AP | December 7, 2024

The nuclear submarine USS Arkansas was christened Saturday, almost a decade in the making since the U.S. Navy announced that a Virginia-class submarine would bear the state’s name.

Carlotta Walls LaNier, one the nine Black students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, launched a bottle of sparkling wine into the hull of the Virginia-class submarine at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

Read more HERE.

Bowfin Base | November 28, 2024

Today, across the nation and here in Hawai’i Nei, we celebrate Thanksgiving – a day to gather with family and friends and give thanks for the many blessings we enjoy in our lives every day. It is also a time to be thankful for the many people who contribute every day to our communities and country.  

As we take this time to pause and reflect, let us remember those who are quietly celebrating while underway or forward deployed around the world. While we talk with family, they have the watch. We’ve all been there and know those mixed feelings of pride at accomplishing the mission, but also missing our loved ones while deployed during this time. For those at home, please keep these shipmates in your thoughts and prayers.

But, Thanksgiving is also a time to remember those less fortunate, and to show compassion to those in need – not only today, but every day.

“In this spirit, Thanksgiving has become a day when Americans extend a helping hand to the less fortunate. Long before there was a government welfare program, this spirit of voluntary giving was ingrained in the American character. Americans have always understood that, truly, one must give in order to receive. This should be a day of giving as well as a day of thanks.” Ronald Reagan

So today, as we give thanks for all our blessings, let us look for new ways to give generously of ourselves, too. All of our actions, no matter how small, have an impact.

From our ‘Ohana to yours, we wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving (Hau’oli La Ho’omakika’i)!

Stars & Stripes | November 26, 2024

The USS Minnesota arrived Tuesday at Naval Base Guam, the first Virginia-class fast-attack submarine to be homeported in the strategically important U.S. territory.

Read more HERE.

Stars & Stripes | November 25, 2024

The Navy has determined that leasing out land for construction and operation of a pair of biofuel and solar energy plants at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam would pose no significant environmental impact.

One 10-acre site would house a biofuel-powered generation plant. A separate 15 acres would hold a photovoltaic solar generating system. Both sites would house lithium-ion battery storage systems.

The locations would be connected to the existing distribution system operated by Hawaiian Electric Co., which provides roughly 95% of the state’s electricity.

Read more HERE.

Military.com | November 19, 2024

A wide-ranging veterans policy bill that would bolster home caregiver programs and support for homeless veterans, among other areas, was approved by the House on Monday evening after election-season politics stalled the bill for months.

Tweaks were made to the legislation between when it was first introduced over the summer and Monday’s vote that got Democrats on board with the bill, allowing it to easily pass the House in a bipartisan 389-9 vote.

Read more HERE.

Defense One | November 18, 2024

As the Navy battles ongoing schedule delays, supply chain problems, and workforce challenges  in its effort to produce more submarines, the service may need to turn to private repair shipyards to rebuild capacity, says the vice chair of the House Armed Services Committee. 

“I would argue that there is some additional capability at existing yards. But one of the untapped potentials there are the ship maintenance yards,” Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said at a Defense One event. “Ship maintenance yards have a whole bow wave of work that comes in, they get the work done, and then the work drops off.” 

Read more HERE.

USNI News | November 15, 2024

The lead ship in the Navy’s new class of nuclear ballistic missile submarines will deploy in 2030, a service official said Thursday.

Speaking at the annual Naval Submarine Symposium, Matt Sermon emphasized the Navy’s commitment to delivering the future USS District of Columbia (SSBN-826) on time.

“Shipbuilders out there, supply chain, major mechanical equipment out there, stakeholders out there, we’re going to have District of Columbia on patrol in 2030,” Sermon, the executive director of the strategic submarines program executive office at Naval Sea Systems Command, told the audience.

Read more HERE.

Task & Purpose | November 13, 2024

A Navy sailor assigned to a nuclear submarine scaled the wall of a burning apartment building to save multiple people, including an entrapped woman and her son Tuesday, an act captured on video by a bystander.

The video shows Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Journey, an Electronics Technician Nuclear, assigned to the USS Albany fast attack submarine in Norfolk, climbing to a narrow ledge on the exterior of an apartment as a woman calls for help from a window and as smoke and flames close in. Journey pulled the woman and her son from the flames, easing them into the arms of the crowd beneath.

Journey also helped rescue two more people from a different window using a ladder before the apartment was fully engulfed.

Read more HERE.