USS Maine Crew Visits State Capitol on July 4th.

July 5, 2007

AUGUSTA—The USS Maine Gold Crew, stationed in Bangor, Washington, visited the Maine State House on Wednesday July 4th, and were given a tour of the Capitol by Senator Libby Mitchell and Representatives Patsy Crockett and Bill Browne.

The Crew was welcomed to the State House, and presented a sentiment from the entire 123rd Legislature, and a flag flown over the Capitol. After visiting the Senate Chamber, the Crew went down to the House Chamber, where they partook in one of the favorite activities of visitors – banging the gavel at the Speaker’s rostrum. The crew also stopped by on the 3rd floor balcony, which overlooks Capitol Park, and east toward the Kennebec Arsenal. They commented how beautiful the view is from that vantage point. The crew then joined Sen. Mitchell and Rep. Patsy Crockett in the 4th of July Parade through Augusta.

The USS Maine has two complete crews, the Gold and the Blue crews. This allows one complete crew to leave the submarine on goodwill missions, and still have the submarine fully staffed. The crew that visited Augusta on the 4th of July is the Gold Crew. The “Blue Crew” stayed with the boat, which was stationed at Brunswick Naval Air Station for the holiday.

USS Maine (SSBN-741) is an Ohio-class Trident ballistic missile nuclear submarine. This is the third ship of the fleet to be commissioned by the Navy with the name of the state. The first MAINE was the first battleship in the US Navy. The sinking of the first Maine on February 15, 1898 precipitated the Spanish-American War and also popularized the phrase Remember the Maine!