Naming of Navy ships returns to tradition

**Novaheart** · 02-16-2012, 02:46 AM

Originally Posted by Rockntractor

Which ones are victims?

The category was "naming ships after political friends" not "victims".

**Rockntractor** · 02-16-2012, 02:52 AM

Originally Posted by Novaheart

(I can only imagine the whining if a ship were named for Hillary Clinton)

SS CANKLES?

**Novaheart** · 02-16-2012, 03:06 AM

Originally Posted by Rockntractor

SS CANKLES?

Martha Washington was no beauty queen.

**Rockntractor** · 02-16-2012, 03:13 AM

Originally Posted by Novaheart

Martha Washington was no beauty queen.

You know upon reflection naming a ship after Hillary is really not a bad idea, a battleship named after a battleaxe!:)

**Janice** · 02-16-2012, 04:07 AM

Originally Posted by Novaheart

Martha Washington was no beauty queen.

Is it always about "appearances" with the left?

As I understand that Martha Washington had an inner strength of character and beauty many of todays "beauty queens" lack and the Hildebeast will never attain to. And of course Marthas husband was not exactly a couch potato either.

Again, this is lost on a populist, secular society.

**Janice** · 02-16-2012, 04:11 AM

Btw ... "cankles" is fitting for such a disingenuous and malevolent character.

History will be much kinder to Martha than to "cankles".

**Odysseus** · 02-16-2012, 09:55 AM

Originally Posted by Novaheart

These people weren't presidents, Einsteen.

John Hancock's name was given to two vessels before he died in October 1793.
USS Franklin (1775) was a 6-gun schooner, fitted out in 1775
USS Lady Washington (1776) was commissioned in 1776; Martha Washington died in 1802 (I can only imagine the whining if a ship were named for Hillary Clinton)
USS Deane (1778) was commissioned in 1778; Silas Deane died in 1789.
USS Harriet Lane, commissioned by the US Revenue Cutter Service in 1857, transferred to the U.S. Navy in 1861, named for Harriet Lane, niece and surrogate First Lady of bachelor President James Buchanan. Lane died in 1903.
USS J. Fred Talbott (DD-156) was laid down in July 1918, launched in December, and commissioned the following June. Joshua Frederick Cockey Talbott, 25-year member of the House Naval Affairs Committee, died October 1918.
USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) was named in 1980; Carl Vinson, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, died in 1981, before the ship was commissioned.
USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) was named in 1980; Carl Vinson, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, died in 1981, before the ship was commissioned.

Everyone on that list was either a founder, member of congress, First Lady or distinguished veteran, and all of them were of great service to the United States. However, the namings that the article discusses were not.

Mr. Mabus has drawn criticism in the namings of three ships.

He named a San Diego-class amphibious docking ship, one used principally by Marines, after the late Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat. The previous nine ships in that class had been named after U.S. cities, a park and a county.

The naming angered members of the Marine community, who noted that Mr. Murtha had declared that Marines killed civilians “in cold blood” in the Iraqi village of Haditha in 2005. At the time, the Marines involved in the raid had not been put on trial. Only one Marine was convicted - on a charge of dereliction of duty.

The Navy noted Mr. Murtha’s service as a Marine in Vietnam and his support in the House to fund the armed forces.

Mr. Mabus named one combat logistics force supply ship after civil rights leader Medgar Evers and a second one after leftist farmworker organizer Cesar Chavez.

Ships should be named for Americans who had been of service to the United States, not partisan figures. Evers makes that cut, but Murtha and Chavez do not. Murtha's conduct after Haditha was despicable, and the Marines were rightly incensed by that. Chavez was a leftist labor hack and environmental whackjob (his last "spiritual fast" was to protest against pesticides) whose singular achievement was to make produce more expensive so that his labor cartel could gain power. Evers legitimately was a martyr of the Civil Rights movement, but his military service wasn't particularly noteworthy (nothing wrong with that, neither is mine, but I don't expect to have a ship named after me). He was the most justified of the three, but there was no reason to name ships after Murtha and Chavez, and many reasons not to. Imagine if you were a Marine (

Sorry, couldn't help it), would you want to serve on a ship named after someone who had slandered you, as Murtha had? Would you want to serve on a ship named after a labor huckster? Naming a ship after Murtha would be like naming one after John Kerry, Jane Fonda or Vidkun Quisling.