Godspeed, Governor
On April 25, the U.S. Navy commissioned its newest Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, the USS Idaho, at Naval Submarine Base New London. It was a rare moment for a landlocked state.
The man who did more than anyone to make the USS Idaho a reality, Dirk Kempthorne, had passed away the day before. He had planned to attend. By a turn of fate, the boat he championed entered the fleet just hours after Idaho lost him. Earlier this year, the Navy named the submarine’s engine room in his honor.
Idahoans knew Dirk best, and they knew him longest — as mayor, senator, governor, and neighbor. But his reach extended far beyond the state he loved, and like so many Americans who knew him, I will remember him as a statesman and as a friend.
We first met in 2009. I was just out of the Marine Corps and graduate school. Dirk had already lived a remarkable life of service, one of only a handful of Americans to serve as mayor, U.S. senator, governor, and a presidential cabinet secretary. He often spoke of his deep respect for those who wore the uniform. One of his few regrets, he once told me, was not having served in the military himself.
Years after we met, Dirk joined the advisory board of With Honor, the cross-partisan organization I co-founded to support principled veteran leadership in Congress. That work brought us together for the rest of his life. He worked across party lines not as a strategy but as an instinct. He believed good governance required good character, and he lived that belief in ways that were often quiet and nearly invisible to the public.
When the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, Dirk insisted that America keep its promises to Afghan allies who had served alongside our troops. That conviction was rooted in his Christian faith. It drove him to raise more than $1 million in private funds, work diplomatic channels across multiple governments, and help charter a private Airbus A340 that evacuated 395 Americans and Afghan allies to Abu Dhabi.
Dirk later recalled the moment that allowed the flight to carry 50 more people than planned:
“I said, dear God, we cannot leave these people behind, please give a path forward. At that instant, I had a mental vision. I saw Mother Mary holding her infant, Jesus, in her arms. I immediately called Nawid and said, ‘Nawid, infants do not need seats; they can be held in their parents’ arms.’ The airline confirmed that, and our Airbus A340 could evacuate 50 more people.”
He worked the phones with our team, reaching the Biden administration and members of Congress in both parties because he believed America’s word should mean something.
His convictions shaped what would become his final act of public service. For years, he served as chairman of the USS Idaho Commissioning Committee Advisory Board, building a bridge between his home state and the sailors who serve aboard her. He told the story of Idaho to the Navy and the Navy’s mission to Idahoans, and he showed up, year after year.
For him, the submarine was both a source of pride for Idaho and a window into a critical national vulnerability. The Navy needs two Virginia-class submarines a year. In 2024, we delivered 1.13. In commercial shipbuilding, the gap is even wider. China built more than 1,000 vessels in 2024; the United States built eight. That gap has serious implications for our economy and our ability to deter conflict in the Indo-Pacific.
Dirk understood that rebuilding American shipbuilding is one of the rare areas where bipartisan consensus still exists, and he worked to keep it that way. His final text message to me was about a planned visit to the USS Idaho with veterans from both parties now serving in Congress, in support of the SHIPS for America Act led by Sens. Todd Young and Mark Kelly. He signed off, as he often did, with a single word: “Godspeed.” I hope we can still make that trip happen in his honor.
In a polarized time, it is easy to forget that politics can be a calling rather than a contest. Dirk Kempthorne never did. He didn’t just call for bipartisanship; he practiced it.
Idaho gave America a leader. He returned that gift many times over, to his neighbors, to his country, and to a generation of Americans who learned from him what service looks like when done with integrity, civility, and courage.
The country was better for him.
Godspeed, my friend.
###
Rye Barcott is co-founder and CEO of With Honor and author of the forthcoming Courage Can Save US (Bloomsbury). Gov. Kempthorne served on the With Honor Advisory Board. With Honor will host a celebration of life in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 2026.
This op-ed was originally published in the Idaho State Journal.
