WAVY’s Navy Ship Salute is a feature on WAVY News 10 Today. Each month, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, WAVY-TV 10 will profile a different ship based at the world’s largest Navy base: Naval Station Norfolk. The series aims to better introduce our viewers to some of the largest floating taxpayer assets there are, as well as life aboard a U.S. Navy ship.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The USS Ross is an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, serving as part of Naval Surface Force Atlantic. She was laid down in 1995, later commissioned in June, 1997.
Fresh out of 18 months of dry dock, we met the crew on board. Some of the more than 250 sailors are credited by their own commanding officer for being the very driving force that makes Ross stand out.
“This is the crew that makes everything happen,” CO Vincent Simmon Jr. said. “The teamwork, tenacity and grit that they have is what really makes this ship the best. It is. And they demonstrate the the valor that that Mr. Ross showed back in the day.”
Simmon said the ship is named after Donald Kirby Ross, a World War II Veteran. When his ship was under attack at Pearl Harbor, he stayed in the engine room to keep the vessel afloat, earning the Medal of Honor. Immortalized by the USS Ross, Simmon said modernizing the ship during its recent dry dock was crucial.
“The Navy destroyer has been the backbone of the Navy for the last 31 years, and Arleigh Burke destroyers will continue to be relevant in the future,” Simmon said.
The Ross crew got 10 On Your Side’s Nick Broadway into the Firefighting Ensemble, giving him a first hand look at one of the first things sailors learn. They have to get all the gear on in two minutes. DC3 Simone Thatch remembers responding to an overnight ventilation fire.
“I see smoke coming from the laundry room, I go the laundry room and I look, and I had to call immediately because there was smoke everywhere,” Thatch described.
They also introduced our team to piping, one of the oldest active Navy traditions. It is a way to communicate messages throughout the ship.
They are getting ready for more training sessions before the Ross is sent on her next tour.