The USS Cincinnati Cold War Memorial Peace Pavilion officially opened yesterday. It’s an addition to Voice of America Park in West Chester, OH. There was a reception at the site on Friday evening, and a flag-raising ceremony on Saturday morning, with about 140 sailors who once served aboard the boat present. Both were private events. 1:00 was the announced time for the public opening, but that seems not to have been strictly enforced. I arrived about a quarter till and there were plenty of people already walking around the skeleton-style full-size replica of the submarine. It had rained most of the morning and it seems likely that things were a little wet at the earlier ceremonies, but around noon the clouds started to clear a little and it was dry all the time I was there.

The nuclear powered USS Cincinnati (SSN-693) was commissioned in 1978 and was in service until 1996. She was nearly 362 feet long and displaced about 6,250 tons. That is big enough to be called a ship and that is the word I initially used in the previous paragraph when referring to past crew members. But something made me question that, and an online search let me know that submarines are, by tradition, typically referred to as boats.

I have some vague (and apparently false) memories of talk about parking the complete submarine on the Cincinnati riverfront, but that was never a real possibility. A request was made, but the Navy wasn’t about to put a nuclear powered ship (or boat) into private hands. However, when the sub was scheduled for scrapping, memorial organizers did manage to get the rudder (in the previous paragraph), the conning tower, the auxiliary engine (a.k.a. Big Red Machine), and a piece of the hull.

There is some impressive signage throughout the site explaining the project and the workings of the submarine. There are plans to add educational interactive displays in the future.

There was evidence of the previous night’s reception (e.g., leftover very tasty cookies) inside the site’s only building along with several USS Cincinnati related artifacts and photos. I have a hunch that many of these will be included in more permanent displays as time permits.

Unsure of what crowd and weather conditions would be this weekend, I grabbed some pictures when I drove by about two weeks ago. Everything was pretty much in place except the signs. Until the rain stopped while I was on my way to the park, I thought there was a pretty good chance they would be all I would have for this post. I am sure happy that’s not the case, but figured I might as well share a couple shots without tents or people.