Inside the USS Massachusetts: Life on the Navy’s newest attack sub
ABOARD THE USS MASSACHUSETTS— Whenever he returns to Fall River, Ed Brennan can tell he's home when he crosses the Charles M. Braga Jr. Memorial Bridge over the Taunton River and sees the U.S.S. Massachusetts tied up below.
On Saturday, Brennan, a career Navy sailor, will continue the legacy of that World War II era battleship during a commissioning ceremony for the newest ship to bear the name of his home state.
Brennan is the master chief, or the top enlisted officer, on the U.S.S. Massachusetts, a Virginia-class attack submarine. He'll help oversee its crew of 147 people, including 37 women.
Brennan asked for the duty, he told reporters who got a rare look inside the submarine on Friday. And it's the honor of a lifetime.
"It was an opportunity I couldn't pass up," Brennan, whose genial nature and easy smile belie the lethal seriousness of his mission, told reporters. "And I knew when I called my mom, who grew up in Massachusetts, graduated high school in Fall River, being able to tell her I was on the Massachusetts would make her prouder than anything."
On Friday morning, against an iron gray sky and with a chill wind whipping harshly against the choppy surface of Boston Harbor, the Massachusetts' crew rehearsed for a formal commissioning ceremony on Saturday at Boston Harbor.
The audience on Saturday will include top Pentagon and Navy brass, Gov. Maura Healey, members of the state's congressional delegation and other luminaries.
That means they had to get everything right. And if they had to do some elements over again, including snapping to attention all at once, they did it. Again and again until it was perfect.
And if they felt the wind and the cold that cut through clothes, they gave no outward sign of it. That included one lone sailor who stood sentinel near the sub's mast, which pointed, dark and foreboding against the late March sky.
A crew member of the U.S.S. Massachusetts stands sentinel with the submarine's mast in the background on Friday, March 27, 2026.John L. Micek/MassLive
Life below deck
If you clamber down a hatch at that sailor's feet, you're inside the cramped small town of the Massachusetts' hull. It opens onto passageways, barely wide enough for one-way traffic, lined with instruments and speckled by shelves and doors that take advantage of every square inch of available space.
On one bulkhead, there's a framed and signed New England Patriots jersey. It sits across from a bulletin board bearing the day's schedule of events.
The jersey, one officer later tells reporters, is part of a Navy tradition. Vessels named for states always carry the heritage and insignias of their namesake states with them.
One of the most eye-catching, and for a submarine, the most critical, is an ornately carved wooden rack that will safely hold the officers' coffee mugs — even in the choppiest of seas.
If you know nothing else, know this: the Navy — and especially the submarine force — takes its coffee very black and very seriously . It's a necessity for the shifts that demand constant focus and attention. And there's a long tradition of not washing those mugs. It's known as "seasoning," according to one history.
The rack is a gift from the Washburn Shops at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the craftspeople behind the venerable DIY show "This Old House." The rack also includes a carved map of the Bay State made from wood from each of the state's 14 counties.
"It's a great centerpiece in our ward room," the ship's captain, Commander Mike Siedsma, said. "And since we've gotten the mugs, it's been used every day. I actually walked by it this morning, and based off the late night that we had getting the ship stable in port, the mug rack is 75% empty because everyone is digging into some coffee this morning."
Work on the sub is highly specialized. And crew members work in eight-hour shifts, with 16 hours of downtime between their watches, Brennan said. Those off-hours can be spent reading, playing video games or using some of the limited exercise equipment that's onboard.
Crew members also sleep. A swing through the torpedo room, currently without torpedoes, but boasting cramped bunks, stacked in triple tiers, that offer just enough room to lie down, confirms that. The officers' quarters are only slightly more spacious.
Because the subs are away from port for weeks or months at a time, and often submerged for days on end, there's a priority put on sailors' mental and physical health, the sub's executive officer. Lt. Commander Joshua Hightower, said.
