Senator Collins Announces Navy Secretary To Visit Millinocket

        BANGOR, Maine--U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a member of both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, today announced that Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus intends to visit Millinocket on Sunday, September 2.  Secretary Mabus will participate in a ceremony, to be held at the Millinocket Municipal Airport, officially naming the USNS Millinocket.

        On May 30, 2012, the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, announced that the Navy's third Joint High Speed Vessel would be named in honor of Millinocket.  The ship will follow in the tradition of the USS Stephen W. Groves, a guided-missile frigate named after an East Millinocket pilot who was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross during World War II at the Battle of Midway.  Ensign Stephen W. Groves, assigned to the Navy's Fighter Squadron Eight attached to the USS Hornet, was awarded the Navy Cross for engaging a vastly superior enemy force attacking the U.S. carrier fleet.

        Senator Collins said, "I am incredibly proud that the Navy will continue to honor the service of Ensign Groves, which is representative of the service tens of thousands of Mainers, many from the Millinocket and East Millinocket region, who have served our nation in harm's way for more than two hundred years.  As the USNS Millinocket travels the globe in service to the United States, it will carry a connection to Maine with it, and tens of thousands of people will learn about this special community's rich history of hard work, determination, and perseverance."

       At Senator Collins' invitation, Secretary Mabus last visited Maine in June 2009 when he toured Bath Iron Works and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery.

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