The Fast Combat Support Ship Bridge (AOE 10) will be christened during a 10 a.m. (PST) ceremony, Saturday, March 28, 1998, at National Steel and Shipbuilding, San Diego, Calif.

• Bridge is the last of four Fast Combat Support Ships, Supply Class, authorized by Congress. Designed as a large replenishment ship, it will operate as part of deployed battlegroups, providing petroleum products, munitions, and other supplies to aircraft carriers
• and surface combatants.

Bridge commemorates the service of the refrigerated store ship Bridge (AF 1) (1917-1946), which was named after Commodore Horatio Bridge who was the first head of what has become the U.S. Navy Supply Corps. Bridge supported fleet operations during World War I as a unit of the Naval Overseas Transportation Service. During World War II she carried cargo and provisions to bases throughout the Pacific Ocean area.

Deputy Secretary of Defense John J. Hamre will be the ceremony's principal speaker and his wife, Julie P. Hamre, will serve as ship's sponsor. In the time-honored Navy tradition, Mrs. Hamre will break a bottle of champagne across the bow and formally name the ship.

Following its commissioning, Bridge will join U.S. Pacific Fleet with Capt. Robbie L. Williams, a native of Silver Spring, Md., as the commanding officer. Bridge will be homeported in Bremerton, Wash., with a crew of 28 Officers, and 503 Sailors. The ship is 754 feet in length, has a beam of 107 feet, displaces approximately 48,500 tons when fully loaded, and is powered by four gas turbine engines making it capable of reaching speeds in excess of 25 knots.