By Lynn Hendy
May 21, 2018

On May 11 Ship Sponsor Darleen Greenert laid the keel of the submarine Hyman G. Rickover (SSN 795), her initials welded onto a steel plate that will be permanently affixed to the submarine. Mrs. Greenert is the wife of former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert (retired). EB hosted the ceremony at its Quonset Point facility with more than 500 people in attendance including local and Congressional dignitaries, Navy officials, employees and special guest Mrs. Eleonore Rickover, widow of Admiral Rickover.

EB President Jeff Geiger recounted that EB’s relationship with Admiral Rickover started with a phone call. “While Westinghouse was developing a compact and practical nuclear reactor in 1950, then-Captain Rickover telephoned O.P. Robinson Jr., EB’s general manager and a man he had never met. ‘Can you build a hull for an atomic submarine?’ Rickover asked. ‘Why, sure,’ Robinson replied. ‘But what do we have to do?’ ‘I don’t know myself,’ Rickover replied. ‘But we’ll work it out.’ And work it out they did,” said Geiger.

Adm. Frank Caldwell, Jr., Director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, stated, “Admiral Rickover’s gift to our nation’s defense — safe, reliable, and militarily superior naval nuclear propulsion — is as vital to our warfighting edge today as it was at the beginning of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program 70 years ago.  The U.S. Navy and our nation are proud to honor his achievements and legacy with this submarine.”

Joe Walsh, who recently retired from EB as vice president of The Virginia and Moored Training Ship programs following a 32-year career in the Navy, was a former commanding officer of SSN 709, the first submarine Hyman G. Rickover.

“Admiral Rickover is referred to as the father of the nuclear Navy, but he was much more than that. He defined the culture of the nuclear Navy — excellence is standard,” said Walsh. “When you perform a drill or an evolution flawlessly in the nuclear Navy, you don’t get a ‘great job’ or a ‘well done.’ You get ‘no deficiencies were noted’ because you didn’t exceed the standard, you merely met it.

“The new Hyman G. Rickover could not have been more fortunate than to be blessed with Mrs. Darleen Greenert, who will serve her ship with the same level of love, dedication, and energy that Eleonore provided to SSN 709.”

In her moving, emotional remarks, Mrs. Greenert thanked the shipbuilders in the audience. “When someone comes up to you or your family and asks if what you do matters, I want to tell you it does. Now we have the 795, and I’ve seen her beautiful parts. You’re building her strong and safe. The families of the crew — their children, their moms and dads, their brothers and sisters — they’re going to say goodbye to their submariners, and then they’re going to say hello again a few months later, because of what you do.

“Yes. It matters.”

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