For most citizens of Lexington, situated in the center of Kentucky and far away from the ocean, sailors from our nation's Navy walking around town is an unexpected sight.

But that's exactly what townspeople saw during Navy Week, an event designed to introduce Lexingtonians to the history, the sailors, and the importance of the United States Navy, both to the country and the Commonwealth.

[music playing] [music playing] In spring of 2026, the United States Navy visited Lexington with an outreach program titled Navy Week, a program that brought sailors and Navy leaders to introduce townspeople throughout the city to the history and purpose of our nation's naval branch of service.

Kentucky is a landlocked state.

You don't touch an ocean.

You don't get to see big gray Navy ships and sharp sailors every day, but it's Kentucky's Navy.

And the Navy belongs as much to the people of Lexington and Louisville as much as it does to the people of San Diego and Norfolk, Virginia, where our fleets are based.

Rear Admiral Mike Brown explains how the Navy guarantees freedom of the seas, allowing global trade to flow, something important to the people of the Commonwealth.

The United States Navy underpins America's economic prosperity and way of life by guaranteeing freedom of the seas.

Kentucky is an exporting powerhouse.

$50 billion worth of goods left the state last year to be sold overseas, representing 17% of the state's economy and supporting more than 120,000 jobs directly.

So, the United States Navy helps Kentucky prosper.

Kentucky has had a connection with the names on Navy vessels that go as far back as the Civil War, when the USS Louisville, one of the nation's first ironclad warships, was built to serve on the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers.

This warship would participate in the Battle of Fort Henry, providing firepower that helped bring down this Confederate stronghold and assisting Ulysses S. Grant to one of his first major victories.

In World War I, the battleship USS Kentucky was put into service.

It was the first of two ships that would carry the name of the Commonwealth for the Navy.

Kentuckians themselves are part of the Navy's history.

During World War II, Lieutenant Commander Dudley of Owensboro would lead the crew of the submarine USS Wahoo.

One of my absolute heroes of the United States Navy was a submarine commander named Dudley Morton, and his nickname was Mush Morton.

His submarine, the USS Wahoo, sank more Japanese ships than any other single platform in the entire Second World War.

A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Commander Morton would watch through the periscope as the Wahoo sank 19 enemy ships.

Sadly, the Wahoo, with Morton and the crew, was sunk while leaving the Sea of Japan.

[applause] One special set of guests during Navy Week were sailors from another submarine.

This, the missile submarine USS Kentucky.

They were joined by their commander, Robert Perris, himself born in the Bluegrass.

The USS Kentucky is an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, and we are a part of the strategic deterrence triad that the United States has.

Our role is one of us to go out and support that mission set via our operational commanders and provide the strategic deterrence that the nation asks us to carry out on a day-to-day basis.

It's one of the three operational legs of that deterrent aspect.

This submarine, known as a boomer for the 20 missiles it's capable of carrying, is the second Navy ship named for the Commonwealth.

[beating retreat] The USS Kentucky was christened in July 1991 by Carolyn Pennebaker Hopkins, wife of Representative Larry Hopkins.

Carolyn Hopkins christened the boat, not with the traditional bottle of champagne, but with a bottle of Kentucky bourbon.

The bourbon bottle was held in a special metal container that held the broken glass while allowing the bourbon to pour through holes in the bottom onto the vessel.

Appropriately nicknamed the thoroughbred of the fleet for its speed, this submarine's commander and crew carry on traditions that connect them with their namesake.

Our chant at the end of all of our all-hands meeting, it starts with me yelling, “Go big blue,” and the crew responding with, “Giddy up.” On their visit, the crew, along with fellow sailors, enjoyed other Kentucky traditions, sharing the memories and pictures with the people of Lexington.

These images from Navy Week display the pride these sailors have in both the history of the Navy and now the future they themselves train and prepare for, a pride that is recognized and reflected by their leaders.

I think that pride comes from not just wearing the cloth of the country, which is a big part of it too, and that sense of doing something bigger than yourself.

But the other sense of pride is every one of our sailors are experts in what they do.

The sailors are what makes the submarine go.

There's a lot of technology, but none of it will go anywhere, or work as designed, if those sailors, 18, 19, 20-year-olds, aren't trained and aren't executing as we ask them to.

And they do it fantastically, day in and day out.

No task asked of them is too small to meet that objective, and everybody has a role that's fundamental and vital to our success when asked to go underway and conduct our operations.

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