There’s been plenty of planning, plenty of anticipation – now, the new USS Little Rock sits in the beautiful inner harbor at Buffalo’s Canalside. The nearly 400 foot, $440 million ship chugged into Buffalo with its 70 sailors on board.
It is the first time in nearly ten years that a Navy warship has made it’s way to Buffalo’s waterfront.
The last time was 2008 – when the USS Freedom passed through.
A commissioning committee spent a year and a half working on this event – including the incredible security measures visitors of the ship will see. Some of the streets closest to Canalside will be closed and airspace will be closed off for air crafts and drones. Boats in the water will be kept at quite a distance.
A crowd of several hundred people waved flags and cheered as the Little Rock began docking on Monday morning.
Heather said her son was in awe, “He loves the military, large equipment. He knows my dad was in the Coast Guard, that both of my grandfathers served in World War II, and
my uncle is retired Navy.” And it’s not his first up-close-and-personal look at a warship. Adam had a scout sleep over on the older USS Little Rock once and loved it.
For Heather, having her son see this – is truly something – because he gets it; he understands why it is significant, “He also recognized why this was a historical event, the new
and old namesakes together in one spot. He was absolutely enthralled and amazed when the ship came in. He was so excited.”
And some of the other folks there, thought it was pretty cool to see a young man there, taking it all in, truly caring about the moment and its significance, “The majority of
thepeople there were my parents generation. Some of them commented to me that they thought it was great I brought him to see it.”
For more information on the USS Little Rock commission just head to buffalonavalpark.org
Holy crap I’m famous!(not really) Thank you Aunt Mary for writing this!??
haha. You’re so cute!