Clack Museum foundation meeting regales members with dinner and history

It was an evening of food, drinks and lively discussion as the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation held its annual Friends of the Clack Museum Celebration at the Duck Inn Vineyard Room Saturday evening.

The evening began with socializing and dinner. Members sat around and chatted with other members or took the occasional glance at the television in the bar to check the world series score. Servers moved from the kitchen to the dining area with plates of food and drinks.

Once everyone had finished their meal, though, Bill Whitsitt, Ph.D., gave a brief presentation on the history and future of the U.S.S. Montana.

The U.S.S. Montana is a Virginia-class, nuclear powered submarine scheduled for completion in 2020. The original U.S.S. Montana was commissioned in 1908 as an armored cruiser. She was briefly renamed the U.S.S. Missoula before being scrapped around 1931.

The original U.S.S. Montana served in the Mexican Revolution by transporting 19 dead Marines back to the United States from Veracruz, Mexico.

There were plans to make the U.S.S. Montana a battleship twice but both times the plans were canceled. In 1922, the plans were scrapped due to the armistice treaty, Whitsitt said, which dictated the tonnage of battleships a nation could have.

In 1943, another set of plans for a U.S.S. Montana were scrapped due to a higher demand for aircraft carriers rather than battleships, Whitsitt added.

“Montana was the only state to not have a battleship named,” Whitsitt said.

Today, the U.S.S. Montana is nearing completion and already has a crew assembled, Whitsitt said. The ship also already has an emblem that is rife with Montana references.

Glacier National Park is referenced and the state motto is depicted as gold and silver fish. Native American feathers also shown on the emblem reflect the Native American culture in Montana and to recognize the high number of veterans who are Native Americans, Whitsitt added.

The grizzly bear coming out of the waves was a point of contention for some of the committee members, Whitsitt said. It was pointed out that there were no bobcat references on the emblem.

“Someone volunteered to have a bobcat shot and stuffed and placed aboard the U.S.S. Montana,” Whitsitt said.

The final reference on the emblem was the date “03/07/77,” used in the logo of the Monana Highway Patrol.

The ship’s own motto, translated from Latin, reads “May it defend our way of life.”

Whitsitt, who has a long career in communication including being news director of KRTV in Great Falls and the creator and first news director of Montana Television Network, is the chair of the U.S.S. Montana Committee. He said and he a few friends started the committee in February of 2017 after a conversation with a friend of his who was on a committee for the U.S.S. Helena and his friend told him that most ships have their own committees.

Whitsitt said the committee is dedicated to supporting the commissioning of the U.S.S. Montana and to helping her crew. Their goal is to inform Montanans about the U.S.S. Montana and her various roles within the Navy.

They also seek to build a relationship between Montanans and the crew.

Anyone can join the committee, Whitsitt said, which is considered a non-profit organization so all donations are tax-deductible.

The committee is responsible for captain and crew visits to the state and for informing the crew about Montana’s history and culture. This includes a Montana-themed living area on board the U.S.S.Montana with a wrap that will feature many Montana landmarks.

They are also responsible for coordinating the commissioning events. This includes allowing members to attend the commissioning ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia, and arranging transportation from the hotel to the Naval yard.

Whitsitt said the committee is endorsed by Gov. Steve Bullock and the United States Naval Institute.

Whitsitt concluded the presentation with a video featuring testimonials from the people who helped build the U.S.S. Maontana and what it meant to them. After that, Whitsitt allowed time for a question and answer session for the audience.

A couple of topics Whitsitt and the audience touched on were how the ships today were designed for younger people because “they’re flown by joystick and there’s a big screen that shows them everything.”

Another topic that came up was women working aboard the U.S.S. Montana. Whitsitt said women will be working alongside men on the submarine. He added, the most difficult part was arranging for women of different roles to rotate on to the submarine because they will be sharing living quarters.

“The Navy is really good about figuring out problems, though,” Whitsitt said.

According to the infographic posted on the U.S.S. Montana Committee’s webpage, the Virginia-class submarines will replace the current Los Angeles-class subs as the new era of fast-attack submarines. The Virginia-class ships boast a capability of not only being stealthy but also being able to stay submerged for up to three months.

There is to be a total of 28 Virginia-class ships with 12 having been completed already.