Sherae Honeycutt

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Original Post

It’s the Truman Library like you and the sailors of the USS Kansas City have never seen before.

The crew of the ship is in town touring the city and got a sneak peak of the renovations at the presidential library in Independence.

Construction may look messy, but to the builders of the new Truman Library — it’s progress. Just like the crew of the USS Kansas City who are awaiting their finished ship.

“It’s really neat to see things when they’re first starting out because when you come back and visit, you can see all the hard work that the Kansas City people put into rebuilding the Truman Library, and it will be nice to see once it’s finished,” Lt. Brent Hodge said.

The crew is in Kansas City to visit and bring awareness about the new ship. The USS Kansas City Commissioning Committee set up a tour of the library for them.

Darcy Stewart is the vice president of business development at J.E. Dunn and on the USS Kansas City Commissioning Committee. She has two sons who are officers in the Navy themselves.

“We put our heart and soul into what we do, and we know that that’s what the USS Kansas City crew does as well to protect and honor our own United States citizen,” Stewart said.

“The pride that we have being a Kansas City based company, and having the USS Kansas City, the literal combat ship named after our city we want to do everything we can to welcome these crew members as much as possible.”

JE Dunn Construction is working on the project that’s expected to be finished in 18 months.

Hodge, who’s from Leavenworth, Kansas, said he’s happy to be working on the USS Kansas City and showing his crew his home.

Stewart hopes their time in the city is something they will remember.

“There is so much pride here in this town, and the fact that we have this pride they can take that and emulate that in their team with their crew on the USS Kansas City,” Stewart said. “We want that USS Kansas City crew to know that that hometown pride that we have here; we’re with them in spirit all the way on their assignments at the USS Kansas City.”

“One, it’s very enlightening,” Hodge said. “Two, it makes us very proud to be the sailors of the Kansas City. And just to engage with the public and how warm and accepting everyone’s been, it’s been really nice.”

During their trip, they toured schools and Children’s Mercy Hospital and will be attending the Chiefs game on Sunday.