STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Vietnam Army Veteran Bill Potter reveled as a thousand-pound bell from the USS Idaho BB42, a battleship that played a central role in the Battle of Iwo Jima, was transported across the country, along with 5,000 frozen chocolate chip cookie pucks that Bigwood Bread Bakery’s George Gallgher had donated.

Blaine County Sheriff Morgan Ballis enlisted the aid of Sun Valley Auto Club to transport a sheriff’s car wrapped to commemorate Idaho’s new submarine, also sending four of his officers.

And on Saturday, April 25, Idahoans joined a crowd of 4,000 in celebration in Groton, Conn., as the USS Idaho SSN 799 officially became a part of the U.S. Navy.

Sgt. Allen Compton, a U.S. Army veteran drives the Blaine County patrol car honoring the USS Idaho.

“The commissioning ceremony was an absolute bucket list kind of event,” said Potter, a retired first lieutenant who lives south of Ketchum. “In March 2024 my wife Linda and I went to the christening of the submarine with David Sturdevant and everybody was telling me, ‘If you think that is good, the commissioning is even more impressive.’ And it was.”

Potter happily accepted a role with the USS Idaho Commissioning Committee to spread awareness about the ship dubbed “The Gem of the Fleet,” a play on Idaho’s nickname as The Gem State.

He paraded a 28-foot-long replica of the submarine constructed by a Pocatello Navy veteran out of fuel tanks from a fighter jet. He brought in the Victory Belles from their home base at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans to sing “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and other songs from the World War II era at events around the Wood River Valley.

He was available for consultation as the Sun Valley Culinary Institute trained submarine chefs to prepare Basque paella, lamb, Parmesan cheese trout, potato dishes and other Idaho fare aboard the submarine.

The Victory Belles made several appearances in Idaho last summer, helping to spread awareness about the USS Idaho submarine.

And he cheered on the Blaine County Sheriff’s Department headed by retired Marine Morgan Ballis as they wrapped a patrol car in midnight blue representing deep ocean water and added a sonar signal, the mountains surrounding Sun Valley and a decal paying tribute to the USS Idaho.

“It looked like Blaine County outperformed all the other counties in per capita support,” Potter said.

Bill and Linda Potter joined others at an event put on by a local brewery for the crew on Thursday. On Friday he joined more than 600 others for dinner at a Native American casino as Sun Valley actor Scott Glenn recounted his experience serving as the commander of the U.S. Dallas in “The Hunt for Red October” across from Sean Connery, who portrayed a rogue Soviet naval captain wishing to defect to the United States.

“Scott was terrific,” Potter said, noting that Idaho Gov. Brad Little also spoke. “Scott said he didn’t know the first things about submarines when he made the movie so he needed to get on one and see how it operated.”

A replica of the submarine made the rounds of Idaho, including a stop at the Sun Valley Lodge.

The commissioning took place the following day with between 3,000 and 4,000 people on the pier. Sun Valley’s Matt Murray provided a 48 Star flag, which had flown from the mast of the USS Idaho BB-42, over the yardarm. And the cookies were included in a post-ceremony reception under a big tent.

Idaho’s new nuclear-powered, fast-attack submarine was christened in March 2024 in a ceremony witnessed by 4,000 people. It was blessed by members of the Nez Perce and Shoshone-Bannock tribes, with marching band music written by a University of Idaho professor.

Rather than christening it with champagne, ship sponsor Terry Stackley broke a bottle containing water from Redfish Lake, Henrys Lake, Lake Pend Oreille and Payette Lake. The christening signified that the outside of the vessel was complete.

Since, the work has focused on the inside. The interior features walls and cabinets featuring such scenes of Idaho as the Sawtooth Mountains, Sun Valley Lodge, Twin Falls’ Perrine Bridge with its Sept. 11 memorial flag and the Little City of Rocks.

Bill Potter stands in front of the submarine replica at last summer’s Hero’s Journey celebration put on by Higher Ground.

Each of the berthing spaces has been named after an Idaho city. Spaces also have been named for such Idaho warriors as Col. Bernie Fisher, the first U.S. Air Force Medal of Honor recipient

The USS Idaho is the first to feature a state-of-the-art magnetohydrodynamic drive developed at the Navy’s Acoustic Research Detachment on Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille, which allows the craft to move completely silently in both deep and shallow waters. advanced technology. A photonics mast utilizing fiber optics has replaced the periscope, with sailors viewing surroundings through multiple screens like those on “Star Trek.”

The crew will control it with an X-box.

The submarine will not have to be refueled while out, thanks to technology developed at Idaho National Laboratory near Arco.

Unfortunately, former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who traveled to Ketchum and other parts of the state with the submarine’s commander and crew, passed away the night before the christening. The 74-year-old who also served as a U.S. Senator and Secretary of the Department of the Interior, announced his diagnosis of late-stage cancer in March 2025.

The last time a ship was commissioned as USS Idaho—the BB42--was in 1919. It was the fifth Navy vessel to carry the name of Idaho. But, though landlocked, Idaho was the birthplace of the US Nuclear Navy after the first prototype naval reactor was tested in 1953 at what is now called the Idaho National Laboratory.

Camp Farragut in Northern Idaho was the second largest of seven Navy boot camps, and even today there is a submarine base at Lake Pend Oreille.

The newest USS Idaho will be assigned to the waters around Connecticut and Florida, and it will make trips to the North Atlantic for scientific experiments in the Arctic. It will also do intelligence gathering, reconnaissance and surveillance, carrier and expeditionary strike group protection, mine detection and mine laying and SEAL operations.

But there is still testing to be done before the submarine is pressed into action, said Potter.

“You have to speed up time to build and celebrate the submarines, after which you slow down and finish the details,” he said. “Now, we won’t hear about it for another 35 years. They don’t call it the silent service for nothing.”