MARINETTE, WI (AP)-- U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana will attend a ceremonial keel-laying in Wisconsin for a combat ship that's set to become the nation's fourth military vessel named the USS
Indianapolis.
Donnelly will attend Monday's ceremony at Marinette Marine, where Lockheed Martin workers will lay the structural beam around which the ship's hull will be built.
The ship will have the flexibility for a variety of missions, including mine-clearing and anti-surface warfare.
The last previous USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945, while returning from a Pacific island where it delivered key components for the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Only 317 of its nearly 1,200 crewmen survived the sinking and days in shark-infested waters.
Dick Thelen, one of those survivors, will attend Monday's ceremony.
