The U.S. Navy is about to commission the U.S.S. John Finn, the Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.
Throughout the week, the Navy will hold events for the crew, sponsor, and others involved in the commissioning.
U.S.S. John Finn will be commissioned at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 15 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam’s Pier Kilo 10.
Admiral Harry Harris, Jr., Commander of U.S. Pacific Command, will deliver the commissioning ceremony’s principal address.
Mrs. Laura Stavridis, the wife of retired Adm. James Stavridis (former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe) will serve as sponsor of the ship. The ceremony will be highlighted by a time-honored Navy tradition when Mrs. Stavridis will give the first order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”
The ship’s namesake, John Finn, is a Medal of Honor recipient who Admiral Chester Nimitz said displayed “magnificent courage in the face of almost certain death” during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Finn, a chief aviation ordnanceman, used a machine gun at the former Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station to fire at Japanese aircraft for two hours during the attack. He remained on duty for 18 hours despite receiving as many as 21 wounds.
Finn retired as a lieutenant in 1956 and lived to be 100 before passing in 2010. At the time of his death, he was the last living Medal of Honor recipient from the Pearl Harbor attack.
U.S.S. John Finn will be able to conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management to sea control and power projection.
The ship will be able to engage in air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously with a myriad of offensive and defensive weapons and with Integrated Air and Missile Defense capabilities.
It is equipped with the Navy’s Aegis Combat System, the world’s foremost integrated naval weapons system. U.S.S. John Finn will have advances in anti-submarine warfare, command and control, and anti-surface warfare.
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