August 21, 2019 – Photo Highlights; SSN 797 Iowa Keel Laying
Jeff Geiger, EB President; Sean Davies, Vice President, QP Operations; Patty McDaniel, ship's manager; Christie Vilsack, ship's sponsor and her husband Tom Vilsack try on their USS Iowa ball caps.
On August 20, 2019, EB leadership, employees, the future crew of SSN 797 Iowa and her sponsor, Christie Vilsack, gathered at Quonset Point for Iowa’s keel laying ceremony. Iowa will be the the 24th submarine of the Virginia class.
To close the ceremony, sponsor Christie Vilsack declared the keel “to be well and truly laid.”
Check out some of the highlights from the ceremony below:
Mrs. Christie Vilsack, ship sponsor of the future submarine Iowa, is an Iowa native and lifelong educator. Mrs. Christie Vilsack uses chalk to draw her initials on the steel plate to be welded.Quonset Point employee Anthony Miele welds Mrs. Vilsack’s initials onto a steel plate to be installed on the Iowa.Mrs. Vilsack congratulates welder Anothony Miele on a job well done.After the weld, Anthony Miele poses for a photo with Mrs. Vilsack and her huband Tom Vilsack, former US Secretary of Agriculture and former Governor of Iowa.Mrs. Vilsack and the future crew of SSN 797 Iowa .From left, Tom Vilsack, Christie Vilsack, EB President Jeff Geiger and Electric Boat employee Tom Lowney. In 1989, Lowney served aboard the battleship Iowa.Jeff Geiger, EB President; Sean Davies, Vice President, QP Operations; Patty McDaniel, ship’s manager; Christie Vilsack, ship’s sponsor and her husband Tom Vilsack try on their USS Iowa ball caps.Anthony Miele and Christie Vilsack with the finished plate.Christie Vilsack with the chairman of the Iowa’s commissioning committee, Peter Welch.After the ceremony, Larry Runkle, EB Direcor, Virginia Class Design Program, presents Christie Vilsack with a model Virginia-class submarine.Anthony Miele is presented with one of his practice weld plates from the future Iowa crew.
