USS Beloit goes out for a spin

MARINETTE, WIS. — Five crew members, including Commander Le Andra Kissinger, were on board last Wednesday when the USS Beloit went on a 24-hour excursion on Lake Michigan.

The day-long trip was an acceptance trial, one of the last significant milestones before delivery of the ship to the U.S. Navy later this year. During acceptance trials, the ship is taken through a series of demonstrations for review by the U.S. Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey.

Kissinger said there was one issue during the trip, so there will be another acceptance trial run this week.

Still, it was a big day for Kissinger. The Los Alamos, New Mexico-native has served on four ships in her Navy career. The USS Beloit will be her first command.

“For me, it was just the most exciting thing,” Kissinger said.

Kissinger has made five trips to Beloit since being named commander of the USS Beloit. She’ll be in Beloit on Sept. 21 for the sixth time — and it’ll be the first time her family comes along — since being named commander for a free community picnic at ABC Supply Stadium.

Kissinger will be in town with more than 30 crew members, the largest group from the crew yet to visit Beloit.

Kissinger praised the work of the USS Beloit Commissioning Committee. Launched in early June with a goal of raising $350,000 to support the series of events around the commissioning of the USS Beloit, last week it was reported that the committee was already $250,000 of the way to that goal.

Kissinger said the money the committee is raising will do more than pay for parties. A key goal is to create a legacy fund to support the crew of the USS Beloit years into the future.

“It’s important to remember that these crew members are people who have significant events in their lives that they sometimes need help with,” said Kissinger. “That may all of a sudden have to pay for a funeral, or a parent gets sick, or their house burns down and they lose their belongings. A legacy fund helps with situations that are out of their control and it helps tie the Beloit community even closer to the crew.”

Sarah Lock, the social chair for the commissioning committee, said the goal is to raise well more than $350,000 to make that legacy fund as large as possible.

In 2002, the Navy began developing a new class of vessel called littoral combat ships. In 2018, the Navy announced that it was naming the next LCS after Beloit in honor of the city’s contributions to the Navy and national defense. Fairbanks Morse Defense has been a Navy supplier since World War II. The company, which employs about 400 in Beloit, supplies engines to 80% of the Navy’s medium-speed ships.

A christening and launch ceremony for the USS Beloit was held in Marinette, Wisconsin on May 7, 2022. A commissioning date still has not been set. {span}Anyone interested in donating to the campaign or serving in another capacity can visit the campaign website at www.ussbeloit.org