Post 18 in Nampa, Idaho, hosted a reception for the commanding officer and crew of the USS Idaho, to be commissioned in the summer of 2023.
About 100 Legionnaires, Auxiliary members and guests welcomed six officers and crew of the future USS Idaho at American Legion Joseph H. Murray Post 18 in Nampa, Idaho, for a special reception on Jan. 27.
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Nicholas Meyers, who will serve as the commanding officer of the USS Idaho, and his crew freely entertained questions from Legion Family members about the ship. The questions ranged from what’s the food like to how do you break through the polar icecap?
For me, an Army veteran, the evening was most enlightening. I now have some idea of what it is to “earn one’s dolphin,” what “hot-racking” means, how a sailor is graduated from pollywog to shellback, how cameras have replaced periscopes, etc. Perhaps most endearing was Meyers’ explanation of his motto for the USS Idaho — IDAHO (Integrity, Discipline, Action, Honor, Ownership of one’s actions).
The USS Idaho SSN-799 is currently under construction in Connecticut. She is projected to cost $2.6 billion and be commissioned in the summer of 2023. The boat will be 377 feet in length; that’s a little over a football field in length from goal post to goal post! Much of the advanced acoustic stealth technology comes from the U.S. Navy’s premier Acoustic Research Laboratory in Bayview, Idaho, on Lake Pend Oreille which is home to the largest unmanned submarine in the world.
When launched in 2023, the USS Idaho will have a crew of just over 130 sailors.
The U.S. Navy has a long history with our state. In all, five ships have had the name USS Idaho. Perhaps the most famous of these is the USS Idaho BB-42. Commissioned in 1917 during World War I, this battleship was refitted for the second World War. USS Idaho BB 42 served in both the Atlantic and Pacific, earning seven Battle Stars. It was among the ships present in Tokyo Bay when Japan formally surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945.
Aside from these ships, our state can brag about Farragut Naval Training Station (FNTS), which was a U.S. Navy training center during World War II. FNTS was located in Northern Idaho at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille. In 1942, Farragut was the second largest training station in the United States with a population of 56,000. Some 293,000 sailors received basic training there during the war. It was decommissioned and in 1966 changed to Farragut State Park.
From the1950s to the 1990s, Naval Reactors Facility (NRF) in Idaho trained nearly 40,000 Navy personnel in surface and submarine nuclear power plant operations, near Idaho Falls.
- News