One of the nation’s newest warships will carry Iowa’s name — underwater.
The USS IOWA SSN 797 will be part of the U.S. Navy’s newest fleet of nuclear attack submarines. While the fourth vessel in history to be named after the state, it will be the first sub.
The $2 billion warship was christened on June 17 by its sponsor Christie Vilsack, wife of former governor and current U.S. Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, in Connecticut where the sub was built. Thousands watched — both in person and at livestream watch parties held around the namesake state — as she gave the christening address.
"In the name of the United States, I christen the Iowa. May God bless her and all who sail in her," she said before breaking a bottle of sparkling wine from Fireside Winery in Marengo on the submarine's hull to booming fanfare.
The 377-foot, 7000-ton ship will be officially commissioned in 2024 before taking to the water and beginning its 30+ years of service.
Among its first crew of 130 will be several women, which, for the first time, the submarine will be specifically designed to accommodate.
Women weren’t allowed to serve as submariners until 2010, when Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates lifted the ban.
According to the Iowa's executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Kevin O'Malley, most boats had to then be retrofitted to accommodate female crew.
"We submariners always made that work, right?" he said. "In terms of submariners, we always want the best and the brightest, so gender really doesn't ever play a role. But in the day-to-day lives of living on a submarine, it's extremely tight quarters. So we've kind of had to retrofit some of the bathrooms and some of the berthing areas."
The USS Iowa, however, was specifically designed from its blueprint to accommodate with extra doors and extra bathroom arrangements.
"That way everyone has their privacy," O'Malley said.
Jordan Schneider, the communications director for the USS Iowa commissioning committee, said she's excited by the new changes.
“There have been extraordinary women doing extraordinary things in the military for a very long time," she said. “I feel like we’re making changes that might be slow, but this is something to really be excited about.”
Lieutenant Taylor Boosmann, who will serve as the Iowa’s navigator (NAV) once it launches, remembers flipping a Velcro sign over on the bathroom door to change it from a men's to a women’s restroom whenever she needed to use it on other ships.
Boosmann has experienced being the first woman on crews before. To get operational experience, female crew members have joined all-male crews on boats with no previously existing gender-specific accommodations. The USS Iowa will change that experience.
“We haven’t even been commissioned yet, and we’ve already had females from the very beginning,” she said of the Iowa.
The USS Iowa will also include more privacy and accommodations, like separate sleeping (berthing) areas, showers and restrooms.
Next, the USS Iowa will move into its testing phase and sea trials before official commissioning. In the meantime, more of its kind are being made. The Iowa is the 24th of 37 Virginia-class submarines, and O'Malley says each one will be better than the last.
"As each one gets built, as time goes on, more advancements come on, so each boat is even better than the last. [The Iowa] has capabilities far greater than the first few that were built, right? We've learned lessons. We've added on technology. They've been building these Virginia class submarines for just about 20 years, so a lot has been learned and all of that has been incorporated into the Iowa."
Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District Rep. Zach Nunn, a veteran of the United States Air Force and Iowa Air National Guard, spoke at the christening to the duties of the men and women who will serve aboard the USS Iowa.
"'Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain' is blazoned on the Iowa flag is the history of our state. The opportunity to serve is something richly imbued in the people of Iowa. To the men and women of the USS Iowa, your mission before you is to serve as a protector for our entire country, and behind us stands one of the greatest guarantees of peace that the world can know. But you do not enter into this fray alone, for standing with you are the men and women who have helped build the ship, the servants who support you and proudly, the men and women from Iowa."
