It will be the ship’s second visit to the island.
“USS Lassen was here in 2006, and its crew will be here again for a five-day rest and recreation,” CNMI Military and Veterans Affairs Executive Director Ruth Coleman told the Variety.
Coleman, who was on Guam yesterday, said she will be back to welcome the crew of the USS Lassen.
She said a welcoming committee will meet the 320 officers and crew of USS Lassen at 3 p.m. today.
“We will have representatives from the Marianas Visitors Authority, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, and members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3457 to give the sailors a traditional welcome to Saipan,” Coleman said.
The ship will leave the island on Feb. 23.
Coleman said during their stay, the officers and crewmembers will have a chance to experience island culture and mingle with the local people.
USS Lassen is the third military ship to make a stopover on Saipan this year, Coleman said.
USS Lassen’s commanding officer is H. B. Le, a native of Hue, Vietnam who was raised in Northern Virginia.
USS Lassen was named after Clyde Everett Lassen of Fort Myers, Florida, who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor after courageously rescuing two downed aviators while commander of a search and rescue helicopter in Vietnam in 1968. He died in 1994 from cancer.