"When you have 140 to 150 people onboard, it doesn't matter whether it's the 19-year-old or whether it's the 19-years served senior chief. We have families, we have children, we have significant others and spouses," Hightower, a veteran officer, said. "Life presents its problems ... All of that has to be managed such that we take care of our sailors, we take care of our team. But at the same time, we're able to operate the ship."
And if it's true that an army runs on its stomach, that's equally true for the Navy, and perhaps doubly true for the submarine service, which has the best food in the Navy, Lt. Wallis Lawrence said.
A trip through the Massachusetts' galley confirms it. There's plenty of fresh fruit on hand. On one counter, bread dough awaits a trip to the oven. And submarines remain the last naval vessels with deep fryers.
The crew eats in shifts, getting 10 minutes or so to devour a meal before they head back to work. But there are snacks on offer for when the urge hits.
"There's water, there's ice cream, there's milk," one sailor in the galley told MassLive. "Anything to keep the crew fed and to make sure they have something to eat."
The story of the Massachusetts
The latest U.S.S. Massachusetts is the fifth Navy ship to be named for the Bay State, and the first ship in 50 years to bear it.
It's the 12th Virginia-class submarine delivered by Huntington Ingalls Industries and the 25th built in partnership with General Dynamics Electric Boat, the company said in a statement.
Work on the sub began in December 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was eventually completed thanks to the efforts of 10,000 shipbuilders across the two companies. Twenty firms in Massachusetts also supplied parts for the sub.
That includes Hingham-based Massa Products Corporation, which supplied its sonar components.
The 80-year-old, family-owned company supplied 60% of the sonar components for the Virginia-class boats, Dawn Mass Stancavish, its CEO and chief innovation officer, said.
"It's huge," she said in a brief interview. "It's very exciting and I'm very much looking forward to the commissioning and a lot of my team members are going to come and see it."
The submarine was christened during a 2023 ceremony at Newport News Naval Shipyard in Virginia by former Meta CEO Sheryl Sandberg. Now an investor and philanthropist, Sandberg was the boat's "sponsor," a venerable and traditional position.
"This is the true honor of my life," Sandberg said Friday. "Getting to watch Commander Siedsma get this ship and these sailors ready for this commission has been a true master class in leadership."
The exterior of the U.S.S. Massachusetts, tied up at a dock in Boston Harbor on Friday, March 27, 2026.John L. Micek/MassLive
The mission
For all the very real talk from the officers about the camaraderie and family-like atmosphere below decks, it's easy to forget that the Massachusetts is a weapon of war.
But any misconception is dispelled with a visit to the command center at the heart of the ship.
Dark and silent in the absence of the crew, the space is lined with computer monitors that both direct the sub and the weapons it may have to use against adversaries.
And if you're looking for the old-school periscope from the war movies of your youth that grizzled sailors squint through to get a view of the seas above, forget it.
Aboard the Massachusetts, it's been replaced by a video display. And the old swiveling around is gone, too. It's been replaced by an Xbox-style controller that younger sailors can handle just as well — and sometimes better ― than their older colleagues, the sub's navigator, Lt. Commander Jon Collins, said.
"The Xbox controller is very convenient for the younger generation to use," Collins, a 10-year Navy veteran, said. "It's very sensitive. But most people don't have any problem with it."
The posting to the Massachusetts is the second submarine assignment for Collins. The Michigan native said he wouldn't have it any other way.
"They do a lot of things that others don't have the opportunity to do," he said. "What you do matters."
That's a refrain that ship's officers and crew return to again and again.
The geopolitical conversation above the waves may be one thing. But underwater, it's all about duty. It's all about the job.
"My proudest moment is watching all 150 sailors work together to get our submarine to sea," Siedsma said. "You can't submerge a ship, you can't get the ship away from the pier without every single sailor doing their job to the best of their ability."
"If one person makes a mistake, it could hazard the ship. And so again, the capability of our sailors to operate the advanced warship that we have is what's really impressive," he continued. "And one of my proudest moments is being able to get the ship to sea. The first time coming into Boston Harbor the other day was special. Leaving will be bittersweet, because, you know, we have really good ties to the state and the city. But you know, the ship will go out and conduct operations and training and testing. And that's going to be awesome for us."
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