Uss Greeneville In the News
WJHL Documentary On USS Greeneville Coming On Thursday
11 Connects WJHL-TV is making final preparations for the station's hour-long documentary on the USS Greeneville: the U.S. Navy fast-attack nuclear submarine which takes its name from this community.
Titled "The USS Greeneville Rising," the program, which has been prepared with extensive support from The Greeneville Sun, is scheduled to be broadcast by WJHL at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
It can be viewed in this area on Channel 11. The station, located in Johnson City, is the CBS Television affiliate in the Northeast Tennessee/Southwest Virginia region.
The program will include exclusive video footage shot by a WJHL crew over a period of several days in January on board the submarine at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
As a result, viewers will be able to see what is probably the most complete and accurate picture of life aboard the USS Greeneville that has ever been presented on television.
The program will also include new interviews with the current submarine commander, A.C. Carullo.
UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS
The Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, which is homeported at Pearl Harbor, was named for this community in late 1989 after an intensive grassroots effort involving not only Greeneville and Greene County but Northeast Tennessee as a whole, and much of the rest of the state.
The WJHL team members -- 11 Connects news anchor Josh Smith and digital journalist Phillip Murrell -- were allowed by the U.S. Navy to go to sea with the Greeneville for several days and were given unprecedented photographic access to the submarine.
They were accompanied by Dale Long, director of printing and distribution for The Greeneville Sun and president of USS Greeneville Inc., the submarine's locally-based support group.
The WJHL team and Long lived alongside the crew during the January trip, sharing the crewmen's food and their cramped living space and observing as the primarily-young group of men endured a grueling training schedule.
PREPARING FOR DEPLOYMENT
The USS Greeneville is preparing for its sixth deployment, which will occur sometime this fall.
The precise timing and other specifics of the mission are Top Secret; the Navy only will say the submarine will be assigned to the "western Pacific."
There, the sub and its crew of 140 men likely will patrol the depths off the coasts of some of the world's political hotbeds, gathering information and standing ready for orders as the Navy's most state-of-the-art warship.
Commissioned in 1996, the Greeneville is halfway through the 30-year average lifespan of a submarine of its type.
But much of the inside of the submarine is brand-new after what the Navy termed a "significant" technical upgrade in 2008 and 2009.
In real terms, that means the submarine that carries Greeneville's name carries military war technology that's more advanced than ships built within the past few years.
'THIS AMAZING STORY'
"We felt it was time to retell this amazing story," said Jack Dempsey, general manager of 11 Connects WJHL-TV.
"The city of Greeneville did something that no other city of its size has ever done in not only naming but supporting the crew of a Navy fast-attack sub. And that connection continues to today."
Dempsey said he's anxious for viewers to see the documentary.
"Our crew was given unheard-of access to the submarine and its crew.
"I believe you will be amazed not only by the power of the ship named after Greeneville but the people involved in taking it to sea."
"We're grateful to the United States Navy and The Greeneville Sun for their assistance with this project," Dempsey said.