USS La Jolla Comes Home

The USS La Jolla arrived in port at Naval Base Point Loma on Wednesday morning for a namesake port visit and to celebrate the anniversary of its commissioning. This is the USS La Jolla first visit to San Diego in three years.

Cmdr. Jeff Bernard, commanding officer of the USS La Jolla, said the crew is honored to celebrate the ship’s 30th anniversary in her namesake community in San Diego.

While in port the crew of 140 will participate in several events in La Jolla including stops at , , and the VA San Diego Healthcare System hospital to give back to the community that their submarine is named after.

“I am excited to participate in the community relations projects,” said Lt. j.g. Dom Rinaldi. “I will be visiting students at La Jolla High School and I’m interested to see what questions the students have and what they will think about submarines.”

Rinaldi is one of 14 crewmembers from California. The crew comes from 39 states and two U.S. territories.

Crewmember Lt. j.g. Travis Dziubla, who attended La Jolla High, said it will be great to see my family and friends.

“I always love to return home,” he said.

Before pulling into San Diego, the USS La Jolla, which is currently homeported in Pearl Harbor, was involved in exercises in the Southern California operations area to train for its next deployment.

The USS La Jolla is a fast-attack submarine and capable of supporting missions including anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike, naval special warfare involving special operations forces, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, according to the Navy.

The submarine was originally designated USS San Diego, but it was discovered that a Military Sealift Command (MSC) Combat Store Ship commissioned in 1969 had already been given the name, according to the Navy. Based on this information Congressman Bob Wilson told Admiral H. G. Rickover he wanted the ship named La Jolla. The USS La Jolla was commissioned on Sept. 30, 1981.