Elements of a new class

Aloha,

HAWAII is at sea again and enjoying doing the work that submariners do. We had another swim call today during a break in the work. Great weather and this time we didn't see the shark until after we were all out of the water. I am beginning to think that USS HAWAII has a shark that follows us around. I have done three swim calls and seen a shark each time. The crew is tough though, and a little shark never stopped us from getting in the water.

The crew is busy testing our various weapons systems and spends most of the day practicing one of the various mission areas submarines specialize in. One of the challenges of being on a submarine is we don't just do one thing. Submarines, especially the new VIRGINIA Class submarines, are designed to conduct anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, naval special warfare, intelligence collection, mine warfare, etc. All of those missions require the crew to dedicate hours each day at sea and in port training and conducting simulated missions to ensure we are ready when it is time deploy. HAWAII has several features unique to this class of ship which make us very effective at conducting each of the mission areas. I will discuss some of our more interesting features in a later blog.

My nuclear trained watchstanders are counting down the days to our arrival in Hawaii as only nuclear trained watchstanders would. Each day they write down on a white board the element of the periodic table that corresponds to the days we have left. A very unique group of sailors!

CDR Ed Herrington
Commanding Officer, USS HAWAII SSN 776