USS Montana submarine crew visits Veterans Home

Crew members of the nuclear submarine USS Montana paid a visit to the Flathead on Tuesday, including a stop at the Montana Veterans Home in Columbia Falls.

The USS Montana was initially commissioned in June 2022. Its current home port is in Norfolk, Virginia. In light of an upcoming home port shift to Pearl Harbor, Commander Jon Quimby, culinary specialist Petty Officer Chase Rosas, nuclear machinist Petty Officer Nate Fisher and assistant operations officer Lt. Jacob Hodges were touring Montana to put faces to their ship’s namesake. 

“Speaking personally, having met so many people from Montana, I’m definitely glad I’m on the Montana because their community is a great community,” Hodges said at the Montana Veterans Home.

Quimby explained that the nuclear submarine will make its way to Pearl Harbor within five to six months with the intention of working toward deployment in the western Pacific in about a year. From there, USS Montana would be able to access the Indian Ocean and Middle East if need be. So far, its sea trials have only taken place in the Atlantic. 

The sub is 360 feet long and has a 32-foot diameter. Of its habitable space, half is dedicated to the engine room. Between 135-140 men are on its crew. Quimby noted that although there are no women serving on Montana, some of its sister ships are integrated and submarines commissioned in the future will be made with integrated crews in mind. 

Of those 140 men, one was born in Montana, but not raised in the state. Quimby estimated that in total, four crew members of the USS Montana have actually came from its namesake state. 

So, how did the sub get its name? 

“It’s all political,” Quimby said. 

Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the father of the nuclear Navy, needed funding for submarines and went to Congress proposing they be named for places tied to communities — cities, then states. Quimby said that with about 72 nuclear submarines now, the Navy is nearly out of state names and has reverted to old World War II ship names such as Barb and Tang. 

The USS Montana can move at 25 knots, about 28 miles per hour and submerge to 800 feet. It is capable of anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, strike missions with tomahawk missiles, intelligent surveillance, reconnaissance and more. The sub has a lockout front, which can be flooded and pressurized to release Navy SEALs underwater. 

Quimby explained that submarines are one of the last mission command platforms — they do not have constant communication like surface ships and are set up to silently carry out their missions. The crew is prepared for all scenarios — machinery breaking down, fire, flood — and are their own responders for those situations. One Hospital Corpsman First Class is responsible from everything from headaches to broken bones. 

The Montana’s crew continued their state tour Wednesday, March 13 with intentions to visit the Flathead Indian Reservation and Butte. Friday, they are set for Boulder and Missoula, and on Saturday they will attend Missoula’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.