Our ship has come in: USS Fort Worth commissioned in Galveston

With the words "Man your ship and bring her to life," U.S. Rep. Kay Granger put the cap on Saturday's commissioning of the USS Fort Worth, the Navy's next-generation warship that promises to carry the city's name around the world for the next 30 years.

The $480 million ship -- the third in a fleet of agile littoral combat ships designed to confront threats such as piracy and terrorism in coastal waters -- went into service on Galveston's Pier 21 before 3,200 dignitaries, service members and spectators who managed to find a ticket.

Fort Worth joins Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Corpus Christi as Texas cities with Navy vessels named for them.

"May God bless and guide this warship and all who shall sail in it," Adm. Mark Ferguson, vice chief of naval operations, said in officially commissioning the ship.

After a series of orders in which co-commanding officers Randy Blankenship and Warren Cupps acknowledged command, Granger spoke.

Upon the command to man the ship, sailors, to the tune Anchors Aweigh and hoots and applause from the audience, ran through the crowd and onto the ship to their posts.

"The world's changing. Enemies are changing," Granger, R-Fort Worth, told reporters afterward, stressing the need for the LCS fleet. "Anybody who's at home watching can tell you that right now."

In 2009, Granger won a lengthy campaign to have a ship named for Fort Worth and is its sponsor.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, joined by the City Council at the commissioning, said in an interview that the crew "will stay in our prayers, whether they're patrolling the water or fighting for our freedom."

Former Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who conceived the idea for the ships, said the LCS is "one of the most advanced ships at sea."

But he warned that it won't erase the threats it's designed to fight.

"Despots and pirates will not find new lines of work simply because the USS Fort Worth finds her place in our fleet," England said in remarks at the commissioning.

Fort Worth leaders marveled at the number of Cowtown people in the crowd. Mattie Parker, director of the commissioning committee, estimated that 2,000 of the 3,200 tickets distributed went to Fort Worth residents.

The support is important, because the commissioning committee, by tradition, is expected to raise money over the ship's life to help pay for improvements and assist sailors' families in need.

"We've adopted the crew; when you adopt one, you've got to support it," said Steve Murrin, the former Fort Worth councilman known for his Western visage.

After the commissioning, Murrin could be found near a pen where the Fort Worth Herd brought three longhorns, two horses and a mule named Niles for the weekend.

In the early stages of its fundraising, the nonprofit committee generated over $300,000, well more than it needed to pay for Friday night's gala reception. The Navy paid for the commissioning ceremony.

The committee continues to raise money from contributions, as well as through sales of commemorative T-shirts, coins, water bottles and other items.

An artist has also agreed to donate a percentage of sales from a limited edition of bronze statues, Parker said. Updated figures for total fundraising aren't available, she said.

The commissioning drew interest from broad quarters.

Former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, who directed the committee's early fundraising before handing off his duties late last year, helped raise money for -- and attended -- the commissioning of the George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier.

"I grew up in Fort Worth. I'm a Fort Worth guy. You can't compare the two" ship-commissioning experiences, Williams said.

"This was real personal. It's one of my greatest honors ever."

Ruby Bressman of Fort Worth attended the commissioning with her husband, Don, driving into town Friday.

"I am a proud American. I love my country. I love my state," she said. "I would not have missed this for anything. I tried to bring my grandchildren, but they could not get an excused absence. Can you believe that?"

Michael Bennett, CEO of Gideon Toal architects in Fort Worth, attended with his wife and three children.

"How often do you see a ship commissioned?" said Bennett, whose 12-year-old son is a history buff. The two recently toured the Battleship Texas at San Jacinto.

"He's really into history and ships and planes and all that kind of stuff," he said.

The Fort Worth, commissioned in Galveston at Granger's request, will sail Monday to its new home base in San Diego.

Twenty members of the crew will travel to Arlington on Monday and attend the Texas Rangers game. Cupps will throw out the first pitch.

The littoral combat ships are highly automated and lightweight, with interchangeable modules for missions such as anti-submarine, mine clearing and surface warfare.

They work with two rotating crews of 40 apiece, plus 35 others for specific missions.

The total number is significantly less than on comparable ships, such as frigates.

The Navy has 21 littoral combat ships under contract, split between Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, and says it wants to build up to 55.

They are meant to replace certain frigates, mine countermeasure vessels and coastal mine hunters.

Lockheed now has two of the ships in service. General Dynamics, whose design is different, has the other one.

The Navy plans to deploy the first ship, Freedom, to Singapore next year and ultimately base four of the ships in Southeast Asia.

They will be ideal in working with allies and protecting key waterways, said Ferguson, the vice chief.

The Middle East is also a likely base for the ships, he said.

US Warship Leaves Builder's Yard for Commissioning

The Navy's littoral combat ship, the future USS Fort Worth sails from Marinette Marine's shipyard for Galveston, Texas.

