Navy’s newest sub, the USS Montana, joins the fleet Saturday
The Navy’s newest submarine will join the fleet Saturday after being commissioned as United States Ship Montana — a final step in a journey that began seven years ago at Newport News Shipbuilding.
As the crew practiced Friday for Saturday’s ceremony, instead of the flyby by a Montana Air National Guard C-130 to mark the occasion, it was the destroyer USS Mason heading out to sea that featured as sailors lined up on the topside of the boat.
For the practice, they sported caps with 3-7-77 on the back — a bit of state of Montana insider’s knowledge that most of the crew is learning. Sort of.
“What did everyone else say?” asked Petty Office 1st Class Paul Fullmer, a native Montanan and plankholder on the new submarine.
“It’s what they’d paint on your tent if you were an outlaw and you needed to get out of town in hurry,” said Master Chief Tim Baldwin, who is a Texan and the senior enlisted sailor on board.
Montana legend says the numbers, which feature on Montana Highway Patrol patches, were adopted by miners angered that a crooked sheriff was tipping off robbers. Some tales say it refers to the hours, minutes and seconds a suspected robber has to get out of town, some to the dimensions of the grave of robbers who didn’t get the message.
And it suits the USS Montana, where the crew has adopted the name “vigilantes of the deep,” said Cmdr. Jon Quimby, the boat’s captain.
But serving on a Virginia-class sub is a long way from the wide-open spaces of the 41st state.
“I was on a ballistic sub,” Fulmer said. “When I got here it was like: Oh man this is really small.”
Saturday’s commissioning comes about a year after Quimby and Fullmer joined the Montana. Baldwin has had two years on board, and has seen the sub come together.
Construction began in 2015. It is the 10th Virginia-class sub to be delivered by Newport News Shipbuilding and the 21st Virginia-class sub built as part of the partnership of Newport News Shipbuilding and General Dynamics’ Electric Boatyard in Connecticut.
The Montana also is the third of the 10-ship group of Virginia-class submarines known as Block IV. Those incorporate design changes focused on reduced cost by making it possible to increase the time between maintenance stops.
Montana’s crew took the ship through sea trials in February and have been working on certifications and training ever since.
But commissioning doesn’t really mean a new mindset after all that work, Quimby said. Sailors will keep doing the work they’ve been doing and refining.
“It’s really a confirmation that we’re ready,” he said.
Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress,com
