On behalf of all members and leaders of the USS Montana Committee on this 2023 Thanksgiving eve, we say Thank You, each in our own way for our many blessings!

We are truly blessed to be able to live in this wonderful United States of America that we must never take for granted, even as we work to ensure that its founding principles are fulfilled for all, no matter the times, or events that challenge us.

And thank you for your engagement and help with our mission in support of the USS MONTANA (SSN 794) and all who sail aboard her in defense of our nation.

We are grateful for these fine young people who devote themselves to our protection. And we are grateful for their loved ones who themselves sacrifice in so many ways that their sailors may serve.

In this holiday season and the coming year, we’ll continue our work, in close touch with the MONTANA leaders and crew, and with new approaches and ideas that we encourage you to share with us as well.

Here are a couple of examples.

USS MONTANA Documentary Project Underway

As SSN 794 undergoes maintenance and updating at Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding (HIINNS) in Virginia to prepare for the planned move to her new Pearl Harbor home port and operations with the Pacific Fleet in the coming year, her crew continues intensive training.

Recently, video of training and daily life aboard the submarine was captured as part of the work underway toward a full-length television-streamed-school-library documentary planned for release in the late spring or early summer of 2024.

The documentary project is led by Craig Wirth, a Montanan and an award-winning documentary producer on Montana subjects and the military. It will include archival material on the little-known, but historic, first USS MONTANA, an armored cruiser commissioned in 1908, and video and photos from all along the new MONTANA’s construction and commissioning path, including during many support events in Big Sky Country.

We are grateful to all who are making this project a reality.

USS Montana Committee Specialty License Plates for Crew Members

Beginning in January crew members of the USS MONTANA, past and present, will be able to obtain the USS Montana Committee’s specialty license plates for their vehicles. They will be able to proudly show their Montana and submarine connections wherever they are based or live, whether now in Virginia or next year in Hawaii when SSN 794 joins the Pacific Fleet.

We are grateful to the Montana Legislature for crafting and adopting almost unanimously a motor vehicle legislation change to enable the sailors to display Montana plates, and to Governor Greg Gianforte who promptly signed it into law.

If you have not yet purchased your own USS Montana Committee specialty plate, please consider doing so as soon as possible. That will help us meet a required continuing minimum number of 400 active plates for them to remain in circulation and available to the crew.

The plates may be purchased anytime online or at your County Treasurer office, and will not affect your normal vehicle registration renewal date. You can buy either a standard plate or create your own personalized one.

Each plate purchased includes a $20 donation to our programs for the USS MONTANA and her crew.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Again, we thank you. And we hope that your Thanksgiving remembrance is especially meaningful.

God Bless.