KDSN RADIO News
Hundreds of Iowans will witness namesake submarine going on active duty
The U.S. Navy’s newest fast-attack submarine will be commissioned for duty later this week, and it’ll formally enter service as the USS Iowa, the third Navy vessel in history to be named after the Hawkeye State.
Mat Tanner, a retired Navy Chief Submariner and executive director of the USS Iowa Commissioning Committee, says former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack will preside over Saturday’s event at Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut.
“Mrs. Vilsack, the ship’s sponsor, is going to announce the crew, and the captain will bring the ship to life, and the captain will pass the order to man the rails, and the crew runs aboard,” Tanner says. “Everybody’s official. They raise the pennants and the flags, and sound the horn, and shoot some cannons, and all kinds of fun stuff.”
During this event, Tanner says there won’t be a bottle of champagne smashed on the bow, as that was done by Mrs. Vilsack at the christening event in June of 2023. He’s expecting to see a lot of black-and-gold in the audience.
“We’re looking at approximately 800 to 900 folks from Iowa, almost 2,000 people total, definitely going to be a very nice crowd,” Tanner says. “We’re also going to have some watch parties going on in Iowa. I think we have 27 or 28 watch parties throughout the state. You can get to that link at our web page at SSN797.com.”
Officials say the $3-billion submarine will have a crew of about 140, including enlisted personnel and officers. The nuclear-powered Iowa is 377 feet long and was delivered to the U.S. Navy in late December. It’s at this commissioning when the Navy accepts a new ship into the fleet, and it becomes a United States Ship (USS) for the first time. It’s unclear how soon before the sub will tackle its first mission, which could be virtually anywhere in the world.
“She’s been out to sea for the last couple months, doing some training and testing,” Tanner says. “She’ll be in for a little bit, and then she’s going to head out. We don’t know a full schedule yet, but obviously, we’re the ‘silent service’ for a reason, so we won’t pass that out, but yes, she’s probably going to go back out, but not directly, not right away.”
The submarine can generate its own power and fresh water and will carry a 90-day supply of food. In this era of tens of thousands of federal jobs being slashed in order to save millions of dollars, some critics may question the need for a $3-billion submarine, but Tanner says DOGE won’t be dogging this warship.
“The submarines and the submarine force is one of those military factors that the other countries that could be our adversaries have no idea where we are, and that’s the beautiful thing about it,” he says, “that they’re always constantly worried about, ‘where’s the submarines at?’ The current administration has made it very clear that the submarine force is not in any danger of losing any funding.”
Tanner calls the submarine the “tip of the spear” in our nation’s defense.
Saturday’s East Coast ceremony is scheduled to start at 9 AM/Central. The previous USS Iowa was a battleship in service from 1943 to 1990. It saw action during World War II, the Korean War, and the Gulf War.
