Room aboard new Navy submarine USS Idaho to be named for Dirk Kempthorne

The engine room of one of the U.S. Navy’s newest fast attack submarines, the USS Idaho, will be named for former Idaho Governor and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. 

U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, announced the naming in a press release Wednesday. 

“Dirk’s contributions to our great state and our nation are significant,” Risch said in the release. “His leadership and dedication to the USS Idaho Commissioning Committee is a true testament to Dirk’s resounding love for the Gem State. It was my great honor to request the USS Idaho’s Engine Room be named for my dear friend and Idaho’s former governor, Dirk Kempthorne.”

Kempthorne served as mayor of Boise for seven years starting in 1985, and eventually moved on to serve a term in the U.S. Senate after his election in 1993. He was elected as Idaho’s governor in 1998 and reelected in 2002. 

Then-President George W. Bush later nominated Kempthorne to serve as U.S. secretary of the Interior, which he did from 2006 to 2009. 

“I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Senator Risch for initiating this unprecedented honor,” Kempthorne said in a statement. “I also most sincerely thank the outstanding executive and advisory committees and individuals throughout the state of Idaho that supported this ship from day one. Wherever we have taken members of the crew on their visits to Idaho, they have been treated as heroes. To say I am deeply humbled by this honor is an extreme understatement. I salute all men and women who serve our military and most certainly the magnificent officers and crew of the USS Idaho. May it be forever.”