Rounds Delivers Keynote Address at USS South Dakota Commissioning Ceremony

GROTON, CT - U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today delivered the keynote address at the commissioning ceremony for USS South Dakota, a next-generation, Virginia-class attack submarine designed to fulfill 21st century mission requirements.

 

“Even though we South Dakotans live about as far away from an ocean as anyone can get, we are fiercely proud of the men and women who serve on this new submarine now and in the future, just as we are still fiercely proud of those who served on the two previous navy vessels named USS South Dakota,” said Rounds during his remarks. “This new, Virginia-Class attack vessel includes state-of-the-art technology designed to increase stealth, as well as a revised bow and sonar panels that will allow it to better detect and track other submarines in its area.”

 

Full Remarks as Prepared for Delivery:

 

This is a great day for the Navy and the people of the United States of America.

 

 Thank you to everyone here with us today, especially the many USS South Dakota service members and distinguished guests in attendance.

 

I want to also give a very special thank you from the people of South Dakota to the current and future officers and crews of USS South Dakota. 

 

We will always appreciate and be grateful for the sacrifices you and your families will make in order to serve on this magnificent vessel. 

 

Thank you also to the thousands of people who have been involved in the creation of this great submarine, especially to the highly-skilled shipyard workers who actually built her.

 

It is a great honor and humbling moment for me to be here for the Commissioning of USS South Dakota.

 

Although you may have heard this before, it is worth repeating:

 

It is not the speech-giver who protects our freedom of speech, it is not the reporter who protects our freedom of the press, it is not the politician who protects our right to vote, and it is not the preacher who protects our freedom of religion.

           

All of our freedoms have actually been protected by the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America.

 

Without our service members protecting our freedoms, our nation, like so many others, could have become the victim of those seeking to do us harm.

 

One hundred years ago, approximately 15 percent of the world’s population was living in free or partially-free nations. 

 

Today, 65 percent are living in freedom. 

 

It is one of the world’s greatest accomplishments of the last 100 years and perhaps in all of human history and it could not have been done without men and women like the crew of USS South Dakota – the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America.

 

That’s why we must always be grateful to the men and women of our armed forces, current, past and future.

 

Even though we South Dakotans live about as far away from an ocean as anyone can get, we are fiercely proud of the men and women who serve on this new submarine now and in the future, just as we are still fiercely proud of those who served on the two previous navy vessels named USS South Dakota.

 

This new, Virginia-Class attack vessel includes state-of-the-art technology designed to increase stealth, as well as a revised bow and sonar panels that will allow it to better detect and track other submarines in its area.

 

The 377 foot long, 7,800 ton submarine can stay at sea for up to three months at a time.

 

It is armed with four torpedo tubes and can hold 12 Tomahawk missiles that are capable of hitting targets over 1,000 miles away.

 

These features, coupled with the talented crew that will be stationed on USS South Dakota, will play a significant role in our national security efforts for years to come.

 

It has been nearly seven decades since the last USS South Dakota, a battleship, took to the seas.

 

The first USS South Dakota, ACR-9, was a Pennsylvania-class armored cruiser that was launched in 1904.

 

She performed several missions in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans until the start of World War I.

 

That first USS South Dakota protected Brazilian ports, escorted troop convoys to Europe and brought troops back home from France after the armistice.

 

Her last duty was to serve as the flagship of the Asiatic fleet in 1919.

 

After that, she was renamed USS Huron so that the name USS South Dakota could be used for a new class of battleships.

 

The next USS South Dakota was BB-57 and she was launched on June 7, 1941, exactly six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

That ship and her crew served in the Pacific theater for 15 months, receiving two Navy Unit Commendation awards during the battles of Guadalcanal and the Santa Cruz Islands.

 

After returning briefly to New York for repairs following the battle of Guadalcanal, USS South Dakota then joined the British Home fleet in the North Atlantic before returning to the Pacific in 1943.

 

During her second tour in the Pacific, she operated with our fast aircraft carriers during raids on Japanese bases. 

 

She used her heavy guns to shell enemy positions during the Marianas campaign. 

 

During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, her main deck was hit by a Japanese bomb, and she once again returned home for repairs.

 

But by the fall of 1944, she was back conducting combat operations, screening carrier task forces during strikes in the Western Pacific.

 

The invasions of Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa were among the operations she participated in.

 

She was also present in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, for Japan’s formal surrender.  

 

Her actions were reported in newspapers, magazines and on the radio, as the deeds of Battleship "X" or “Old Nameless,” because the Navy wanted to hide information about the battleship from our enemies.

 

USS South Dakota was decommissioned in January 1947.   She was inactive until October 1962, when she was sold for scrap metal.

 

However, South Dakotans are so fiercely proud of Battleship X that materials were retained and parts of the ship and memorabilia are displayed in the outline of the main deck at a park in Sioux Falls, our state’s largest city.

 

Captain Dave Witte was one of the many people who donated thousands of hours of their time and talents in creating and maintaining the Battleship South Dakota Memorial.

 

For 36 years, Captain Witte was in the Navy and Naval Reserve, serving in both World War II and the Korean War.

 

For 22 years, he was the president of the Battleship South Dakota Memorial. 

 

He also designed and supervised the construction of the Minnehaha County Veterans Memorial and served as its chairman for 17 years.

 

Unfortunately, Captain Witte isn’t here with us today because he died one month ago, on January 2. 

 

But I know he is with us in spirit.  May God Bless Captain Dave Witte and all of our veterans, living and deceased, who served on USS South Dakota.

 

In addition to her excellent contributions to the war effort, USS South Dakota became famous for something else during the war.

 

The youngest serviceman to fight in World War II was a member of the crew of USS South Dakota.  His name was Calvin Graham. 

 

He was on USS South Dakota for the battles of Santa Cruz and Guadalcanal and earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

 

He was hit by shrapnel in the jaw.  Though seriously wounded, he helped pull other crew members to safety.

 

Then, at a later time, he admitted to his gunnery officer that he was under-age.

 

His gunnery officer was Sargent Shriver, whom, I understand, after the war, married quite well to a young lady named Eunice.

 

Anyway, Calvin admitted he was really only 12 years old.

 

Calvin was promptly put in the brig for three months and then dishonorably discharged. 

 

Then, he was returned home to Texas where he celebrated his thirteenth birthday and resumed his studies in the seventh grade.

 

We are proud and grateful for everyone’s service on the battleship USS South Dakota and all of the South Dakotans who went to war.

 

Approximately 65,000 South Dakotans served in World War II.  South Dakota had the highest per capita participation rate of any state.

 

If you count just the people between 18 and 64, one out of every six persons left South Dakota and went to war.

 

Back home, South Dakotans also did their part by raising crops to feed our nation and our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guard members.

 

Although the battleship USS South Dakota and the submarine USS South Dakota are very different, they have the same overarching mission: to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas.

 

When “Battleship X” was launched in 1941, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said, “I say to the good ship South Dakota, God go with you, because after all, your mission, the mission for which we built you, is not war, but the prevention of war as God wills.”

 

I say to these officers and this crew today, May God also go with you and may you help our nation achieve peace through strength for us and future generations.