Haze Gray & Underway Naval News Photos

Haze Gray & Underway

Naval News Photos

Archive - 2001 - Part 1

The thumbnail images and captions are linked to screen-sized images; larger images are linked to the words "Hi-Rez Image".

May 5 - Chafee (DDG 90) Keel Laying. With the assistance of a Bath Iron Works welder, Virginia Chafee welds her initials on a plaque that will be affixed to the ship bearing her late husband's name, Chafee (DDG 90). Chafee's keel laying ceremony was held today at BIW, marking the start of shipbuilding in the company's new, land-level shipyard. The new facility will replace the traditional inclined building ways at Bath, and BIW's drydock facility at Portland. See our related photo feature: Chafee (DDG 90) Keel Laying.

May 5 - Chafee (DDG 90) Keel Laying. Prior to the ceremony, four "units" of the ship stand ready for the day's events. The upper unit, hoisted by a 300 ton crane, will be lowered into place, while the unit at far right will be rolled into place on the TTS ship transport system. The TTS system will be used to roll completed ships into the floating drydock for launch; it can also be used to move individual ship components, or to roll ships out of the drydock for major overhaul/repair work.

May 5 - Chafee (DDG 90) Keel Laying. The Auxiliary Machinery Room #1 unit is rolled into place to join the previous units, as the crane sets another unit atop.

May 5 - Chafee (DDG 90) Keel Laying. At the conclusion of the ceremony the four units are joined together. The whole assembly will later be rolled down the shipway to its final position for the remainder of the ship's construction.

April 21 - USS Iowa (BB 61) Arrives at San Francisco. After a long ocean tow from Newport, Rhode Island, the mothballed battleship Iowa arrived in the San Francisco Bay area. She will be laid up in the Suisun Bay reserve fleet for a few years, and then will likely become a museum in the San Francisco area.

April 14 - EP-3E crew arrives home at NAS Whidbey, WA. A USN C-9 brought the 24 men and women of the VQ-1 crew from Hawaii to Whidbey Island, where they were greeted by an emotional welcome-home ceremony. The plane's pilot, Lt. Shane Osborn, is seen being welcomed home by his parents.
[Hi-Rez Image]

April 12 - US EP-3E crew arrives at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, for debriefing. After a brief stop at Guam, the crew boarded a USAF C-17 for the flight to Hickam AFB.
[Hi-Rez Image]

April 12 - US EP-3E crew leaves Hainan Island. After being detained by the Chinese for 11 days, the 24 men and women of the US EP-3E crew boarded a charted 737 for the flight to Guam and eventual return to NAS Whidbey Island, WA.
[Hi-Rez Image]

March 14 - USS Boxer (LHD 4) Deploys. The amphibious assault ship Boxer, one of the Navy's newest ships, departs San Diego on a six-month deployment to the WestPac and Indian Ocean.
[Hi-Rez Image]

March 10 - USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) Commissioned. The Navy's newest destroyer, named in honor of Sir Winston Churchill, was commissioned March 10th at Norfolk. Churchill is seen here during her February 7th sailway cruise from her builder's yard.
[Hi-Rez Image]

March 4 - Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) Christened. Nancy Reagan christened the carrier Ronald Reagan at Newport News. Reagan is the 9th Nimitz class carrier, and features a number of improvements, including a bulbous bow and redesigned island. She will commission in 2003, replacing Constellation.
[Hi-Rez Image]

1 March - San Diego SINKEX. The Navy has been assisting the San Diego Harbor Police in eliminating derilect vessels around the port. Here EOD Mobile Unit 3 demolishes a former Navy landing craft, which had apparently been sold into private hands and later become derilect, before being confiscated and sunk.
[Hi-Rez Image]

March 1 - DD-21 Program downselect delayed. The Navy has delayed the selection of a winning DD-21 design from April to June, to allow more time to evaluate the two competing proposals. At left is the Blue Team (Bath Iron Works/Lockheed Martin) proposed design.

February 26 - Oscar Austin (DDG 79) Post Shakedown Availability begins. Oscar Austin returned to Bath Iron Works on February 22nd to begin her Post Shakedown Availability (PSA). She is seen here on February 25th, shifting berths in a blinding snowstorm, in preparation for the start of PSA work the following day.

