lucky wilbury
06-05-2004, 01:15 AM
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ct--carter-submarine0604jun04,0,256638.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
Carters prepare for the christening of namesake submarine
By ELLIOTT MINOR
Associated Press Writer
June 4, 2004, 5:04 PM EDT
PLAINS, Ga. -- Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter watched a video but broke no champagne bottles as she prepared to christen the Navy's newest and most advanced submarine.
Mrs. Carter and her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, will travel to Groton, Conn., for Saturday's christening of the USS Jimmy Carter.
Carter, the only submariner to rise to the rank of chief executive, said at a news conference Friday that he was greatly honored by the Navy's decision to name a submarine after him and feels that submarines will continue to play a vital role in the nation's defense in the 21st century.
The USS Jimmy Carter, the third and final Seawolf-class attack submarine, was built at the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton and moved outdoors for the first time on May 10. As long as one-and-a-half football fields and as tall as a four-story building, the sub has a 100-foot hull extension so that it can handle larger payloads.
Armed with anti-submarine torpedoes and cruise missiles, the submarine will be able to carry special operations troops on stealth missions and it may be used to launch unmanned undersea vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
"This is the most technically advanced submarine in our arsenal," said Admiral Frank Bowman, director of Naval Reactors, who visited the Carters in Plains on Friday and will escort them to the christening. "If the time comes, this submarine can pack a wallop."
The first salvo of Tomahawk missiles fired against former Iraqi dictator Saddham Hussein last year were launched from a nuclear submarine, Bowman noted.
Mrs. Carter said she viewed a video made last August, when Lynda Johnson Robb, wife of former Sen. Charles Robb of Virginia and daughter of the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson, broke a bottle of champagne over the bow of the USS Virginia, also at the Groton shipyard.
"I'll smash it," Mrs. Carter said. "I feel pretty confident. I watched Lynda Robb commission the Virginia. If she can do it, I can do it."
The Plains news conference was held in the Carters' old high school, which is now a museum highlighting the life of the nation's 39th president and his wife.
Last September, the National Park Service unveiled a new exhibit on Carter's Naval career.
The display features a model of the USS Jimmy Carter. It also contains pictures and information on Carter's life from 1946, when he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and married.
For the next seven years, the Carters were stationed at various bases around the country.
A nuclear physicist, Carter became an aid to Admiral Hyman Rickover (then a captain), who is considered the father of the modern nuclear Navy.
Carter served on submarines and was preparing to become the engineering officer on an early nuclear submarine, the USS Seawolf, when his father died in 1953 and relatives asked him to return to Plains to manage the family business.
After his return, he won a state senate seat, ran successfully for governor and then president.
Carter, who worked for peace during his presidency and has continued the effort since leaving the White House, credits the nation's fleet of submarines with helping to preserve peace during the Cold War and said they are still vital weapons in the war on terrorism.
"I look on it as a major contributor to peace," he said.
On the Net:
Jimmy Carter National Historic Site: http://www.nps.gov/jica/
Electric Boat Co.: http://www.gdeb.com/
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
Carters prepare for the christening of namesake submarine
By ELLIOTT MINOR
Associated Press Writer
June 4, 2004, 5:04 PM EDT
PLAINS, Ga. -- Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter watched a video but broke no champagne bottles as she prepared to christen the Navy's newest and most advanced submarine.
Mrs. Carter and her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, will travel to Groton, Conn., for Saturday's christening of the USS Jimmy Carter.
Carter, the only submariner to rise to the rank of chief executive, said at a news conference Friday that he was greatly honored by the Navy's decision to name a submarine after him and feels that submarines will continue to play a vital role in the nation's defense in the 21st century.
The USS Jimmy Carter, the third and final Seawolf-class attack submarine, was built at the Electric Boat shipyard in Groton and moved outdoors for the first time on May 10. As long as one-and-a-half football fields and as tall as a four-story building, the sub has a 100-foot hull extension so that it can handle larger payloads.
Armed with anti-submarine torpedoes and cruise missiles, the submarine will be able to carry special operations troops on stealth missions and it may be used to launch unmanned undersea vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
"This is the most technically advanced submarine in our arsenal," said Admiral Frank Bowman, director of Naval Reactors, who visited the Carters in Plains on Friday and will escort them to the christening. "If the time comes, this submarine can pack a wallop."
The first salvo of Tomahawk missiles fired against former Iraqi dictator Saddham Hussein last year were launched from a nuclear submarine, Bowman noted.
Mrs. Carter said she viewed a video made last August, when Lynda Johnson Robb, wife of former Sen. Charles Robb of Virginia and daughter of the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson, broke a bottle of champagne over the bow of the USS Virginia, also at the Groton shipyard.
"I'll smash it," Mrs. Carter said. "I feel pretty confident. I watched Lynda Robb commission the Virginia. If she can do it, I can do it."
The Plains news conference was held in the Carters' old high school, which is now a museum highlighting the life of the nation's 39th president and his wife.
Last September, the National Park Service unveiled a new exhibit on Carter's Naval career.
The display features a model of the USS Jimmy Carter. It also contains pictures and information on Carter's life from 1946, when he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and married.
For the next seven years, the Carters were stationed at various bases around the country.
A nuclear physicist, Carter became an aid to Admiral Hyman Rickover (then a captain), who is considered the father of the modern nuclear Navy.
Carter served on submarines and was preparing to become the engineering officer on an early nuclear submarine, the USS Seawolf, when his father died in 1953 and relatives asked him to return to Plains to manage the family business.
After his return, he won a state senate seat, ran successfully for governor and then president.
Carter, who worked for peace during his presidency and has continued the effort since leaving the White House, credits the nation's fleet of submarines with helping to preserve peace during the Cold War and said they are still vital weapons in the war on terrorism.
"I look on it as a major contributor to peace," he said.
On the Net:
Jimmy Carter National Historic Site: http://www.nps.gov/jica/
Electric Boat Co.: http://www.gdeb.com/
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press