A non-profit organization has been created to help raise funds for the ship and crew of the USS Missouri – a new attack submarine that is expected to be commissioned in 2010.
The USS Missouri Commissioning Committee has a fundraising goal of $300,000 to cover things that go far beyond the costs of building the submarine. The Navy cannot use taxpayer dollars to pay for activities such as cookouts for crewmembers and their families, so some of the money will be used for that.
Navy Commander Dale Green, Commanding Officer of the USS Missouri, says construction is well on the way to being completed, which will be followed by training of the crew and commissioning in the summer of 2010.
This submarine will be the fifth US ship using the name of this state. The last ship to bear the name USS Missouri was the battleship that now rests adjacent to the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. That USS Missouri is famous for being the site on which the unconditional surrender of Japan was accepted in 1945 to end World War II.
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