24 February - Destroyer Shoup (DDG 86) Christened at Ingalls. The ship is named in honor of General David M. Shoup, the 22nd Commandant of the Marine Corps and a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa. Zola Shoup, widow of General Shoup, and Claudia Natter, wife of Admiral Robert J. Natter, were the ship's co-sponsors. Shoup was launched on 22 November. In the background, on Ingalls' ship construction facility, are Preble (DDG 88) (immediate right) and USS Cole (DDG 67) (right background).
[Hi-Rez Image]

February 21 - Greeneville (SSN 772) Inspection Begins. The submarine was drydocked in Drydock #1 at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on February 20th to allow inspection and repair of damage resulting from the February 9th collision with Ehime Maru.
[Hi-Rez Image]

February 20 - Former Lynde McCormick (DDG 8) towed away from Mare Island, CA to be sunk as a target. The C.F. Adams class destroyer was decommissioned in 1991 and sold in 1994 for conversion to a power barge, but the conversion/scrapping contract was terminated 23 June 1999 for default. She is one of many ships returned to the Navy from shipbreakers in recent years. The former Lynde McCormick met her demise as a target ship on February 24th.

February 12 - Abraham Lincoln Battlegroup Returns from Deployment Following a six-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf, the eight ship of the battlegroup have returned to their west coast homeports, bringing thousands of sailors back to their families. The deployment included a very tense period in the region, following the attack on USS Cole on 12 October. Our west coast photographer, Roy McBride, was at Everett, WA when the ship returned, and we will be producing a Homecoming Photo Feature soon.

February 12 - Bath Iron Works' new drydock arrives in the United States. Following a six-month, 15,680+ mile journey from Shanghai, the new 28,000 ton floating drydock was brought past Fort Popham into the Kennebec River just after 4 PM today, and moored just upstream of the fort to await favorable tides. The dock is seen here towering over buildings along Popham Beach, just outside historic Fort Popham.
Video of the dock arrival: Dock approaching Fort Popham (5 sec MPG, 469 Kb)

February 12 - Bath Iron Works' new drydock arrives in the United States. The tug Smitwijs London emerges from behind Fort Popham, bringing the drydock into the Kennebec River. The large ocean tug was assisted by four smaller harbor tugs during the challenging entrance into the river's narrow channel. The rest of the journey up the river will not be any easier, for in places the river is barely wider than the dock. The 750 foot long, 180 foot wide dock is the largest structure ever moved on the Kennebec River, and the remaining 10 mile journey to Bath may take up to four days.

February 12 - Bath Iron Works' new drydock arrives in the United States. The dock towers over historic Fort Popham and onlookers' cars. The long-awaited arrival brought people from many miles around, and a number of TV news crews. The dock is indeed "big news", as the largest piece of BIW's $240 million shipyard modernization, which will replace traditional sliding ways with a modern land-level construction platform.

February 12 - Bath Iron Works' new drydock arrives in the United States. Another view of the huge dock towering over the fort. The two large cranes (300 and 100 ton capacities) were shipped from Shanghai in the dock, and will be unloaded onto the ship construction facility at BIW. A smaller crane for the drydock wingwall was shipped, disassembled, on the dock floor.

February 12 - Bath Iron Works' new drydock arrives in the United States. Clear of the fort, the dock is moved towards its overnight mooring position. The houses at left give a sense of scale.

February 12 - Bath Iron Works' new drydock arrives in the United States. Tugs begin to maneuver the dock sideways to a mooring position along the river's east bank, where it will remain until the next day's high tide.
Video of the dock arrival: Dock underway in the River (11 sec MPG, 978 Kb)

February 7 - Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) departs Bath Iron Works. The Navy's newest AEGIS destroyer, Churchill was delivered on 13 October 2000 and will be commissioned at Norfolk in March. Following her departure from BIW, Churchill will visit Portsmouth, NH and New York City before arriving at Norfolk for commissioning.

January 18 - The first Greek Zubr (NATO 'Pomornik') class hovercraft delivered at Salamis. The Hellenic Navy has ordered four of these Soviet-design hovercraft, with two coming from Russia and two from the Ukraine. The first unit delivered is Hefallinia (L180); she was constructed in 1993 and was completely overhauled prior to transfer. At 550 tons full-load displacement, these are the largest military hovercraft in service. The remaining three ships are to be delivered by summer, and it is reported that additional units may be ordered.

January 14 - USS Cole rolled onto land for repairs. Following ammunition offload, Cole was docked in Ingalls' floating drydock in early January, then rolled onto the construction facility on January 14. For more photos, see our related special feature: The Attack on USS Cole.

January 10 - LST 325 arrives at Mobile. Following an epic trans-Atlantic voyage, the aged LST and her elderly crew arrived in US to a joyous welcome. See our related photo feature.

Naval News Photos 2000 Archive

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