Oct. 10, 2019
HARRISBURG – State Rep. Mark Gillen (R-Berks/Lancaster) on Thursday was in the state Capitol as U.S. Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer announced the U.S. Navy’s newest warship will be named the USS Harrisburg.
“It’s a great honor to know a U.S. Navy ship will carry the name of our Commonwealth’s capital city,” said Gillen, who serves as secretary of the Pennsylvania House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee. “These ships will carry and protect our nation’s heroes as they enter into and hopefully return safely from combat.”
The new ship will be a modern version of the amphibious docking ships that landed on the beaches of France during the Normandy invasion of World War II. The ships will transport Marines and their equipment to land during amphibious combat.
A March 3, 1819 act of Congress formally assigned the responsibility for naming U.S. Navy ships to the secretary of the Navy.
The USS Harrisburg will be built in Mississippi. The $800 million ship, which will carry a crew of up to 300 sailors and another 400 Marines, is anticipated to join the Navy’s fleet in approximately two-and-a-half years. The 684-foot ship will weigh approximately 25,000 tons.
This is the second ship to bear the name USS Harrisburg. The former vessel served as a troop transport during World War I.
Representative Mark Gillen
128th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Dan Massing
717.772.9845
dmassing@pahousegop.com
RepGillen.com /
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State Rep. Mark Gillen (R-Berks/Lancaster), who serves as secretary of the House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, Thursday was in the state Capitol with other elected officials as U.S. Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer announced the U.S. Navy’s newest warship will be named the USS Harrisburg.