Orange County Register

BRUTE FORCE: The USS Dewey, built by Northrop Grumman in Pascagoula, Miss., will be homeported in San Diego. Photo courtesy of US Navy.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey — the most advanced version of the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer — will become the first warship commissioned in Orange County during a public ceremony to be held March 6 at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station (SBNWS).

The 509-foot Dewey,which cost about $1 billion to build, will formally enter service before a crowd of about 3,500 people in Anaheim Bay. An undetermined number of tickets will be made available to the public for the invitation-only event. The Navy is still working out the details. We’ll let you know how to request tickets as information becomes available. (Also check the Dewey Commissioning website.)

The Navy chose Seal Beach because “it wanted a West Coast location that wasn’t too far from San Diego (where Dewey will be homeported),” said Capt. Jon Kurtz, who recently retired as commander of SBNWS.  “A commissioning had already been done in Long Beach and Seal Beach is pro-Navy and always has been supportive.”

Kurtz, co-chair of the commissioning committee, added that the Navy’s decision to choose Seal Beach “is a great thing for Orange County. It recognizes how supportive the county has been of the Navy and the military in general. This is a great first for Orange County.”

The SBNWS opened in 1944 and has provided a wide variety of ordnance to surface ships ever since. About 20 of the U.S. Navy ships that fired on Iraq during the “shock and awe” phase of the war got at least some of their missiles in Seal Beach.

Adm. George Dewey. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

The Navy says, “The new destroyer honors Adm. George Dewey, most famous for leading his squadron of warships into Manila Bay on April 30, 1898, and destroying the Spanish fleet in only two hours without a single American loss. A popular hero of his day, Dewey was commissioned admiral of the Navy, a rank created for him, in March 1903.”

This is the third Navy ship named after Dewey.

The new Dewey is still technically known as a PCU, or pre-commissioning unit. But the ship could actually be deployed now, if necessary, and is therefore known as the USS Dewey. The ship is a so-called Flight II-A Arleigh Burke-destroyer which can carry up to 96 Tomahawk cruise missiles (each costing about $1 million), Standard anti-aircraft missiles, Vertically-Launched ASROC (a type of torpedo) and the Evolved Sea Sparrow, another type of anti-aircraft missile. Ships like Dewey typically carry a combination of these weapons.

The Dewey was built by Northrop Grumman in Pascagoula, Miss., and is scheduled to arrive in San Diego, its permanent homeport, sometime next month. It is possible that the destroyer will make a visit to Seal Beach before the commissioning to pick up weapons for sea trials and training, says Gregg Smith, a spokesman for SBNWS.

The public can check the Dewey Commissioning website to learn how to donate money for the ceremony, which is only partially covered by the federal government.

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