USS Missouri attack submarine joins Naval fleet after commissioning in Connecticut
By APSaturday, July 31, 2010
Attack sub Missouri commissioned in Connecticut
GROTON, Conn. — Another attack submarine has joined the Navy.
The USS Missouri, the seventh Virginia-class sub, entered the fleet Saturday after a commissioning ceremony at the Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut.
The 377-foot, 7,800-ton Missouri was built in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Virginia as a part of a partnership between General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding-Newport News.
Becky Gates, wife of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is the submarine’s sponsor.
On Saturday she gave the traditional call for the crew to, “man our ship and bring her to life.”
The boat is the fifth Navy vessel to be named Missouri. The last was the battleship on which Japan gave its unconditional surrender on Sept. 2, 1945 to end World War II.
