As their boat goes through an overhaul, some members of the crew of the U.S.S. Jefferson City Submarine visited the city for which their vessel is named.
Five crew members visited several places in the Capital City throughout the week and spent part of their Saturday helping at a Habitat for Humanity project on East Ashley Street before meeting residents at Oktoberfest in Old Munichburg.
Lt. Kevin McKee, a native of Kansas City, is the electrical officer for the sub and has 12 men under him. There are 160 total crew members on the boat.
"Usually we're out on deployment for six to seven months," he said. "We got back to port in November and we'll be in the shipyard for about two years as we get the latest and greatest in technology and software put in the boat. We'll be the finest boat in the fleet."
McKee said most of the crew is staying with the Jefferson City to help with the upgrade.
Last November, the Jefferson City arrived at its new home base of Pearl Harbor after dealing with equipment problems during its last deployment.
Navy officials said a small water leak from a valve in the ship's propulsion plant was found. Once it was identified, the Navy decided to move up the ship's redeployment time and fix it in Pearl Harbor instead of going back to it's old home port of San Diego.
The ship was commissioned in 1992 and has been in service since then.
Those who have worked to bring crew members from the sub to the Capital City for visits were worried moving the home port from San Diego to Pearl Harbor would make it harder to visit the Midwest. Navy officials, though, said they'd do whatever they could to make those happen.
"I went to school at Mizzou and used to come down to Jefferson City when I was in high school, so I recognize a lot of places and it's good to be back," McKee said.
Working at the Habitat project, he said, was a good way to give back to the community that has supported them.
"These last few days in town have been amazing," he said. "We've experienced true Midwest hospitality. It was a quick trip, but we wanted to try and see a lot of people."