FORT WORTH — On the site of the old Camp Bowie headquarters where thousands of doughboys were trained during World War I, city officials dedicated an anchor on Monday morning in honor of the USS Fort Worth, the first warship in naval history named for Cowtown.
Civic officials had hoped to also use the ceremony to announce that the littoral combat ship had left its moor in Marinette, Wisc., and begun its six-week voyage to Galveston for the official commissioning. But the USS Fort Worth, only the third in the new class of smaller warships, delayed raising its anchor by 24 hours and is now scheduled to depart early Tuesday morning."It was nothing significant, but they decided to push it back one day to deal with some last-minute issues," said T.D. Smyers, a former commander of Naval Air Station Fort Worth and chairman of the ship commissioning committee.The anchor was dedicated in Veterans Memorial Park on Camp Bowie Boulevard, a small park where the headquarters of the 36th Infantry Division stood in 1917. The anchor had been installed at NAS Fort Worth but was moved to the park at the request of former Fort Worth City Manager Doug Harman."This is a very significant site," Harman said. "I am hoping that the anchor will renew our city's knowledge of the importance of this place. This park hasn't been as recognized as it should be, and I think this will help."U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, the ship's sponsor, and Mayor Betsy Price said the anchor is a symbol of the bond between the ship and the city."It doesn't matter where the ship is at sea, the anchor will always be in Fort Worth," Granger said.Only the third completed of the new and controversial class of small, fast littoral combat ships, the USS Fort Worth will join the USS Dallas, USS Houston, USS San Antonio and USS City of Corpus Christi already in the nation's inventory.She is scheduled to leave Marinette and begin working her way through most of the Great Lakes, then onto the St. Lawrence River and then into the Atlantic Ocean. The commissioning ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 22 in Galveston, selected because Granger wanted the ship commissioned in Texas waters.The ship, built by a team of contractors led by Lockheed Martin, is designed for a variety of missions, such as anti-submarine, mine-countermeasures, special operations and anti-piracy. Constructed with speed and maneuverability in mind, it can operate in coastal waters as shallow as 20 feet, although there are mounting concerns within the Navy that it does not carry enough weapons to go into the world's most dangerous waters.Chris Vaughn, (817) 390-7547Twitter: @CVaughnFWHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
