Athol Kids Help Launch Robotic Sub Students Have A Lot Invested In Cutthroat

The sound of freedom was silent, until Athol Elementary Principal Connie McGee smashed a champagne bottle over the world’s largest robotic submarine Wednesday.

Cheers erupted as McGee christened LSV 2 Cutthroat, which was named after Idaho’s indigenous fish by Athol Elementary students in 1997 before construction began on the gigantic test submarine.

While cruising the deep, cool waters of Lake Pend Oreille, the Cutthroat will allow the Navy to improve the acoustic and operational performance of future submarines.

“That silent sound of freedom is the reason we’re here,” said Capt. Steven Petri, commander of the Carderock Division’s Naval Surface Warfare Center in Maryland, adding that the vessel is quieter than any other submarine.

Until 1993, Petri was the officer in charge for Bayview’s Acoustic Research Detachment.

More than 300 Athol students and locals crowded into the gigantic chilly warehouse to wel come the Cutthroat a 110-foot long, 205-ton gray mammoth. Earlier in the day, students lined up to sign the belly of the $100 million beast.

“This thing has no equal,” Navy public affairs officer Tom Warring said, while waiting for the children to take their seats.

After students chose the vessel’s name in honor of the westslope cutthroat trout, the Navy kept them updated during the three-year construction process.

Last year, two Athol students won an essay contest and a trip to Virginia to see the Cutthroat under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding and Electric Boat.

Athol fourth-graders were excited Wednesday, although they are too young to have played a role in naming the submarine.

“I liked it when she broke the bottle,” Kacie Wenstron said over the sound of popping red, white and blue balloons released to brighten the ceremony.

Marshall Barnhouse, 9, liked the name and said he’s even caught a westslope cutthroat.

The students excitedly shouted answers as Petri asked them questions about Cutthroat’s capabilities.

“Does it have a nuclear reactor?” Petri asked.

“No” the children screamed.

Cutthroat is battery operated. “Does it have torpedoes?” he asked.

“No,” they answered.

“Does it have a crew?”

“No” they shouted, stopping short when Petri asked them to guess again.

Although the submarine is an unmanned robot, it has a crew that controls the ship’s computer from land.

“They’re your neighbors,” Petri said about the Cutthroat crew. “They live here in Bayview, they live in Athol and Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene.”

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was supposed to join the ceremony, but got stuck in Washington, D.C., as Congress struggled to wrap up the session.

Sandy Patano, Craig’s state director, said Bayview is very important to Idaho and that people are often surprised to learn it plays such an important role in Navy operations.

State Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, told the crowd that the Acoustic Research Detachment is crucial to Idaho’s economy.

McGee said that although many of the kids who helped name the submarine weren’t at the ceremony, they still keep track of the project. And the reason they picked Cutthroat over other Idaho indigenous fish?

“The name is scary,” she said.