Photo By Lt.Cmdr. Seth Koenig | GROTON, Conn. (July 21, 2022) – Petty Officer 1st Class Bradford Van Orden, Petty...... read more read more
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GROTON, Connecticut -- Three active-duty submariners from the future fast-attack Virginia-class submarine USS Iowa (SSN 797) are on their way to Sergeant Bluff to participate in the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) as part of “Team Navy.”
The three-member team – Lt. Sam Alexander, Petty Officer 1st Class Bradford Van Orden, and Petty Officer 1st Class Julian Reynolds – left their home station of Groton, Connecticut, Thursday to link up with a 30-plus “Team Navy” of active-duty and retired Navy participants from around the country.
Alexander, organizer for the pre-commissioning unit (PCU) Iowa and native of neighboring Geneseo, Illinois, is driving with his crewmembers from Connecticut to Iowa in a pickup truck to participate in what will be his 7th RAGBRAI, his 4th with Team Navy.
“I started riding RAGBRAI in high school,” Alexander said of his passion for the annual ride, which has been a part of his life through college and now as part of the future USS Iowa, a Navy command he was able to choose during the orders selection process. “I had a choice between the USS New Jersey and the Iowa, so I chose the Iowa because I wanted to be on the boat for RAGBRAI.”
For Van Orden, a native of Wantage, New Jersey, this year’s iteration will be his 2nd RAGBRAI wearing the Team Navy jersey, an honor he calls “amazing.”
“Everyone wants to stop or ride along with you, talk to you. And tell you stories about their Navy experience,” Van Orden said of his 1st ride in 2021. “Most Iowa people don’t know the state of Iowa has a submarine that’s getting named after it, so it’s great to share that with the people along the ride and interact with people from our namesake state.
“I’m not from Iowa so the only connection I have to the state is the submarine,” Van Orden added.
The 2022 RAGBRAI will be a first for Reynolds, a native of El Dorado, Arkansas, an opportunity he says will allow him to “better represent the state of Iowa.”
“Every boat I’ve been on, I’ve never been able to do something with the state,” Reynolds said of his previous submarines. “I’ll be able to show face and say ‘Hey, this is the U.S. Navy,’ especially in a landlocked area.
“We are part of your state now and the state itself is part of us and what we’re doing,” Reynolds added.
The trio will begin their trip in Sergeant Bluff with a ceremonial “dipping” of their bike tires in the Missouri River and will end the ride in Lansing with another ceremonial tire dip in the Mississippi River to complete what riders call a symbolic Iowan “coast-to-coast.”
Riders will stop in seven towns throughout the week and stay at host homes of organizations, a feature of the ride that Alexander says never disappoints.
“Every day we’ll stay at a host home who provides riders with a place to put our tents, sometimes there’s showers and laundry,” Alexander said. “We’ll show up to a small town of 3,000 people with 15,000 people and everyone’s yards are covered in tents.”
Alexander added that most towns will have vendors, concerts, and other amenities catering to the riders.
The towns along the ride include Ida Grove, Pocahontas, Emmetsburg, Mason City, Charles City, and West Union.
As for the ride itself, Team Navy will accompany Team Air Force for portions of the race, a larger 100-plus team of active-duty and retirees from around the country. All three riders say it’s “not a race,” although a little friendly competition does happen.
“Most riders just try to get done before the heat hits,” said Alexander of previous rides.
Beating the heat, though, was a challenge for Van Orden last year due to all the interest in sailors from Iowa’s namesake submarine.
“Everywhere we go, people stop us and ask us questions because we’re wearing the Team Navy jerseys,” Van Orden said. “But I personally encourage that and try to talk to as many people as I can.”
What it means to the team to represent the future USS Iowa on the great big ride across Iowa, the team says they want as many Iowans to know about their ship as possible.
“Not everyone in Iowa knows our boat exists,” Alexander said. “We’re putting it out there that ‘We’re a submarine named after your state and it’s a big thing.’”
The future USS Iowa will be the 3rd U.S. Navy ship launched to be named after the state of Iowa and is currently under construction at General Dynamics Corp.’s Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. Iowa and crew operate under Submarine Squadron (SUBRON) 4, which is headquartered at Submarine Base New London.
The future USS Iowa will be the first ship named for the Hawkeye State since lead ship of the Iowa-class battleships, originally commissioned in 1943 and finally decommissioned in 1990. The battleship Iowa is now located in Los Angeles and open to the public as a museum ship.
Fast-attack submarines are multi-mission platforms enabling five of the six Navy maritime strategy core capabilities – sea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security and deterrence. They are designed to excel in anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship warfare, strike warfare, special operations, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, irregular warfare and mine warfare. Fast-attack submarines project power ashore with special operations forces and Tomahawk cruise missiles in the prevention or preparation of regional crises.
| Date Taken: | 07.22.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 07.22.2022 12:23 |
| Story ID: | 425559 |
| Location: | SERGEANT BLUFF, IOWA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,370 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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