It's Battle "E" Time

SubPac was on the ball and put out a Battle "E" press release in the 1st week of January:

Three Pearl Harbor based nuclear-powered attack submarines were selected for the award, including USS La Jolla (SSN 701), from Submarine Squadron One, which received the award for the second year in a row. USS Chicago (SSN 721) and USS Tucson (SSN 770) from Submarine Squadron’s Three and Seven, respectively, were the other Pearl Harbor-based winners...
...Other Pacific Fleet submarines receiving the Battle “E” were USS Jefferson City (SSN 759) and the Floating Dry Dock Arco (ARDM-5) in San Diego; USS Houston (SSN 713) and USS Frank Cable (AS 40) in Guam; and USS Kentucky (SSBN 737) and USS Nevada (SSBN 733) in Bangor, Wash.
The Battle “E” award recognizes sustained superior performance in all areas of combat readiness. As part of the competition, ships compete for command excellence in four combat areas; maritime warfare, engineering/survivability, command and control, and logistics management. To receive the nod for battle efficiency, a ship must excel in all four areas.

Congratulations to all the winners! I admit I'm surprised not to see my old boat USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) on the list -- I guess, alone among the SubPac squadrons, SubDevRon 5 didn't give one out this year. SubLant's announcement will hopefully be coming to the 'net soon; it came out on January 17th last year. If anyone has a copy of the UNCLAS message announcing the winners and wanted to forward it here, it'd be put to good use.