NEW LONDON, Conn — For the first time in 82 years, a USS Arizona has a captain.
Navy Cmdr. Tom Digan has taken command of the new submarine Arizona's pre-commissioning unit -- the crew members who will work with the shipyard to prepare the submarine to go to sea.
No ship in the U.S. Navy has carried the name "Arizona" since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Navy continued to carry the ship on its rolls, not naming any other ship after it as a tribute to the 1,177 sailors who were killed when the battleship during the attack.
The battleship Arizona -- which had hull number BB-39 -- was left in place as a memorial for the dead, even as other battleships parked along Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row were raised and brought back into service.
The new USS Arizona is a fast-attack submarine, part of the Virginia-class of submarines that have been patrolling the seas since 2004. The Virginia-class submarines are quieter and carry more options for different armaments than the Los Angeles-class submarines they replaced. The Arizona's hull number is SSN-803. It will be preceded in service by the USS Oklahoma (named for another battleship at Pearl Harbor that never fought again) and followed by the USS Barb (named for a World War II submarine credited with sinking 17 Japanese ships including an aircraft carrier).
When built, Arizona will be based in Groton, Connecticut.
The remains of the battleship Arizona were named a national military cemetery and then a national memorial in 1989. Even before that, Navy ships would dip their flags to the sunken ship when they returned to Pearl Harbor and visitors were able to boat out to the water over the ship's hull and see oil still leaking from its fuel tanks.
Namesake states or cities of ships typically have some kind of tie with the ship itself, often fundraising to provide china or TVs for off-duty sailors. Even after its destruction, Arizona kept its connection to the ship.
The Arizona's original bell is at the University of Arizona, where it's rung after the football beat opponents other than teams from Arizona. A mast and anchor from the ship are outside the Arizona State Capitol in downtown Phoenix. The ship's boat house is in the USS Arizona Memorial Gardens in the Salt River Indian Community.
Digan, the submarine's new captain, has been a Navy officer for nearly 19 years, spent alternating between at-sea positions and staff duty. He was most recently the military assistant for the executive secretary to the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. His last at-sea posting was as the executive officer of the submarine USS San Juan.
Digan was piped aboard in a ceremony Friday aboard the USS Nautilus at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut. The submarine is still several years from being completed and is being built in Rhode Island.
The captain of the battleship Arizona was Capt. Franklin Van Valkenburgh, who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts in trying to save the ship. He was killed when a Japanese bomb scored a direct hit on the ship's ammunition magazine.
