Top Stories Montgomery

MOBILE, Alabama — The William P. Lawrence arrived in Mobile on Friday, where the destroyer and her crew will remain until the formal commissioning ceremony on June 4.

Sailors standing at attention lined the decks as the ship rolled past the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center, dwarfing the tugboats that motored alongside. The ship and crew were welcomed by a contingent of fellow sailors, Azalea Trail Maids and members of the Mobile Council of the Navy League.

Aboard the ship were Matthew Lowder, 11, Jaden Bryant, 16, Patricia Neno, 17, and Kyla Abbuhl, 14 — all members of the U.S. Naval Cadets, Dunlap Division, of Mobile. The youngsters boarded the ship in Pensacola and rode with the crew to Mobile.

“I was pretty excited,” said Matthew. “I liked to see all the big guns and all.”

Cynthia and Tim Lowder watched the ship from the convention center, taking pictures as it went by and trying to catch a glimpse of their son.

“It’s an absolute honor,” said Cynthia Lowder. “Not many people get to do what he has done at such a young age.”

As a Memorial Day Weekend attraction, the William P. Lawrence was a sellout before it ever steamed up the river.

The Alabama State Port Authority, the Mobile Council of the Navy League and the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce announced Friday that the tour capacity for the vessel had already been reached.

Tours for the vessel — more than 1,700 slots — have been filled up because of “the public’s outstanding response,” according to a news release.

Those interested in touring the vessel were instructed to register online and then bring a copy of their online reservation and a valid photo ID to the tour entry gate at the foot of Dauphin Street, between the Port Authority’s Pier 2 and the convention center.

The $1 billion ship, which is 510 feet long and carries a crew of about 300, will be capable of simultaneously fighting air, surface and subsurface battles.

The ship — the 60th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be built — was constructed at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula. It is named for Vice Adm. William Porter Lawrence, a noted pilot who received his Naval Aviator Wings at NAS Pensacola. It took 3½ years to build, and is the company’s 28th destroyer and 90th surface combatant to leave the Pascagoula shipyard, Ingalls officials have said.

Lawrence was the first Naval aviator to fly twice the speed of sound, and he also was a finalist to become a Mercury astronaut. After being shot down over North Vietnam and spending almost six years as a prisoner of war, Lawrence became superintendent of the United States Navy.

After the June 4 commissioning in Mobile, the ship will head toward its San Diego homeport.

(City Editor Dave Helms contributed to this report.)

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: If At First You Don’t Succeed – Four Decades Of US-UK Attempts To Topple Gadafi.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.