessels is its multi-mission platform (MMP), which includes a 100-foot hull extension to enhance payload capability. The MMP will enable the Jimmy Carter to accommodate the advanced technology required to develop and test new generation of weapons, sensors and undersea vehicles for naval special warfare, tactical surveillance and mine-warfare operations.

for full article..
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/...0215-2088.html

Speaking of commissioning ships/subs, here's an interesting although only somewhat related piece of Navy trivia:

Crew members can have their children baptized by a chaplain aboard their ship. The first child to be baptized on a ship has his or her name engraved in the ship's bell and the last child baptized on a ship before her decommissioning also has his or her name engraved in the ship's bell and gets to keep the bell as well.

A friend/classmate of Mr. KR had his daughter baptized on a destroyer (darned if I can remember which one!) and her name is engraved in the bell there.

Does anyone else find it somewhat funny that an implement of war is being named after Jimmy Carter?

That's some pretty interesting trivia!! My mother's family is working on their fourth generation at Annapolis. :) Her elder cousin was in submarine training in San Diego with Jimmy Carter; they had apartments next door to each other.

I jumped on the JC bandwagon when he (our GA Governor) announced for pres, and sent a contribution. In a few months, he jumped in bed with the labor unions, and my support ended. Once a contributor, always a mailbox full of more solicitations, but I did receive a nice black and white picture of him and Ros at the Dem convention.

He was a very mediocre president (think Iran hostages, 21 percent inflation), but became a hard worker for Habitat and good works after leaving DC.

During the 2004 Kerry campaign, he popped up and made several loud and sorry comments - I got the idea he thought he had to do something, or he would be completely forgotten (he didn't get to speak in prime time at the Dem convention). The comments were just totally out of character and out of the image he had been building.

I think Reagan is getting an aircraft carrier, so a weenie sub is appropriate for Carter. I don't think the sub naming has been mentioned in the Atlanta media.

Another unbelievable comment.

nuclear attack subs aren't exactly weenie.

Me thinks the poster who said so is a weenie :D

I wasn't present when the Department of the Navy decided to name a sub for President Carter, but I would render a guess that it has to do with the fact that he was a submariner and not a SWO when he was in the Navy.


ETA: SWOs are the guys who drive ships. Like the Reagan.

Carter probably knew more about all aspects of nuclear submarines, including policy, than any world leader ever. This is probably a higher compliment than naming a carrier after him. Especially when you consider that many people (not me) question the worth of carriers, but nuclear attack submarines are universally recognized by defense policy experts, of all stripes, as necessary.

Eh, a seawolf class, well maybe the USS Bush or Clinton will be Virginia class subs. I hear those things are state-of-the-art stealth technology and can last over a year without needing to surface.

Seawolf is the state-of-the-art sub currently available. The Virginia class submarine is a "budget" model because the Seawolf class is too expensive.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/ssn-21.htm
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/nssn.htm

"Compared with the Seawolf, the NSSN is slower, carries fewer weapons, and is less capable in diving depth and arctic operations."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/18/sub....ap/index.html

Pretty advanced stuff... don't know that I'd call it a weenie boat.

The other sub listed in the article, the USS Parche, that was recent retired... anyone who remembers me talking about my navy boy, that's the sub he was on. Def. does some pretty high intelligence stuff

You would if you were a weenie.

To clarify the above even further: a nuclear submarine has nearly unlimited range; theoretically, it can stay submerged forever. Only endurance limitation is food for the sailors and officers aboard. Fresh produce is usually the first to get eaten; after a long patrol (which for attack subs can be as long as six months) the cook has to become very creative in preparing meals, as it can get pretty monotonous. Woe to the submarine cook who pisses off the crew with a pattern of bad meals - he might be stuffed into a torpedo tube and launched in a exercise! :D

Ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) are paired off into two complete crews: Blue and Gold, and serve roughly 90-day deterrent patrols. While one crew is on patrol, the other is on leave or training ashore.

Fast attack subs (SSNs) can have patrol durations as long as six months, in which there is very little, if any communication from home.

AKA "skimmers". :D

The Surface Warfare Qualification Badge is sometimes called "water wings".