Get Shot in Head, Get Ship Named After You!

[MKSheppard]

Navy ship to be named for Gabrielle Giffords
By Jason Ukman
Posted at 03:58 PM ET, 02/10/2012

Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt one year ago, is getting a Navy vessel named in her honor.

The Navy said Friday that its newest Littoral Combat Ship, a small, agile surface vessel, will be known as the USS Gabrielle Giffords. The ship’s “sponsor” will be Roxanna Green, the mother of Christina-Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl who was killed in the Tucson shooting that wounded Giffords in January 2011.

In a statement, the secretary of the navy, Ray Mabus, described Giffords and Roxanna Green as “sources of great inspiration” who “represent the Navy and Marine Corps qualities of overcoming, adapting and coming out victoriously despite great challenges.”

The future USS Gabrielle Giffords will be the 17th ship to be named for a woman and the 13th to be named after a living person, according to the Defense Department.

The naming of Navy vessels has not always been a simple affair. In April 2010, after the service unveiled plans for the USS John P. Murtha, critics lobbied Mabus to reconsider, citing the former congressman’s opposition to the Iraq war. Earlier this year, the Navy announced plans for the USNS Cesar Chavez, after the labor leader, drawing objections from conservatives.

On Friday, Giffords attended the event where the Navy announced the plans for the ship in her honor. Hours earlier, she had joined President Obama as he signed the last piece of legislation she had authored before her retirement, which grants law enforcement officials greater authority to combat illicit drug trafficking on the border.

“I’m confident,” Obama said in a statement, “that while this legislation may have been her last act as a congresswoman, it will not be her last act of public service.”

Link to official navy link confirming this

[Mr Bean]

Yeah.... I blame Congress for this.
When I come to power I shall have any Congress critter who breaks naming tradition on the fleet set adrift in the ocean. The attack on Giffords was a tragedy but naming a ship of war after her is not exactly a touching tribute to a GUN SHOT VICTIM.

[Anguirus]

^ Well I guess that's for her to decide, right?

I mean she was a Blue Dog. I could be wrong, but I doubt pacifism and that caucus overlap.

[Sea Skimmer]

6,400 Americans killed in combat zones on the Global War on Terror so far, over 42,000 wounded including about 1,000 navy wounded. Yeah this totally isn't political vote whoring over the defense budget cuts, no sir. She's the one with the courage. At least the previous politically motivated names actually had some kind of direct link to the navy or were veterans or both. Cesar Chavez was a navy vet for example even if he considered it a negative part of his life because of how racist the WW2 navy was. Now even that's thrown out the window.

If they wanted to do something, a hospital wing makes a hell of a lot more sense.

[Darth Wong]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

[Mr Bean]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

We had such a tradition shamelessly stolen from the British until some bastards (Congress) stepped in and started telling the Admirals what to name our ships and it snowballed from there.

[Panzersharkcat]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

I'd rather stick to the USS Intrepid or a similarly named ship. A ship named Invincible is just asking to be sunk. Same with any synonym of that.

[Ritterin Sophia]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Don't forget the noble 'Gay Viking'. Oh well at least we have the illustrious 'Ponce'.

[Darth Wong]

Don't forget the noble 'Gay Viking'.

They named a ship after Einy?

[Ritterin Sophia]

Don't forget the noble 'Gay Viking'.

They named a ship after Einy?

Clearly that makes Ein the first gay Who.

[Darth Wong]

There's a ship in the Canadian historical list called "HMCS Cougar". I can't help but think of a ship full of horny thirty-something women.

[Rogue 9]

Don't forget the noble 'Gay Viking'.

They named a ship after Einy?

But yeah, I'm sure this is supposed to be a nice gesture, but I don't really think it's a fitting memorial for what happened to her.

Also, I support British ship naming conventions, gay Vikings aside.

[Zaune]

Or there's HMS Battleaxe, whose crew were probably ready to keelhaul the next man to make a mother-in-law joke before she made it out of port for the first time.

[Sea Skimmer]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

We have a USNS Invincible with civilian crew in Military Sealift Command, it spies on communist missiles with its mighty radar



I'd rather not follow the RN though, now that they've managed to at one point have 41 admirals and 43 combat ships, before ditching a half dozen of the combat ships. The USN has plenty of good names, they found endless fighting men to name ships after in WW2 besides traditional ones. Sadly LCS didn't even get off to that bad a start with Freedom, Independence and then a series of city names that ran until... this.

Also the RN in fact has an entire Gay class. Even better yet HMS Gay Viking is in fact a sister ship of HMS Gay Corsair.

[Zaune]

Also the RN in fact has an entire Gay class. Even better yet HMS Gay Viking is in fact a sister ship of HMS Gay Corsair.

Brings new meaning to that famous quote about rum, sodomy and the lash, doesn't it?

And anyone who regularly listened to Sarah Kennedy's early-morning slot on Radio 2 about a decade ago will be amused to learn that yes, there is an HMS Gay Cavalier.

[CaptainChewbacca]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

If it was American, I'm hoping we'd name it the 'USS DICKISH ATTITUDE'.

[DudeGuyMan]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

If it was American, I'm hoping we'd name it the 'USS DICKISH ATTITUDE'.

The Brits have had ships named HMS Insolent and HMS Arrogant, so we've been beaten to it.

[Flagg]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

Anyone with a sense of irony?

[Thanas]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

I am sure the guys who did as she went up against SMS Lützow would like to reconsider.

[RedImperator]

Get Shot in Head, Get Ship Named After You!

[Lord of the Abyss]

I believe the British had a ship named the HMS Intolerant at one point, a name that always amused me; "I was supposed to serve on the Intolerant, but they told me 'We don't want your kind here.' "

[Mr Bean]

Get Shot in Head, Get Ship Named After You!

Exactly our point. Carriers are named after Civil War Battles, are tanks are named after Union and Confederate generals, our attack submarines after cities, our boomers and battleships after states. Our cruisers are named after battles in wars besides the civil war. Our destroyers and frigates are named after people

It all went to hell with the Kennedy, someone else who got shot in the head and got a carrier named after him and switched the entire naming nomenclature.

[Skylon]

You guys need to adopt the Royal Navy's traditional practice of naming ships after personality traits, like "Invincible".

Who wouldn't want to serve on the USS Invincible?

We had such a tradition shamelessly stolen from the British until some bastards (Congress) stepped in and started telling the Admirals what to name our ships and it snowballed from there.

I'd like to see say, another USS Hornet (a name not used since WW2, but going back to The American Revolution). Most of our traditional "cool" ship names are now on the LHD's.

Edit:

It all went to hell with the Kennedy, someone else who got shot in the head and got a carrier named after him and switched the entire naming nomenclature.

You can actually step a bit further back, as the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was named and commissioned shortly after he died (and why we don't have a new USS FDR, or any talk on a new one, I will purely blame on neo-cons).

[Mr Bean]

You can actually step a bit further back, as the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was named and commissioned shortly after he died (and why we don't have a new USS FDR, or any talk on a new one, I will purely blame on neo-cons).

Roosevelt was a one off at the time, there were half a dozen carriers in commission at the time and they only stepped in to name one carrier after him and the rest got proper names.

[Sea Skimmer]

You can actually step a bit further back, as the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was named and commissioned shortly after he died (and why we don't have a new USS FDR, or any talk on a new one, I will purely blame on neo-cons).

FDR was also a kind of important wartime president, and past that had spent his entire political career arguing hard to increase the strength of the navy long as well as serving as IIRC assistance Sec Navy. Also he died in office. If Giffords died this would be a lot less objectionable.