NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — WAVY’s Navy Ship Salute is a feature on WAVY News 10 Today. Each month, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, WAVY-TV 10 will profile a different ship based at the world’s largest Navy base: Naval Station Norfolk. The series aims to better introduce our viewers to some of the largest floating taxpayer assets there are as well as life aboard U.S. Navy Ship.
For December 2022, 10 On Your Side was welcomed on board USS Porter (DDG-78).
USS Porter is a Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer that was first commissioned in 1999. Built at Ingalls Shipbuilding shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi and the 12th in her class. She is the fifth ship named after two naval legends: Commodore David Porter (1780-1843) and his son, Admiral David Dixon Porter.
USS Porter is 510 feet long and has 320 sailors serving onboard. Commanding Officer Chris Petro said he is proud of his sailors for all they did as the ship was stationed in Rota, Spain the last seven years.
“Out there were part of Forward-Deployed Naval Forces-Europe operating with U.S. forces with NATO allies and partners,” Petro said.
Life onboard includes three meals a day with a breakfast that includes scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes and breakfast rice.
“We have a records keeper that he inputs the menus for Breakfast lunch and dinner and we’re in here as just cooks, cooking up the menu,” CSC3 Joseph Moore, said.
Up on deck, sailors who operate the USS Porter had a special treat for 10 On Your Side. They spelled out “WAVY 10” in signal flags.
“So those are flags that we prepare in advance for any drills that we have to let ships around us know what is going on to give them our intentions in training that we are doing,” Quartermaster Leslie Lopez said.
USS Porter is known for attacking and sinking two pirate skiffs off Somalia in 2007 after receiving a distress call from the tanker MV Golden Nori which was under attack.
Petro said the ship is expected to deploy gain sometime in 2023.