Colville Teacher's iPhone Photo of Lake Coeur d'Alene Chosen for USS Idaho Submarine

Tracey Delyea wasn't looking for a photography contest when she found one. She was watching Antiques Roadshow at her family's cabin in Coeur d'Alene last summer when an ad broke through: a competition to select images that would decorate the interior of the USS Idaho, the U.S. Navy's newest nuclear submarine. She turned to her mother. "I have a picture," she said. Her mother replied, "Well, are you going to do something about it?"

She did. On March 13, Delyea, a Career and Technical Education art instructor and photography club adviser at Colville High School, announced that her iPhone photo of Lake Coeur d'Alene had been selected for permanent display aboard the USS Idaho (SSN 799). The image will hang inside the commanding officer's stateroom, a room specifically named for Coeur d'Alene, making the connection between photo and location more than coincidental.

The photo is unassuming by professional standards: shot on an iPhone with limited editing, it captures the lake's gleaming surface framed by towering green trees. It was chosen from 2,325 images submitted by 413 photographers in a competition organized by the USS Idaho Commissioning Committee in partnership with Idaho Public Television.

"I kind of gasped. I was so excited," Delyea said upon learning she had won.

The USS Idaho (SSN 799) is a Virginia-class nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine, 377 feet long, built by General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut. It is the first vessel in the Navy to carry the name "Idaho" since 1946, and the fifth U.S. Navy ship named for Idaho overall. The previous USS Idaho, Battleship 42, was commissioned in 1919 and was present in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, the day Japan formally surrendered. Construction on the newest Idaho began in August 2020; the submarine was christened in March 2024, launched in August 2024, and delivered December 15, 2025.

The submarine's connections to the Pacific Northwest run deep. The nuclear reactor technology that powers it for up to 35 years without refueling was developed at Idaho National Laboratory. Its acoustic stealth capabilities were researched at the U.S. Navy's Acoustic Research Detachment in Bayview, Idaho, on Lake Pend Oreille, the same facility that is home to the world's largest unmanned submarine. The engine room was named for former Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne, who chairs the Commissioning Advisory Board, and the ship's galley features elk steak, Idaho potatoes, huckleberry pie, and sweets from the Idaho Candy Company.

The commissioning ceremony is scheduled for April 25 at 11 a.m. EDT at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut. Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Richard Colburn, a member of the commissioning committee, expects at least 500 Idahoans to attend, including Idaho Governor Brad Little. Delyea was invited but will not be making the trip to Connecticut.

For a photography adviser who teaches the craft in a high school classroom, the selection delivers something no lesson plan could manufacture: proof that an iPhone photo, barely edited, can earn a permanent place aboard a nuclear warship.