Submarine La Jolla to visit San Diego, tour its namesake

Written by Jeanette Steele
5:57 p.m., Oct. 4, 2011

It’s a big deal when the Navy names a warship after a city. (San Diego and Coronado will have new ships named for them in the next couple years, and committees have already formed to celebrate.)

Meanwhile, La Jolla isn’t even a standalone city -- it’s a neighborhood of San Diego -- and there’s a naval vessel bearing its name.

The Navy fast-attack submarine La Jolla will dock in San Diego tomorrow for a visit, during which sailors will drop in on middle and high school students in La Jolla, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital there.

The submariners, who are stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, will talk to students at La Jolla High School and Muirlands Middle School on Thursday. On Friday, they will visit Muirlands and The Children’s School’s Nelson Middle Years Program and VA patients.

The ship’s sponsor, Shirley Wilson – wife of the late Rep. Bob Wilson, a San Diego Republican who lobbied for the ship’s name – will host the sub crew at a private lunch Friday.

The La Jolla was launched Aug. 11, 1979, and commissioned Oct. 24, 1981.

It is the first warship named after the San Diego neighborhood.

The submarine was originally named San Diego, but the Navy discovered that a Military Sealift Command ship commissioned earlier already had that name. So, Bob Wilson asked the Navy to rename the vessel La Jolla, according to the history on the sub’s website.

It is the fourteenth ship of the Los Angeles class of nuclear attack submarines.

The La Jolla will be docked at Point Loma Naval Base, but it will not be open to the public for tours, a Navy official said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... ts-namesa/