One joked that guests could have a nugget for $5. The tour passed the kitchen and cafeteria line, where cooks were serving salad, vegetables and chicken nuggets. The crew of the USS Delaware board their submarine during the dress rehearsal for the official commission ceremony for the new submarine. The choice rooms were the one-man bunks used by Horton, his executive officer and chief of the boat. On and on guests marched, past the officers’ quarters, which were only three to a bunk and had slightly more room than the six-packs. Asked how many torpedoes were on board, the tour guide quipped, “Enough.” He did not elaborate. At eye level was a 21-foot torpedo, ready to be fed into a launch tube, if needed. If your guess was an Xbox controller, you would be correct. The periscope is a large color monitor with a 360-degree view that was able to zoom in on the lettering of a ship more than a quarter-mile away at the port. Some 30 computer screens were lit up, including ones showing sonar and servers. The command center housed about $100 million of computer hardware and software. Some spent part of the day Thursday in Philadelphia, where they saw the Liberty Bell, he said. One enlisted man said he and some fellow crew members have used their time at dock to hit the terra firma and visit the area. Visitors were shown the so-called “six-packs” - bunks where about six enlisted men (no women serve on the USS Delaware) take turns sleeping in an area less than eight feet wide and deep. Anyone much taller than 6 feet had to bend down to move through the submarine. All within feet of a nuclear reactor.Īfter climbing down the gray metal stairs, visitors were greeted by narrow but not cramped corridors of metal piping and mechanical systems. No cameras or phones were allowed, but guests were taken through every section of the three-floor, 32-foot-tall vessel: living quarters, weapons room, computer command center, cafeteria, and more. John Carney and Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki. Also getting tours Friday were a few dozen locals, including Gov. Horton and his crew agreed to let WHYY News and about a dozen other media outlets take a guided tour. “I was so happy.” Face to face with a bright green 21-foot torpedo “If I could have pried through the wire and kissed him, I would have done that,’’ Carper said. “The first off the line will be the USS Delaware,’’ Carper recalled Mabus telling him. (Emily Cohen/WHYY)Ĭarper said Mabus called him three months later and said five Virginia-class subs were being ordered. And do you think maybe we could do something about it?” Delaware Senator Tom Carper talks about his joy in seeing the submarine he fought to bring to Delaware. It’s been a hundred years since a ship was built by the Navy and named after the First State,’’’ Carper recalled. representative before his election to the Senate in 2000. Carper served two terms as Delaware governor and was a U.S. Tom Carper of Delaware, a former Navy flight officer who played a leading role in the submarine bearing Delaware’s name.Īfter a Delawarean wrote a letter in 2012 to the editor of the Wilmington News Journal about Delaware’s lack of a Navy boat, Carper called Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy and a fellow Democrat and former governor of Mississippi. Standing behind Horton and beaming was fifth-term U.S. USS Delaware Captain Matthew Horton talks about his ship during the dress rehearsal for the official commission ceremony for the new submarine. “They’re ready to go out and carry out the nation’s missions,’’ Horton declared. After another year of training and maintenance, Horton said the $3 billion sub and its crew of 121 enlisted men and 15 officers will head to undisclosed waters at sea.
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