A submarine's new homeport is Point Loma
The USS Springfield arrived in San Diego in July, shifting her homeport to Point Loma and joining Submarine Squadron 11.
POINT LOMA: The fast-attack submarine USS Springfield arrived at Naval Base Point Loma on July 21, shifting her homeport to San Diego, where she joins Submarine Squadron 11, the Navy announced. The move formalized a transition months in the making for the boat and her crew.
The Springfield, a Los Angeles-class submarine commissioned in 1993, came to San Diego from Guam, where she had been forward-deployed. Her arrival continues the long rotation of the Pacific submarine force through Point Loma, one of the Navy's principal submarine homeports on the West Coast.
The changing of the guard
The Springfield's arrival follows the departure of the USS Alexandria, which left Point Loma for inactivation at Bremerton. It is the ordinary rhythm of the submarine force: boats age out, boats rotate in, and the squadron's composition turns over. But each move carries hundreds of sailors and their families with it, and each one is a small economic and civic event for the city that receives them.
San Diego's identity as a Navy town rests on exactly this kind of unglamorous continuity. Aircraft carriers get the headlines; the submarine piers at Point Loma get the decades. The Springfield will be part of that waterfront for the remainder of her service life, another boat in the squadron, another crew calling San Diego home.
None to date. The Tribune corrects errors promptly and transparently. Read our corrections policy.