Fort Worth is the third littoral combat ship delivered to the Navy, and the second LCS of the steel, semi-planing, mono-hull Freedom variant is scheduled to be commissioned on Sept. 22, 2012.

Prior to sail-away, the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) conducted acceptance trials aboard Forth Worth. INSURV found the ship to be "highly capable, well-built and inspection ready," and recommended the vessel be accepted.



A number of design changes have been incorporated in LCS 3 based on lessons learned from the first ship of class, USS Freedom (LCS 1). These changes are now part of the baseline design and will be incorporated into future ships of the class prior to construction. 



The littoral combat ship is a high-speed, agile, shallow-draft, focused-mission surface combatant designed for operation in near-shore environments yet fully capable of open-ocean operation.

Fort Worth, a high-speed steel mono-hull ship, is designed to defeat asymmetric "anti-access" threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.

The 387-foot Fort Worth will be outfitted with reconfigurable payloads, called mission packages, which can be changed over quickly, and focus on three mission areas: mine countermeasures, surface warfare and anti-submarine warfare. 


U.S. nuclear submarine fire linked to vacuum cleaner

A fire that caused an estimated $400 million in damage to a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine docked in Maine may have been caused by a vacuum cleaner, authorities said on Wednesday.

The fire in the forward compartment - which includes crew living, command and control spaces and the torpedo room - of the USS Miami on May 23 took about 12 hours to extinguish and injured seven firefighters.

"Preliminary findings indicate the fire started in a vacuum cleaner used to clean work sites at end of shift, and stored in an unoccupied space," the shipyard's public affairs office said in a release. Specific details are still being evaluated.

Initial conclusions reached through a formal Naval safety investigation could be released in the next two weeks.

The Miami's nuclear propulsion plant was not operating at the time and had been shut for over two months. The nuclear areas were isolated from the fire early.

No torpedoes or other weapons were on board the submarine, which was at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, three months into a planned 20 months of maintenance.

The Miami is worth an estimated $900 million. The Navy estimates the repair cost at $400 million, plus another 10 percent for secondary effects such as disruption to other planned work at naval shipyards and the potential need to contract work to the private sector.

Workers at the Portsmouth shipyard returned to work in the forward compartment last week to start cleaning up and helping with damage assessment. The Navy is seeking bids on other cleaning contracts.

Marinette Marine to hand over 2nd littoral combat ship today

Crew will start preparing Navy vessel for September commissioning

The LCS-3, the future USS Fort Worth, being built at Marinette Marine, has a 57mm gun on the forward deck, Tuesday, June 5, 2012.

MARINETTE — Lockheed Martin will deliver the future USS Fort Worth to the U.S. Navy today.

The ship, built at Marinette Marine Corp. in Marinette, is the second littoral combat ship the company has produced for the Navy.

Navy crew will move into the ship beginning today. The future Fort Worth is expected to stay in Marinette through late summer while crews prepare for transit to Galveston, Texas, where it will be commissioned in September.

"They've been through a lot of familiarization training, a lot of classroom training and have had hands-on training because they were with us during (acceptance sea) trials," said Joe North, vice president of Littoral Ship Systems for Lockheed Martin.

The Navy said it intends to purchase 55 of the vessels. Two variations of the littoral combat ship are in production — the version built at Marinette and another by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala. Through fiscal year 2015, the contracts could be worth $3.6 billion to Lockheed Martin and $3.5 billion to Austal USA, according to the Navy.

Electricians Mate 1st Class Lidia Dorame is one of the crew who will take over the future Fort Worth today.

"We're excited. We've been waiting for this day," the 13-year veteran of the Navy said Tuesday while standing near the 57 mm gun turret on the foredeck of the ship. "We've been training a lot. I've been with the command since September 2010, so I've been training since then."

The core crew of the LCS is about 40, a reduction from other classes of the ships.

Marinette Marine has been ramping up production at the yard. It has about 1,350 employees and is expected to peak around 2,200 workers.

North said lessons learned while building the first ship — USS Freedom — were applied to Fort Worth, cutting overall man hours on the construction of Fort Worth by about 30 percent.

Lockheed Martin has stressed the need to keep delivering ships on time and on budget and said today's delivery comes two months ahead of the contract. The average cost per ship is $360 million.

The Navy faced several cracks and some corrosion in the first ships it says have been dealt with — including design changes to follow-on ships.

Two other ships in the class — the future USS Detroit and USS Milwaukee — are under construction at Marinette Marine as part of a 10-ship contract. Lockheed Martin is expected to bid on building another 10 ships in fiscal year 2016. That could carry construction through 2030 and beyond if approved, North said.

Fort Worth will be based out of San Diego, Calif.

North said delivering the ship is the second-happiest day in the construction process.

"The first one is watching the crew take the ship and sail away," he said.