California's atomic 'sails' end fuel fears
By VIRGINIA BIGGINS
Times-Herald Staff Writer
NORFOLK--"This is one great ship," the skipper of the frigate California said during an interview shortly before it was commissioned here Saturday.
"Because it is nuclear powered, the California can be used to great advantage in a combat situation. In fact, we'll arrive in the battle zone in the same condition as we left home....with fuel unlimited," Capt. Floyd H. Miller Jr., commanding officer of the ship, said.
Miller and his family make their home in Newport News, which he said will remain "my second home even when I go to sea."
Miller said the nuclear propulsion plant on the California will enable it to operate 10 to 13 years before refueling, "and we don't have to worry about the energy crisis."
A strong supporter of the nuclear navy concept, Miller likened the advantages to that of the days of John Paul Jones, "who didn't need coal or any type of fuel to go to sea. Sails and the wind were to him what nuclear energy is to us in these days."
"A nuclear vessel has unlimited endurance," the skipper of the nation's newest vessel said. "Instead of fuel worries, bean and bullets will be the only replenishment problems we'll face from time to time."
He estimated the ship could go to sea for up to 120 days before she'd have to be concerned about replenishment. "In a combat situation, however, the re-supply periods would depend mostly on how many bullets we've used up."
Miller sees the California as a major combatant ship and calls it "the battleship of the future. I hope the Navy decides to build a few more like her, beyond those already under contract or at the Newport News yard.
The California is designed as an element of a fast carrier task force and can operate as an independent unit to detect and destroy any threats by enemy forces. She has the most advanced sonar and anti-submarine weapons as well as the Tartar D surface to air missile.
Miller said the California will go to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard this spring to be outfitted, then there will be combat systems trials and testings.
The seven-week shakedown cruise will be in the Guantanamo Bay area. A post-shakedown evaluation will follow at the Portsmouth yard before the frigate heads for its homeport in San Diego, Calif., for service in the Pacific Fleet.
"California, in her duties with the fleet, will operate at time in the Indian Ocean," Miller said. "It has become standard for nuclear powered ships to operate in remote areas of the world where there is no logistical line of communication."
The commanding officer said that nuclear power plants are even more essential to the national defense posture since the U. S. is retracting so many of its' bases throughout the world where supplies, specifically fuel, have been stockpiled for replenishment. "Those base close-downs won't hamper us one bit," he elaborated.
Miller has had a long association with the Peninsula area. He first served in the area with the precommissioning crew of the USS Enterprise, the Navy's first nuclear powered carrier. He also served as executive officer with the USS Bainbridge, California's predecessor.
Prior to reporting too the California at the shipyard in 1971, he served as commanding officer of the destroyer escort Voge. He is a Vietnam veteran.
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