Excitement Grows For Navy Ship Named After Tulsa

Excitement is building for the construction of the Navy's new ship named in honor of Tulsa.

Former Mayor Kathy Taylor has signed on as the coordinating sponsor for the ship and held a meeting Monday night to launch the start of the commissioning committee.

The group will work over the next couple of years to plan for events surrounding the launching of the ship, including raising funds necessary for all of the commissioning ceremonies for the USS Tulsa.

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The $350 million combat ship is being built in Mobile, Alabama.

It should be finished in the fall of 2016, with the ship launched in 2018, and there will be a lot of activities over the next few years that Tulsa will support.

"This ship will be in the water for 60 years, and so this community will have a relationship with every crew and captain that occupies that ship," Taylor said.

Navy veteran Fred Dowart said, "It's really exciting to have a major ship of the Navy named after a city. And real relationships form between the city and the crews and the ship itself."

The group's second meeting will happen in January.