Buffalo Naval Park works to secure long-term future of ships

Buffalo, New York (WBEN) – The mission of Buffalo and Erie County Military Park is to honor, educate, inspire and preserve the history along the Buffalo River in downtown Buffalo.

As the Buffalo Naval Park paid tribute to those who fought, as well as those who perished 80 years ago during the Normandy invasion on Thursday, they were also able to educate and inspire a number of other people visiting the park during the day.

As the park moves forward, President and CEO Paul Marzello knows that part of his mission is to preserve the artifacts in his care. This includes the long-term future of the USS Little Rock, USS The Sullivans, and USS Croaker.

“These are ships from World War II and the Cold War, they continue to rust every day. So we have an uphill battle and we do the best we can when we get to our job,” Marzello said in an interview with WBEN. . “I think we have an incredibly small, but very hardworking group of employees who take this mission very seriously. They are doing everything they can to make sure that we are doing our best to preserve these ships.”

A year ago around this time, an Ocean Technical Services (OTS) naval surveyor’s report was submitted to the Naval Park Board of Trustees and the City of Buffalo as part of an effort aimed at ensuring permanent repairs for the three ships moored at the park.

Marzello says an incredible number of people are working on this to ensure the park receives the funds necessary to give the ships the care they need, which likely comes from the dry dock of the USS The Sullivans, as well as from the USS Croaker, at the same time.

“We can’t repair them anymore. The hull is just too thin. We need a new hull and we are trying to replace it from the waterline,” Marzello detailed. “This team that’s working right now is working very hard. Hopefully we’ll have some good news to report before the end of the summer, but the plan is to have the Sullivans and Croaker in dry dock by fall of 2025.

Marzello says a lot has continued to happen since April 2022, when the USS The Sullivans saw a rupture in its hull that caused a number of small holes to form on the ship’s exterior. This caused the World War II destroyer to list heavily to its starboard side and the hull ended up at the bottom of the Buffalo River.

However, through the work of former Congressman Brian Higgins in Washington, D.C., a $500,000 grant was secured for the Buffalo Naval Park to fund a survival plan for the Sullivans.

“With that money, we spent a tremendous amount of time and effort doing everything we could to preserve it,” Marzello said. “There are what we call ‘bulkheads,’ the vertical walls between the ships, that ensure that the integrity is there to preserve the ship. Even if we had a flooded compartment, it would be contained in that compartment. That’s it. is a big difference from what we have had in the past. We have pumps in the lowest and most vulnerable areas of the ship, and we have a backup plan with a local contractor, who has signed a contract. to get here in a very short period of time to make sure we have commercial pumps, generators, everything we need to deal with an emergency, if it happens again.

With the Croaker and Sullivans not far apart in age, the ideal situation for Marzello would be to get them both out of the water at the same time.

“There will be significant savings if we can get the Croaker out with the Sullivans,” Marzello noted. “Little Rock is in much better shape, it’s made of much thicker steel. It’ll be a long time before we have to put that kind of concern into its hull, but for now we’re focusing on the Sullivans and the Courbine.”