Sailors to aid Red Cross
Approximately 600 sailors are expected to arrive on Saipan tomorrow aboard two US Navy vessels making their first port call to the island.
The AEGIS cruiser USS Chancellorsville (SG 62) and frigate USS Gary (FFG 51) will arrive at the Port of Saipan Friday morning for an anticipated 10-day visit.
Both ships have volunteered for several community relation projects with various organizations while in port.
Sailors of both vessels are expected to help funds for the NMI Chapter of the American Red Cross by participating in the organization’s annual walk-a-thon on April 28.
The Red Cross Office, in conjunction with the Governor’s Public Information and Protocol Office and the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, is sponsoring a “Sponsor-A-Sailor” campaign for the event. Businesses and individuals are encouraged to show their support for the U.S. Navy and the American Red Cross by making a pledge for a volunteer sailor willing in the event. Pledges may be made with the American Red Cross Office at 234-3459.
Also during the ships’ port call, sailors of USS Gary will join the government and civic organizations in the Island Wide Cleanup Saturday, April 21. Volunteers from the ship are also scheduled top join Mt. Carmel School Monday, April 23, to clean Sugar Dock Beach.
The Division of Youth Services will receive a hand from USS. Chancellorsville, which has agreed to help with much-needed grounds keeping at the Juvenile Detention Facility in Kagman.
The USS Chancellorsville is under the command of Captain Gordon Dorsey. The USS Gary is under the command of Commander Michael R. Olmstead. Both vessels are homeported in Yokosuka, Japan.
The vessels arrive on the heels of a 6-day port call by the Benjamin Franklin class submarine USS Kamehameha.
The last time the submarine visited Saipan was in 1997.
It has two sealed delivery vehicles installed where the silos of its Poseidon missiles were once located. The SDVs is where Special Operations Forces are launched from either in submerged or surface conditions.
Before its conversion to a brown water attack submarine, the USS Kamehameha was part of the US Navy’s “41 for Freedom” Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines and provided the US its deterrent capability.
The USS Kamehameha is 425 feet long, with a hull diameter of 33 feet and a draft of 29 feet. It weighs 7,300 tons surfaced and 8,200 tons submerged.
It can submerge to a depth in excess of 800 feet and cruises at a speed of 25 knots. It has four torpedoes tubes, from where MK-48 torpedoes could be launched.
USS Kamehameha is the oldest ship in the US Navy’s submarine fleet and is the last remaining ship of the Benjamin Franklin class of submarines..
It was commissioned in December 10, 1965 and has served off the waters of Guam; Charleston, South Carolina; East Coast of the US Mainland; Rota, Spain; and the Atlantic Ocean.
Currently the ship’s home base is at Pearl Harbor, where it will be deactivated on August 8 at the submarine base in Pier Sierra 1B.
The USS Kamehameha is one of only hundreds of US Navy warships that periodically call on the Port of Saipan for rest and recreation.
