The Department of the Navy will commission the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer Bulkeley in a ceremony Saturday, Dec. 8, 2001, at 11 a.m. EST at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, Pier 88, in New York City.
The ship is named in honor of Navy Vice Adm. John Duncan Bulkeley, (1911-1996), recipient of the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, and numerous other decorations for heroic actions during World War II. While in command of Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) Squadrons Three and Seven during the defense of the Philippines, Bulkeley evacuated Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur and President Quezon of the Philippines, and destroyed several Japanese planes, surface combatants, and merchant ships. As commander of MTB Squadron 102, he supported the Normandy and Southern France invasions. Following the war, he became president of the Board of Inspection and Survey, where he continued to serve upon transfer to the retired list on Jan. 1, 1974.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz will deliver the ceremony's principal address. Serving as the ship's sponsors are Bulkeley's three daughters, Regina Day, Joan Stade, and Diana Lindsay, a daughter-in-law, Carol A. Bulkeley, and Sarah Fargo, wife of U.S. Pacific Fleet Adm. Thomas B. Fargo. In the time-honored Navy tradition, the sponsors will give the order to "bring our ship to life!"
Bulkeley is the 34th of 58 Arleigh Burke class destroyers currently authorized by Congress, and the 15th of this class to be built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Ingalls Operations in Pascagoula, Miss. Arleigh Burke class destroyers are the most capable surface warships ever built. Truly multi-mission combatants, these ships can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection, in support of the National Military Strategy.
Equipped with the latest weapons, electronics, helicopter support facilities, propulsion, auxiliary and survivability systems, DDG 51 destroyers will carry out the Navy's missions well into the 21st century. State-of-the-art command, control, communications, computers and intelligence systems provide the ships' crew with complete situational awareness.
Bulkeley is also equipped with the Navy's modern Aegis combat weapons system, the world's foremost naval weapon system. Space-age communications, radar and weapons technologies are combined in a single platform for unlimited mission flexibility. The systems include the AN/SPY-1D phased array radar, the MK 41 Vertical Launching System, which fires a combination Standard surface-to-air, and Tomahawk surface-to surface missiles, and the AN/SQQ-89 Antisubmarine Warfare System, with a bow mounted AN/SQS-53C sonar.
In addition, Bulkeley has six MK 46 torpedo tubes, two MK 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapons Systems, and a multi-mission 5"/62 caliber deck-mounted gun which can be used as an anti-ship weapon, close-in point defense or for support of forces ashore with naval gunfire.
The ship's aircraft handling and support facilities include dual aircraft hangers, a dual Recovery Assist, Securing and Traversing System, and associated machinery systems providing significant enhanced helicopter launch and recovery, command and control and maintenance/repair capabilities. The ship also features the over-the-horizon LAMPS MK III Antisubmarine Warfare Control System, and will be assigned two SH-60B Seahawk undersea warfare helicopters.
Cmdr. Carlos Del Toro, a native of Havana, Cuba, raised in New York City, is the commanding officer of Bulkeley. With a crew of approximately 380 officers, chiefs and enlisted personnel, Bulkeley will be homeported in Norfolk, Va., as a member of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Bulkeley is 509.5 feet in length, and has a waterline beam of 59 feet. Four gas-turbine engines power the 9,300 ton ship to speeds in excess of 30 knots.
For more information on Arleigh Burke class destroyers, visit: www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ships/ship-dd.html
