New Navy Destroyer Commissioned In Key West
KEY WEST (CBS4) – The U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke–class Aegis Guided Missile Destroyer, the U.S.S. Spruance, was commissioned Saturday evening in Key West.
The ceremony took place at sunset on Key West's waterfront.
A 509 feet and costing $1.2 billion, Spruance is a multi-mission ship that carries Tomahawk cruise missiles, a 5-inch gun, sonar systems and two helicopters. The vessel is powered by four gas-turbine engines and can reach speeds of more than 30 knots.
The ship is named after Admiral Raymond Spruance, an aircraft carrier task force commander during the Battle of Midway in World War II.
Ellen Spruance Holscher, granddaughter of the late admiral, spoke the traditional order to man the ship, sending members of the 285-person crew hurrying up two gangways.
Other highlights of the commissioning ceremony included the raising of the ship's colors, a flyover by a Naval Air Station Key West fighter squadron and an address by Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mark E. Ferguson.
"Before you stand the amazing sailors who comprise this mission and crew," said Admiral Ferguson. "In the years to come, it will be their industry, their services, their skill at sea which will determine the character and legacy of this ship. But if the spirit of Admiral Spruance is a guide, the ship will truly be an extraordinary one."
Although Key West has a long Navy tradition, with operations beginning in 1823, Saturday's ceremony was the first time that the subtropical island hosted a Naval vessel commissioning.
The battleship "Maine" sailed from Key West prior to her 1898 sinking in Havana that motivated the Spanish-American War. In 1917, Navy seaplane and blimp activity began at Naval Air Station Key West. The facility expanded to nearby Boca Chica Key in 1943 and today remains a strategic air base.
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