CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — It looks like a collection of rusted scrap metal sitting in the Berry Company construction yard, but all of the items laid out there will soon be restored and reconnected to once again form the sail for the USS City of Corpus Christi submarine.
The sail is the part of the old sub that you would definitely see when it came to the surface. The submarine was based at Pearl Harbor until it was taken out of service in May 2016.
”That [the sail] is the most indicative representation of a submarine because the rest of it is just a round tube and it’s always underwater and you never see it,” Vice Commander Peter Kendig of the Sea Turtle Base Corpus Christi said.
The Sea Turtle Base Corpus Christi Submarine Veterans Association has been working for years to place that sub sail at Sherrill Park.
Right now, the City has artist renderings of what Sherrill Veterans Memorial Park will look like in the future. It’s set to be a Bond 2024 project that everyone will vote on in November. The initial cost of the park overhaul is $2 million.
The Sea Turtle group is covering all of the costs associated with the sail.
”It's been voted on by all of the veterans groups in Corpus Christi that this is what we want to see down there,” Kendig said.
Assistant City Manager Heather Hurlbert said now that the sail was brought down from the Pacific Northwest the City is hoping to quickly move forward with the park plans.
"The two things we're focusing on right now is that now that we have the sail that will be mounted in the park and then there is going to be a helicopter we do have some of the base funding for the helicopter,” Hurlbert said.
There will be new memorials for each branch of the service as well as shading, seating, signage, landscaping and lighting.
Of course the biggest draws will be that Army chopper and of course the USS City of Corpus Christi sail.