UPDATED WITH STORY: Conrad celebrates completion of first home-away-from-home for the Navy

AMELIA -- It was a first for the U.S. Navy, the first in a new class of vessels designed to house sailors while their ships are being repaired or maintained.

It was a first for Conrad Shipyard, a big military contract and a footprint in an increasingly important sector of the local industry.

For longtime Conrad CEO Johnny Conrad, it was something more.

“I can’t put it in words,” Conrad said Friday, after a ceremony at Conrad’s Amelia yard marked delivery of the new YRBM. “This is a dream come true.”

The ceremony drew U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy , U.S. Reps. Garret Graves and Troy Carter, and other dignitaries to Amelia with the 151-foot-long, 61-foot-high vessel looming in the background.

YRBM stands for yard, repair, berthing, messing. The first of its kind, YRBM-57 can house 300 sailors at time. Its enlisted mess can feed 60 sailors in a single shift, and the vessel has a conference room, laundry, classrooms, lounges and a medical facility.

YRBM-57 is the first of as many as eight vessels in the class that are part of a contract with the Navy worth a reported $140 million.

Conrad celebrated the event in style. YRBM-57 was decorated with red, white and blue bunting. Morgan City High’s JROTC sent a color guard, and MCHS band members played the national anthem.

Capt. Gregory Mitchell said the vessel performed well during a builder’s trial that is notoriously strict for first-time contractors.

The vessel is bound for San Diego and then to Japan, where the United States has a naval presence. The warships there keep an eye on potential trouble spots including the Taiwan Strait and the waters off the Korean Peninsula.

“What you guys do out here matters,” Mitchell said.

Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, gave a shout-out to the workers who built the craft.

“Let me start by thanking the guys in the hardhats,” Cassidy said. “They’re participating and protecting the United States of America.”

And they’re “making Morgan City part of the way we defend our country.”

Graves offered thanks to what he called the “hardhats and the hard heads.”

The latter were needed to get an appropriation of $23 million-$25 million in 2023 and $30 million in 2024, Graves said.

Carter noted that the vessels built by Conrad will replace craft that in some cases go back to World War II.

The military has become an important customer for local shipyards. Bollinger, which also has an Amelia facility, as well as Metal Shark and Swiftships all have performed work for the Navy, the Marines or the Coast Guard.

A contract dispute led to the loss of a contract for Swiftships earlier this year and the loss of about 100 jobs.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 704 people were employed in St. Mary Parish ship construction or repair at 13 employers at the end of 2023.