Intermountain Area-Named Submarine Ceremonies

As part of my responsibilities as writer of Idaho's first and foremost submarine blog, I present my continuing linkage to events surrounding submarines named for the capital cities of Idaho and the surrounding states:

It turns out, contrary to info I had in my earlier post, that Idaho Governor Kempthorne did actually go to the recent change of command for USS Boise (SSN 764). So, having both the mayor and the governor was an upgrade from the last COC, vice the "mayor only" downgrade I originally assigned it.

The Navy has a story out on the inactivation ceremony of USS Salt Lake City (SSN 716) -- also links to two pictures. (The "official" decommissioning ceremony will be after she arrives in Portsmouth, apparently.)

A quick submarine "urban legend" from the USS Salt Lake City: She used to be commanded by Thomas Fargo, who grew up to be PACOM (after commanding PacFleet). One of his XOs on SLC was "He Who Must Not Be Named", who went on to be my CO on USS Topeka for our '92 deployment. Anyway, story is that said XO was abusing the Engineer behind Maneuvering on the SLC about some perceived deficiencies in drill planning when the Eng hauled off and slugged said XO. Then-Captain Fargo's reported corrective action for this assault on a "superior" officer: "Eng, don't do that anymore". ADM Fargo is a great man...

For other capital-city named boats of states surrounding Idaho, let's see: USS Helena (SSN 725) is probably just finishing up her post-deployment standdown, and USS Olympia (SSN 717) recently hosted the CSS-3 change of command, and got a hot-running new RO.

Going deep...

Update 0311 02 Nov: Damn, I almost forgot USS Cheyenne (SSN 773). Not much news on her lately, except for a visit back to the namesake city. Maybe they're in DMP or something...

Update 0513 02 Nov: Via The Sub Report, a new report from USS Olympia about an ELT who got picked up for the Seaman-to-Admiral program. The picture that accompanies the article is quite interesting; the Sailor featured is an ELT (a nuke Engineering Laboratory Technician, basically the Chemistry/Radiological Controls experts for you non-submariners out there), and it has him tweaking some valve. At first glance, I thought "what the hell are they doing with a picture of an ELT at the Primary Sample Sink?" Then I looked closer, and realized they posed him at the R-12 (or whatever they're using on the Olympia for aux cooling forward) control board. Those tricky SubPac PAOs!