USS North Dakota

As of February 14th all of USS NORTH DAKOTA’s Supermodules are welded together! This is great news as she is now in the in her form as a VIRGINIA Class submarine. I was really excited when I saw this photo as we are now one step closer to having our new boat christened, commissioned and serving on active duty in the United States Navy!

And I can just imagine how excited Commander Doug Gordon, NORTH DAKOTA’s Commanding Officer, and his crew were when they had their picture taken for the first time with their new boat!

It’s going to start moving fast and soon NORTH DAKOTA  will join the Navy!

Here is a link to the Navy story about NORTH DAKOTA being hull complete:

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=72386

General Martin E. Dempsey, U.S. ARMY, the 18th and current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, toured USS NORTH DAKOTA (SSN-784) on Thursday, January 31st. Lieutenant Commander Jeremiah Minner, NORTH DAKOTA’s Executive Officer reported that “yesterday we gave a VIP tour of the ship to GENERAL Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We had a little more than an hour and a half with the General and it was a great tour.” At the end of the tour, in the wardroom, Commander Doug Gordon, NORTH DAKOTA’s Commanding Officer presented General Dempsey with NORTH DAKOTA’s Command Challenge Coin. In return, NORTH DAKOTA’s Command Team received Chairman Joints Chief of Staff Challenge Coins. XO Minner noted, “It took a significant effort by the crew and the shipyard to make the ship ready for this tour. The tour went great and the ship was clean and ready to present.” I suspect the process of welding the forward supermodule to the rest of the boat was still going on because when Commander Gordon was in his ship’s namesake state he indicated NORTH DAKOTA’s pressure hull was expected to be completely welded together by the end of the first week of February.

Here is a photo of General Dempsey and NORTH DAKOTA’s Command Team in the wardroom at the end of the tour. L to R are GEN Dempsey, CDR Gordon, ETCM Preabt and LCDR Minner. What for me is great about this photo is the fact this is the first photo I’ve seen of any part of NORTH DAKOTA’s interior spaces. All photos are compliments of General Dynamics Electric Boat, the builder of USS NORTH DAKOTA.

Commander Gordon and General Dempsey with NORTH DAKOTA’s crest.

Commander Gordon, Kevin E. Poitras, the President of General Dynamics Electric Boat, General Dempsey and John Casey, Executive Vice President of General Dynamics’ Marine Systems group.

General Dempsey bids farewell to Commander Gordon.

Here is a link to an interview I did on Prairie Public Television on the USS NORTH DAKOTA on a program called “Prairie Pulse.”  This interview was taped in November and I found out from Commander Gordon during his recent visit to Bismarck that I made a mistake in my interview.  I understood the term “pressure hull complete” meant the hull could be pressure tested.  Commander Gordon explained that pressure hull complete simply means that the four supermodules will finally be welded together so NORTH DAKOTA will finally look like a submarine.

http://www.prairiepublic.org/television/prairie-public-on-demand/prairie-pulse/prairie-pulse-1014

Here are a few photos of Commander Gordon addressing each chamber of the Legislature on Friday, January 11th – USS NORTH DAKOTA DAY!  Our thanks to Gary Redmann, the Capitol official photographer, for these photos.

Commander Gordon speaks to the North Dakota Senate:

Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley thanks Commander Gordon for his remarks:

Commander Gordon being received into the North Dakota House of Representatives:

Commander Gordon addressing the house of Representatives:

USS North Dakota Committee Chairman Bob Wefald and Commander Gordon in the Great Hall of the Capitol:

I’m back from New York City last week where Susan and I helped care for our two beautiful grandchildren so I did not have the time to add this new post about the simply two GREAT Navy Days we had in Bismarck on Thursday and Friday, January 1oth and 11th.  Governor Jack Dalrymple proclaimed Friday, January 11th as USS NORTH DAKOTA DAY to help welcome our guest, Commander Douglas V. Gordon, United States Navy, Commanding Officer of USS NORTH DAKOTA (SSN-784) as he was in Bismarck to address separately both the North Dakota Senate and North Dakota House of Representatives.  His remarks reporting on the status of NORTH DAKOTA indicating she is about 80% complete were well received, as were his comments that as this being the 4th submarine on which he has served he has never found a better ship and namesake relationship than exists between our boat and its namesake state!

Here is the Governor’s Proclamation:

Proclamation signed

On Thursday, January 10th, CDR Gordon did a great job in a series of radio interviews, followed by a visit to the Bismarck Career Academy to observe some STEM (Science technology Engineering and Math) Projects in a marvelous well equipped and up to date facility.  That evening he was a guest at the Annual Dinner of the Bismarck Mandan Area Chamber of Commerce.  Unfortunately, before he was introduced the power at the Civic Center was interrupted for more than three hours before he could be introduced, but every one knew he was there due to the excellent media coverage.

USS NORTH DAKOTA DAY got off to a great start with an excellent two page sponsored display ad in The Bismarck Tribune:

USSNDleft

USSNDright

On Friday, January 11th, in addition to speaking to both Chambers of the Legislature, he did several TV interviews and an AP interview, and he enjoyed a personal visit with Governor Dalrymple in his office.  CDR Gordon was the guest at the 2013 1st Quarter meeting of the North Dakota Council of the Navy League of the United States where he briefed the members and guest on the status of our new boat.  Here is a photo of him speaking to the Navy League and one of him enjoying dinner with some of our Navy League members (L to R – CDR Gordon, Drew Combs, Ken Snyder, Dave Ellefson, Marion Ellefson and Gloria Snyder):

After our Navy League Dinner Meeting Susan and I hustled him down to the Civic Center Exhibit Hall for the Inaugural Ball where he was in the Grand March escorted by Mrs. Dot Frank, a member of our USS North Dakota Committee.

After the Grand March there was a time for dancing:

All in all we had two Great Navy Days!

Our new USS NORTH DAKOTA T-shirts are available in either blue or white, long sleeve or short sleeve, sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL.  Two of the folded T-shirts are shown here with an additional item – a decal of the crest laying on the white T-shirt.  The decal is $5, the short sleeve T-shirts are $25 and the long sleeve T-shirts are $30.

You can buy USS NORTH DAKOTA merchandise at this link:

http://www.bismarckmandan.com/ussnorthdakota/memorabilia/

The long sleeve in white showing the logo on the front.

The long sleeve T-shirt in blue with the crest on the back.

Here are some photos provided by General Dynamics Electric boat (GDEB) of the arrival in Groton Ct of the bow supermodule from Newport News VA.

This shows the barge with the bow supermodule up against the pier for off loading.  The yellow transporter is on the pier.

This photo is looking into the barge with the yellow transporter moved into place under the bow supermodule on the barge.

This photo taken on the barge shows the supermodule starting to move off of the barge on top of the yellow transporter.

This guy has a great job as he gets to drive the transporter carrying the bow supermodule off of the barge.  You can see the hydraulic jacks on the transporter extended up enough to lift the bow supermodule off of its resting place on the barge.

In this photo the bow supermodule is on the pier.  You should be able to see the wheels on the transporter turned to manuever the bow supermodule.

It looks like the bow supermodule will be moved into the hangar at some point.

In the mean time it looks like the bow supermodule is being placed on supports on the pier.  Notice the wood shimes on the supports.

From my point of view things seem like they are really moving along.  I suspect the Navy and GDEB will soon set the christening date firmly set so we can all make plans to be there for the christening.  If you want to attend the christening go to the upper right hand corner of this blog and sign up.