A celebration of a century of submarines in southeastern Connecticut kicked off Friday with elected officials joining a modern, nuclear-powered submarine as it pulled up to the pier at what is now Naval Submarine Base New London.
The event was intended to highlight the Connecticut governor’s designation of October 2015 through October 2016 as a yearlong celebration of “Connecticut’s Submarine Century.”
Among the officials who joined the attack submarine USS California as it returned from a monthlong operation was Groton Mayor Marian Galbraith.
“It’s our opportunity to tell the state, the nation but most importantly the Navy that we are so proud to be your home,” Galbraith said of the celebration, according to The Day of New London. “We are submarine proud.”
It was on Oct. 18, 1915, that the base’s first submarines _ G-1, G-2, and G-4 _ arrived at what was then a Navy yard. The site in Groton was designated the following year as the Navy’s first submarine base.
Today, the base in the city that calls itself the submarine capital of the world is the primary homeport for East Coast attack submarines and home to the Navy’s submarine school.