Christening of third USS New Jersey, a submarine, to be held Saturday

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Watch: Battleship NJ hosts Veterans Day ceremony

Seaman Jacob Oesterwind pays tribute to his late great uncle Robert Oesterwind. Oesterwind died from shrapnel wounds aboard the USS New Jersey

Joe Lamberti, Cherry Hill Courier-Post

The Navy will christen a new submarine Saturday as the USS New Jersey — the third naval vessel to carry the name of the Garden State.

The 11 a.m. ceremony will be held in Newport News, Virginia, where a Huntington Ingalls Industry shipyard built the Virginia-class, fast attack submarine. It can be viewed online at https://nns.huntingtoningalls.com/SSN796.

The last ship to carry the name USS New Jersey was the Iowa-class battleship, BB-62, now berthed as a museum on Camden’s Waterfront.

The local vessel is now retired as the nation’s most militarily decorated battleship with 19 campaign starts during World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam.

A contingent of at least 11 staff, trustees and veterans from the museum ship plan to attend Saturday’s ceremony, said Ryan Szimanski, the battleship’s curator.

“I think it is fitting that the Navy is carrying on the battleship’s name on a submarine because the modern subs do the same job as battleships did and our ship’s history is significant enough to have her name and legacy carried on,” he said.

BB-62 was built at the former Philadelphia Navy Yard on the Delaware River. It was launched on Dec. 7, 1942 — the first anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The ship sailed in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, serving as not only a fleet flagship but a fast carrier escort with nine massive turret guns for shore bombardment and also anti-aircraft weapons.

The first USS New Jersey, BB-16, was a smaller battleship commissioned in 1906.

It spent the majority of its shorter career in the Atlantic and West Indies, decommissioning in 1920.

It later was sunk for a reef off the Atlantic Coast.

The keel was laid in March 2019 for the new submarine, part of a class designed to operate along coasts and in deep waters.

They can conduct anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and mine warfare missions, according to the Navy.

The nuclear-powered submarine, to carry a crew of 132, will be armed with Tomahawk missiles and torpedoes.

Among other advances, the Navy says, Virginia-class submarines don’t have periscopes. Instead, masts “host visible and infrared digital cameras atop telescoping arms.”

That allows the ship’s control room to be moved down one deck “and away from the hull’s curvature, affording it more room and an improved layout that provides the commanding officer with enhanced situational awareness.”

“Shipbuilding has always played a key role in shaping the future of our national security,” retired Adm. Michael Mullen, who served as the 17th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a chief of naval operations, said in a press statement.

In a Navy tradition, the submarine will be christened  New Jersey, SSN-796, with a bottle of sparkling wine to be broken across its bow by Dr. Susan Dimarco Johnson of  Montclair, Essex County.

Carol Comegno loves telling stories about South Jersey life, history and military veterans for the Courier Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. If you have a story to share, call her at 856-486-2473 or email  [email protected].

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