FORT LAUDERDALE – The future USS Fort Lauderdale sailed into Port Everglades on Monday morning.
The US Navy San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship can be commissioned at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July thirtieth. It would be the first U.S. Navy ship named for the City of Fort Lauderdale.
Capt. James Quaresimo, a 1997 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Jacksonville University, is the commanding officer.
“The commissioning of USS Fort Lauderdale is the result of many years of coordination and hard work by our lawmakers, commissioning committee, civic leaders, contractors, industry specialists, and especially our sailors,” Quaresimo stated. “I couldn’t be prouder of the uniformed men and women who gave a mountain of cold steel form and a heartbeat. And in turn, they should be proud of what they’ve done.”
The ship’s naming was largely the brainchild of the late retired Senior Chief Petty Officer Charles “Chuck” Black, who led a years-long effort to get the U.S. Navy to call a ship “USS Fort Lauderdale.”
Black, who handed away at age 63 in 2016, served 20 years within the U.S. Navy and was concerned in a number of of the annual Broward Navy Days Fleet Week actions at Port Everglades. He served on the Navy League’s nationwide board of administrators.
In March 2016, the U.S. Navy introduced that it could identify an amphibious transport dock vessel for the City of Fort Lauderdale.
As an amphibious transport dock ship, USS Fort Lauderdale” is designed to move and land parts of a touchdown power for quite a lot of missions.
There can be a number of occasions this week to have a good time the commissioning, however there aren’t any public excursions.Â
