Commander of USS North Dakota to visit state this week

Commander Douglas Gordon will be making his maiden voyage to the state of North Dakota this week. Gordon is commander of the U.S. Navy’s latest addition to its fleet - the USS North Dakota, SSN 784.
He is currently stationed in Groton, Conn. where he and the crew of PCU North Dakota are preparing to man the boat, which is scheduled to be commissioned in 2014.
He will be greeted in Bismarck by the state’s governor, Jack Dalrymple, the national congressional delegation and state congressional delegation, the USS North Dakota Committee members and North Dakota Navy League.
The visit is slated for Thursday, Jan. 12 at the Kelly Inn in Bismarck with a press conference at 10:30 a.m. and a VIP luncheon following at 11:15 a.m.
 Why the visit? To promote and support Commander Gordon and the USS North Dakota, which is the first nuclear, Virginia-Class submarine named after our state.

N.D. council of Navy League chartered in October
The recently formed North Dakota Council of the Navy League is busy preparing for this week’s visit of Commander Douglas Gordon.  The organization is one of 286 similar councils across the country and around the world whose mission is public education about all things Naval.
The North Dakota chapter has an additional responsibility for public education and promotion of USS North Dakota, SSN-784.
The USS North Dakota is the first of a new group of Virginia Class submarines with expanded missile capabilities and is slated to be to be launched in 2014.  
It is the second ship in the history of the United States Navy to be named USS NORTH DAKOTA.
About the Navy League of the United States North Dakota Council
Navy League of the United States President, Dan Branch, presented the organization’s official charter to the North Dakota council during an October 16th ceremony in Bismarck.  The North Dakota Council has 97 members throughout the state.
Council President Bob Wefald of Bismarck told a gathering in October that founding the league was the result of a promise members of the state’s congressional delegation made to former Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter.  In the spring of 2008, as Winter was considering requests to name a second ship the “North Dakota,” Winter asked if we would have a Navy League Council in North Dakota to support a ship.  “Our answer to the Secretary was ‘absolutely’,” Wefald stated.
“The main project is the adoption and support of USS North Dakota throughout its expected 33 years of active service, as well as having a major role to play in the commissioning of the new ship in 2014,” says Wefald.
The Navy League of the United States is a civilian, non-profit, non-political, and educational organization.  With the support President Theodore Roosevelt, it was founded in 1902 to carry out its mission of informing and educating the American public and members of Congress on the importance of maintaining strong U.S. Sea Services – the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine.
Membership is open to anyone who supports the league’s mission with no prior service being required.  Members can join on line at www.navyleague.org by clicking on the Membership tab.
In the words of President Roosevelt, “It seems to me that all good Americans interested in the growth of their country and sensitive to its honor, should give hearty support to the policies which the Navy League is founded to further.”

The first USS North Dakota, BB - 29 was a Delaware-class battleship
The USS North Dakota (BB-29), a Delaware-class battleship, was the first ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the U.S. state of North Dakota.
The North Dakota was laid down on Dec. 16, 1907, by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on Nov. 10, 1908, sponsored by Miss Mary Benton, daughter of Colonel John Benton of Fargo, North Dakota and commissioned at Boston, Massachusetts on  April 11, 1910, Commander Charles P. Plunkett in command.
On Sept. 8, 1910, the ship suffered an oil-tank explosion and fire while at sea. Six men — Chief Watertenders August Holtz and Patrick Reid, Chief Machinist's Mates Thomas Stanton and Karl Westa, Machinist's Mate First Class Charles C. Roberts, and Watertender Harry Lipscomb—each received the Medal of Honor "for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession" during the fire.
In her first years, North Dakota operated with the Atlantic Fleet in maneuvers along the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea. She sailed on Nov. 2 for her first Atlantic crossing, visiting England and France prior to winter-spring maneuvers in the Caribbean. In the summers of 1912–1913, she carried United States Naval Academy midshipmen for training in New England waters, and on Jan. 1, 1913, she joined the honor escort for HMS Natal as the British ship entered New York City harbor with the body of the late Whitelaw Reid, United States Ambassador to Great Britain.
As Mexican political disturbances strained relations with the United States, North Dakota sailed for Veracruz, where she arrived on April 26, 1914, five days after American sailors had occupied the city. She cruised the coast of Mexico to protect Americans and their interests until a more stable government took office, and returned to Norfolk, Virginia on Oct. 16.  An even more intensive program of training was taken up by the Atlantic Fleet as war threatened, and North Dakota was in Chesapeake Bay for gunnery drills when the United States entered World War I. Throughout the war, North Dakota operated in the York River, Virginia, and out of New York training gunners and engineers for the expanding fleet.
Then, on Nov. 13, 1919, she stood out of Norfolk to carry home the remains of the late Italian Ambassador to the United States. While in the Mediterranean Sea she called at Athens, Constantinople, Valencia, and Gibraltar before returning to the Caribbean for the annual spring maneuvers. In the summer of 1921, she took part in the Army-Navy bombing tests off the Virginia Capes in which Frankfurt and Ostfriesland were sunk to demonstrate the potentialities of air power. She interrupted fleet operations during the next two summers to again cruise with midshipmen, contributing to the future strength of the Navy by educating its officers-to-be. The cruise of 1923 took her to Scandinavia, Scotland, and Spain.
North Dakota was decommissioned at Norfolk on Nov. 22, 1923, with a number of other battleships, under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.
Demilitarized and reclassified as "unclassified" on May 29, 1924, North Dakota was converted to a Mobile Gunnery Target ship and remained in that service until replaced by the Utah in 1930. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on Jan. 7, 1931 and she sold for scrapping to the Union Shipbuilding Co of Baltimore, Md on March 16, 1931. Her steam turbine engines were fitted in the Nevada.
A model of North Dakota is on display at the North Dakota Heritage Center on the grounds of the state capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota.