« Crowds Line The Streets Of MLK For The 2009 Unity Parade | Home | Long Beach Fire Department Crane Rescue Drill in the Port of Long Beach »
Long Beach Fire Welcomes Navy Ship Green Bay Into The Port of Long Beach
By frhayes | January 21, 2009
On Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at approximately 1600 hours the Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD) welcomed the Navy’s Ship the Green Bay into the Port of Long Beach with a water display from Fire Boat 15 (Challenger).
The ship is in port for a commissioning ceremony, which will take place on January 24, 2009. The commissioning event will feature a speech and customary procedure that will give the green Bay a USS prefix. Only after this ceremony will it be proper to call the vessel the USS Green Bay. One of the highlights of the event will be when the ship is “brought to life” a military term for officially placing the ship under military command, this will occur when the entire crew runs up the ramp into the ship.
This ship will have football memorabilia aboard, including logos, replicas of Super Bowl trophies, and a life size cutout of former Green Bay quarter back Brett Favre. The primary mission of the vessel is to deploy Marines by air and sea for combat and humanitarian missions. The ship is 684 feet long, is capable of cruising at 22 knots, a regular crew consists of 360 personnel; 28 officers, 332 enlisted, and 3 Marines. In addition to these personnel it is capable of transporting an additional 699 troops for a surge total of 800. This will be the first ship commissioned in Long Beach since the destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur in 1994.
Tickets to the ceremony in the Port of Long Beach are required and available for free, for information on the time and procedure to obtain tickets call (310) 326-7434 on or after Thursday morning, January 22nd. Additional information is also available at http://greenbay-shipcommissioning.org
Some of the information contained in this post was supplied by John Canalis of the Long Beach Press Telegram; he may be reached at john.canalis@presstelegram.com
Topics: News | No Comments »