Construction and Commissioning
The construction contract was awarded on 17 December 1996 to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems of New Orleans, Louisiana and the keel was laid down on 9 December 2000. The ship was launched on 12 July 2003 and christened on 19 July by Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. She was originally scheduled to be commissioned 17 July 2002, but was delayed by poor performance at the Avondale shipyard, which resulted in her being towed from New Orleans to the Northrop Grumman shipyard at Pascagoula, Mississippi, in December 2004 for completion. The ship was unable to move under her own power at that time, despite having been christened more than a year earlier.
The crew took delivery and moved aboard three days before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. Work was delayed further when the ship became a base for regional relief efforts, including accommodations for some shipyard workers, the National Guard, Navy diving and salvage personnel and government officials. The ship's final cost was $840 million over budget.
The ship arrived in her homeport of Norfolk, Va., on 18 December 2005. The ship was finally commissioned 14 January 2006, at NS Ingleside Texas under the command of Captain Jonathan M. Padfield. Guest speakers included former U.S. President George H. W. Bush. Senator Hutchison, the ship's sponsor, gave the crew the customary first command, "Man our ship, and bring her to life!"
Read more about this topic: USS San Antonio (LPD-17)
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)