USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) Commissioned

It looks like the commissioning ceremony might be done. This article from Newday, which is from an AP story, has the following amazing information:

The Jimmy Carter can reach speeds of more than 45 knots and carry Tomahawk cruise missiles and anti-submarine torpedoes. It is engineered to be quieter than the other Seawolves, making it better for surveillance.

Wow, that's fascinating stuff! Of course, any submariner knows that we never reveal any submarine speed information other than "in excess of 25 knots", but if one were to believe the AP article (I don't, by the way) then the Carter would move very fast!

Bell-ringer 1941 19 Feb: Interrupting this post with an update. It appears that most of the stories now showing up on the Google News site have been revised to say "more that 25 knots". The one I linked above removed the top speed mention entirely, but added a quote from one of my old crewmates. I only found one recent story that wasn't updated. Looks like someone clued the AP reporter in.

Unrelated note: There are rumors about that USS Connecticut (SSN-22) suffered a battery well fire in Groton last night. I haven't heard anything official, but...

Emergency surface 1836 19 Feb: It turns out that the story of a fire on the Connecticut is true, as this article from The Day attests. Excerpts:

"Two sailors on the USS Connecticut at the Naval Submarine Base were burned in a fire in the ship's battery well late Friday...
...the Submarine Base Fire Department responded to a call of a fire in the battery compartment on the Connecticut and quickly brought the fire under control. Connecticut had been tied up at a pier at the base on Friday and was undergoing repairs, but Rosi could not confirm what kind of work was being done."

Update 1154 19 Feb: The moonbats at Democratic Underground don't quite know what to think about the commissioning of the Carter. Some examples (spelling as posted; some punctuation corrected for readability):

"I'm sure JC would rather the $3.2 billion went to Habitat for Humanity;
But, that would be a parallel universe in which G.H.W. Bush and his ex-CIA pals hadn't hindered Carter's hostage release efforts, and Reagan-Bush had never been elected."

"Wow, how ironic! The most armed submarine for the most peace loving and diplomatic president ever. I thought Carter liked to deal with nations through talk, not blowing the shit out of them. Oh well, just the administration reframing history to fit their needs i guess."
"You realize the name was selected in the mid 1990's right? April 27, 1998 to be exact."
"Oh really? That seems a bit odd to me that Clinton would do this. But whatever... I guess having a ship named after you is an honor, but the most heavily armed warship for a peace loving diplomat and negotiator? It just doesn't seem right."

"It's shameful that peaceful Carter lets his name be on a killing machine and his wife is to call the troops to man the killing machine. Carter is being a hypocrite."

As much as I hate to say it, the DU thread is actually overall better informed and less insulting to the crew than the stuff they were saying over at this "conservative" website that manages to work an obscenity into their URL (bad word warning...)

"So that's how the Democrats are gonna force a new draft. No self respecting sailor is going to enlist and face the possibility of serving on the USS "Jimmy Carter".

"That's nice. Now send it to the bottom of the ocean, where it belongs."

"well you know what they say about them bubbleheads. 150 men go down, 75 couples come up. fitting somehow." (OK, this one is funny if said in the right way... my guess is this poster wasn't meaning it in a 'those sub guys are different' joking way though...)

I think I found one of the sanctaries of the hate-filled right...