JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 An effort to bring home a major piece of the only Naval warship named after Jacksonville, Florida, will soon make its way back to the Bold New City of the South.<\/p>\n
The USS Jacksonville was a nuclear Los Angeles-Class Submarine commissioned in 1981.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the only one, and they\u2019re probably not gonna name another one, so it\u2019s kind of important,\u201d said Stephen Jorgensen, who served on the USS Jacksonville during his time in the Navy.<\/p>\n
Jorgensen is now the President of the non-profit Bring the Sail 2 Jax, which has been on a mission to do exactly that since the USS Jacksonville was decommissioned in 2021.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Now, only Action News Jax has learned the US Navy has officially released the sail, clearing it to be brought home.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always known the hardest thing was to get the Navy to bring it here. And you know, from an engineering standpoint, everything else is just the logistics,\u201d said Jorgensen.<\/p>\n The move is made possible through private donations and help from two local businesses.<\/p>\n Local transportation logistics company Landstar is helping with the move itself.<\/p>\n \u201cAs part of the Jacksonville community, we\u2019re proud that the Landstar network can play a role in preserving the USS Jacksonville\u2019s military legacy and honoring the brave men and women who have served our nation,\u201d said Landstar President and CEO Frank Lonegro in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n Once here, Fincantieri Marine has agreed to house it while restoration work is completed.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cFincantieri Marine Repair is happy to play their small part in supporting the Jacksonville area Maritime and Navy museum efforts. Bringing our city\u2019s namesake vessel home for her final resting place is a kismet opportunity,\u201d said a spokesperson with Fincantieri Marine in a statement.<\/p>\n Councilmember Will Lahnen (R-District 3), a former Navy submariner himself, explained the sail will be delivered in pieces, requiring at least four truckloads.<\/p>\n Once it arrives, there will still be plenty of work to do to get it ready.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will then have to reassemble it, paint it, weld it,\u201d said Lahnen.<\/p>\n Lahnen said the goal is to display the sail and the rudder near the USS Orleck, similar to the display outside of King\u2019s Bay Submarine Base in Georgia.<\/p>\n Other cities like Corpus Christi and Phoenix are also working to acquire and display the sails of subs bearing their names.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t invent the concept of getting the decommissioned sail of a submarine named after our city, but we are trying to follow suit with what other cities have done recently. Cause I mean it\u2019s a really great thing, a cool piece of history,\u201d said Lahnen.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Orleck treasurer Captain Stan Halter said the team is excited to see the Naval display at Shipyards West grow with the addition of the USS Jacksonville\u2019s sail.<\/p>\n \u201cReally the whole mission is to bring it downtown, bring some history, bring the kids onboard, show them that there is a whole new life,\u201d said Halter.<\/p>\n Jorgensen told Action News Jax the sail will be transported from Washington to Jacksonville within the next 45 days.<\/p>\n He said he hopes to have the sail fully refurbished and in place either at the end of the pier next to the Orleck or on land at the front entrance of the Orleck within a year.<\/p>\n You can find out more about the project or make a donation here.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 An effort to bring home a major piece of the only Naval warship named after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,34435,142857,652,142862,136077,33084,1853,969,116,118,117,971,142855,970,125169,142861,142858,634,87281,635,136078,26718,20689,142863,142856,142859,649,142854,142853,655,6413,11987,142860],"class_list":["post-349423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-action_news_shacks","tag-bring_the_salle","tag-captain","tag-corpus_christi","tag-erlich","tag-fin","tag-georgia","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_snow","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jorgensen","tag-kings_bay_submarine_base","tag-landstar","tag-local","tag-los_angeles","tag-navy","tag-orlich","tag-phoenix","tag-shipyards","tag-stan_holter","tag-steven_jorgensen","tag-terry_marine","tag-us_navy","tag-uss_erlich","tag-uss_jacksonville","tag-uss_orlik","tag-washington","tag-west","tag-will_lannen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}