The Navy will christen the Navajo-class towing, salvage, and rescue ship, the future USNS Navajo (T-ATS 6), during a 10 a.m. EDT ceremony Saturday, August 26, in Houma, Louisiana.
The Honorable Arlando Teller, Assistant Secretary for Tribal Affairs, U.S. Department of Transportation, will deliver the principal address. Remarks will also be provided by the Honorable Meredith Berger, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations, and Environment; Vice Adm. Craig Clapperton, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Development; Rear Adm. Jeffrey Spivey, Deputy Commander, Military Sealift Command; Mr. Justin Ahasteen, Executive Director, Navajo Nation Washington Office; and Mr. Ben Bordelon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bollinger Shipyards. In a time-honored Navy tradition, the ship's sponsor, Ms. Jocelyn Billy, will christen the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow. Billy is a member of the Navajo Nation, Miss Navajo Nation 2006, and is a strong advocate for Navajo Nation veterans.
The future USNS Navajo is the first ship in its class and will be operated by the Navy's Military Sealift Command. The vessels will replace the existing Powhatan-class T-ATF fleet ocean tugs and Safeguard-class T-ARS rescue and salvage ships in service with the U.S. Military Sealift Command.
The Navajo-class is a new series of towing, salvage and rescue ships (T-ATS) being constructed for the U.S. Navy. The Navajo-class is a multi-mission common hull platform that will be deployed to support a range of missions such as towing, rescue, salvage, humanitarian assistance, oil spill response and wide-area search and surveillance operations using unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
Media may direct queries to the Navy Office of Information at (703) 697-5342.
The ceremony will be live streamed at: www.dvidshub.net/webcast/32578. The link becomes active approximately ten minutes prior to the event at 10:00 a.m.
