USS COLORADO IS THE NAVY’S NEWEST SUB
The U.S. Navy’s new attack submarine, the USS Colorado, joins the fleet Saturday in a ceremony at the Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn. It is the fourth vessel to carry the Colorado name, but the first since 1947.
The first USS Colorado fought in the Civil War. The second patrolled the Pacific Ocean a century ago. The third, a battleship, bore witness to the end of World War II.
On Saturday, the fourth USS Colorado began the namesake’s next chapter — this time as a $2.6 billion, nuclearpowered submarine.
The U.S. Navy put the new boat into active service for the first time at a shipyard ceremony in Connecticut that brought together top military officials and Colorado politicos such as
Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner.
“That’s when we officially become a ready and relevant asset to the U.S. Naval fleet,” said Cmdr. Reed Koepp, whose first command is the USS Colorado.
Its mission, as with other Virginiaclass attack submarines, will be a mix of whatever the Navy needs at the moment: whether that’s reconnaissance or the deployment of Special Operations Forces through the vessel’s reconfigurable torpedo room.
There’s a greater chance, too, that the USS Colorado and its crew of about 130 will be called upon to fight its foreign counterparts — at least according to one federal analysis.
“In light of the recent shift in the strategic environment from the postcold War era to a new situation featuring renewed great power competition that some observers conclude has occurred, ASW (anti-submarine warfare) against Russian and Chinese submarines may once again become a more prominent mission,” wrote Ronald O’rourke, a specialist in naval affairs, in December for the Congressional Research Service.
But the same report noted the USS Colorado soon will have fewer allies undersea.
Because the U.S. throttled back its production of attack subs in the 1990s, the number of those vessels is expect to reach a minimum of 41 boats in 2029 — nearly 40 percent less than the Pentagon’s goal of 66.
“That could lead to a period of heightened operational strain for the (attack sub) force, and perhaps a period of weakened conventional deter-
rence against potential adversaries,” O’rourke wrote.
The challenging future, however, took a back seat Saturday during the commissioning ceremony of the USS Colorado — an upbeat rite of passage of any new boat and its crew.
Ken Jones, who served aboard the last USS Colorado, played a key role by presenting the long glass, or telescope, to signal the start of the first watch.
Now 91, Jones enlisted in the Navy at 17 and was assigned to the USS Colorado for the final two years of World War II.
He said the battleship was built for a crew of 1,200, but closer to 2,100 sailors were aboard the USS Colorado during its campaign in the Pacific theater.
It was so crowded Jones said he didn’t even get a bed. “All during the war I slept on a hammock,” he said.
Compared with some of the other vessels in the Navy at the time, the USS Colorado was older and slower — which meant its main assignment was to serve as a “platform for heavy artillery” during beach landings and assaults, Jones said.
“We were used mainly for bombardment purposes,” he added.
It was during one such mission, during the battle of Tinian, that the USS Colorado was hit 22 times. “We were covering the landing of the troops and they opened up,” Jones said.
“I was just a little 17year-old boy when this happened,” he said. “After being hit, we had to clean up the ship and we had to literally pick up the body parts of our shipmates who had been killed during that shell firing.”
Over the course of the war, the USS Colorado played a role in more than a half-dozen major operations, and it was among the U.S. ships in Tokyo Bay on the day Japan surrendered.
Jones said the crew of the USS Colorado listened to the proceedings on the ship’s radio and that the words of Gen. Douglas still stick with him.
“I remember him saying ‘these proceedings are now closed’ — and just the sound of his voice and the finality of it made me personally realize it’s really over,” Jones said. “And we not only won the victory but I have survived and I’m going home.”
The ship was decommissioned in 1947 after 24 years of service that — in addition to its World War II exploits — included a role in the failed search for trailblazing pilot Amelia Earhart, whose plane went missing in 1937 over the Pacific Ocean.
While the third USS Colorado had the biggest impact on history, its two predecessors also made a mark — particularly the first one.
The original USS Colora- do participated in the Union blockade of the Confederacy during the Civil War and sank an enemy schooner off the coast of Florida, according to the Navy.
The newest USS Colorado will carry pieces of this history once it sails into service, as well as nods to the state it represents.
One of those is a popular battlecry.
“A crew member will yell ‘how high’ and the rest of the crew will sound off with ‘mile high,’” Koepp said.
Two cooks from the USS Colorado also visited the state to scope out new recipes — dropping by landmacarthur mark haunts such as the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa — and brought back ideas for wild boar green chili and pimento cheese. The galley is called the Rocky Mountain Grille.
A few parting words from Jones will sail with the new submarine, too.
At a naming ceremony for the boat in 2012, Jones issued a challenge to the new crew, which will be emblazoned on a plaque, he said.
“As a representative of the crew of the battleship Colorado BB-45,” Jones said in an interview describing what he said. “We challenge you, the crew of the new USS Colorado, to wear the name with dignity, to wear the name with pride and to wear the name with honor and never do anything or say anything to cast a (negative) reflection on your vessel or on the Navy or on your nation.”