A ceremony is being held 8 August at Pier Sierra 1B at the Submarine Base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to celebrate the history and inactivation of USS Kamehameha. Medal of Honor winner and United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye has been asked to be the principal speaker and has accepted. There are several other speakers lined up for the ceremony, which should be a wonderful time for all concerned. Representative Patsy T. Mink has also kindly accepted an invitation.
There is a former Kam sailors reunion planned in conjunction with the inactivation ceremony in Hawaii. The ship will need to be able to plan how many former shipmates intend to be at the ceremony. Please contact the Public Affairs Officer or register at the unofficial USS Kamehameha web site to pass your address to us for an invitation. The ship has returned from deployment and we are in the process of printing and sending invitations.
USS Kamehameha is currently scheduled to decommission in October, 2001. The ship will be inactivated in Bremerton, Washington. There will be a short period once the ship arrives to be available for tours before shifting berths to the shipyard. There is work being done to coordinate a reunion in Bremerton for those shipmates who could not make it to Hawaii. If a ship's reunion is finalized for a date when the ship is in port and not yet in the yard, we on the ship will make every effort to accommodate our former shipmates. No decom ceremony is planned during the time the ship is out of the shipyard in Bremerton.
No plans have been set for any tiger cruises for the last transit. Due to various requirements, the family cruise is the focus for the ship right now.
The retiring of Kamehameha will remove the dual-DDS capability for the USN, and will close out a thrity-seven year portion of the Submarine Force's hundred year history.
Once any more updated information becomes available, it will be posted on this site.
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