This summer, the Mountain Home NJROTC (MHNJROTC) unit announced they were adopted by the command of the USS Arkansas as partners of the submarine for the life of the ship. As honorary Silent Travelers, MHNJROTC will act as the liaison between the ship and the state of Arkansas during the inaugural namesake visit.Commanding Officer Vincent “Adam” Kahnke along with Chief of the Boat Roger McClellan joined KTLO’s Sammy Raycraft on the morning show to speak on the new USS Arkansas along with their partnership with the MHNJROTC.
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McClellan says the ceremony that will adopt the NJROTC as silent travelers will take place Friday night
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This interview can be heard in its entirety with this story at ktlo.com.
Full Interview
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Transcription:
So the Arkansas is currently being built in Newport News, Virginia, and it is the newest Virginia class attack submarine. And we’re pretty excited to be here in Mountain Home and pretty excited to talk about what we do and kind of why we’re here.
Well, tell us a little bit about the capabilities of this new sub. Is it nuclear?
Yeah, so the USS Arkansas is the 27th Virginia class nuclear submarine. My boss refers to Virginia class and I agree with him as the apex predator of the ocean. So it is the latest and greatest most powerful combat capability that the submarine force offers here. And we’re excited to bring her to life.
So we’ve been on board Arkansas for probably just over two years now, and we are building a, not just a warship. So we’re taking it from initial construction. We’re testing all the systems on board and we’re building a crew of warfighters. So bringing all these people, training them, certifying them, and then bringing all the systems online and making sure she’s ready to do our mission when it’s time.
Any idea on the timeline on when she’ll be sea ready?
Yeah. So we’re looking at about two years now before it’s delivered to the Navy and it’s, it’s a long process to build a submarine and it takes a lot of people and, you know, Kind of part of the reason we’re here is to talk about that process and talk about what it takes to build a submarine and what it takes from, you know, people in the Navy were partnered up with the NJROTC unit to kind of provide mentorship to them and say, Hey, here’s what you would need to do if you were interested in joining the submarine force, and we’ll give you some personal experiences and you can reach back to us. And also kind of talk about from just a manufacturing of the submarine industrial base and the trades, and, you know, we need high quality welders. We need. pipefitters. We need people that are just willing to get that special certification and put in the time and the work and reap the rewards of being part of this awesome mission.
I would imagine it takes thousands of people to put a boat like this in the water.
Yeah. So Huntington Ingalls Industries in Newport News, Virginia actually is the largest employer in Virginia and they have 25 thousand people working at the shipyard. They are the only producer of the nation’s aircraft carriers and they produce about half of the nation’s submarines. So lots of high quality intensive work going on at the shipyard. And we’re trying to build that base. We need more submarines. They’re kind of, you know, probably the asset that can get in and deliver when nothing else can get in close. So we need. We need that capability and we need more of it and we’re, we’re kind of broadening our horizons with the AUKUS thing and we’re selling some of these submarines to Australia and the UK and partnering up with all things we’re doing here.
Must be a highlight of your career to be a commander of such an amazing new high tech part of our U. S. military. We were talking before we went on air, you’re a Minnesota boy. I’m from the great white North, a little North of you, but I grew up in a dairy farm in Minnesota.
Yes, Sammy. So I enlisted about 30 years ago in 1993 as a submarine sonar tech and it’s kind of interesting. I went to a submarine being built in the shipyard. The one I went to was the PCU Hartford being built at electric boat in Connecticut. The other industries. Submarine builder. I kind of know what it’s like to to join and be a part of a crew of a submarine that is Not yet ready and trying to get certified and ready to take that submarine underway And i’m trying to do the same thing with our crew lots of good stuff going on there And I told uh the cob here a little bit ago that you know I probably wouldn’t be where I was today if I didn’t go to the submarine force and learn a bunch You know, I wasn’t the best high school student and now I have a degree in electrical engineering.
I have my mba Lots of math and sciences that I wasn’t quite ready for when I got out of high school, but the Navy really showed me what I was capable of and helped me get the rest of the way there.
Cobb McClendon, touch with us a little bit about the importance of this partnership with our local NJROTC Corps.
Oh, yes, sir. This is something we’re super excited about. It started a few months ago, and we’re gonna have the ceremony on Friday during their 30th anniversary celebration over on the high school football field, where they’ve invited out everybody who’s ever been a part of the program to attend with us a small ceremony where we’ll officially adopt them as a part of the crew.
And you guys have a special presentation this afternoon at Dunbar Auditorium for the public and for local veterans.
Absolutely. So we’d like to share, you know, for parents of people interested in the military, any branch of the military, and the submarine force and building submarines. We kind of want to have a dialogue about what, uh, people can do and how to get into it if you’re interested at all.
This is your first stop on your tour in Arkansas. Where else are you guys heading this week?
To Fayetteville to the Razorback game on Saturday. We’re pretty excited about that. Yeah, absolutely. And then we get the opportunity to meet the governor at some point in Little Rock. And we’re going to just kind of talk to people that might be part of the commissioning committee in the future to bring Arkansas to life.
Now, do you guys know if any of the supporting crew of the submarine will be Arkansas natives at all? Is there any chance that that could happen? Well, one of my officers is an Arkansas native, and there’s almost no chance that somebody on board won’t be from Arkansas. How many men are on the boat when you guys are out in the water?
About 145 people on a Virginia class submarine. Very interesting. And anything else you’d like to share with our listeners before we get off of here today? Just how much appreciation we have of the state of Arkansas and Mountain Home. And you guys have been very welcoming. We really appreciate it. It is beautiful here looking at the white river and, uh, picturesque trees at this time of year, it’s kind of amazing to be here and the enthusiastic people here in Arkansas.
We are really appreciating sharing our mission with local people. Thank you.
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