Naming US Navy ships...history & new

[commanding]

Thought I would start a thread on naming US navy ships, both historical and new. My father in law was on the USS Kitkun Bay escort carrier in world war II, at least he traveled on it from Hawaii to the Mariana Islands, as he was in the navy as an aviation gunner. I did a bit of research years ago and it appears escort carriers were Liberty ships that had flight decks attached to the top and were used mainly to transport aircraft to the battle areas of the pacific..and they were built in the northwest US, & named for various bays in the Washington-Alaska area.
thus the name Kitkun Bay for his CVN escort carrier.

Feel free to tell how your ship was named, or anyone in your family's ship, one you served on etc. My son in law was in the navy also, I need to get the name of his ship.

[Zoomie]

I think, if you look in one of the Carrier threads, someone did a nice job of covering the naming of the latest series of carriers.

[commanding]

found one old thread that had the names of the ships in "Taffy 3" during WWII:


The Battle Off Samar

U.S. Seventh Fleet Task Unit 77.4.3
"Taffy 3 "
Escort Carriers

USS FANSHAW BAY(CVE 70)
USS ST LO(CVE 63)
USS WHITE PLAINS(CVE 66)
USS KALININ BAY(CVE 6
USS KITKUN BAY(CVE 71)
USS GAMBIER BAY(CVE 73)

Destroyers

USS HOEL (DD 533)
USS HEERMANN (DD 532)
USS JOHNSTON (DD 557)

Destoryer Escorts
USS JOHN C. BUTLER(DE 339)
USS RAYMOND(DE 341)
USS DENNIS(DE 405)
USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS(DE 413)


photo of the Kitkun Bay:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2s809kk.jpghttp://i43.tinypic.com/23wlxk.jpg

[digrar]

Just moved this to the history section, it won't get buried here.

[bd popeye]

I think, if you look in one of the Carrier threads, someone did a nice job of covering the naming of the latest series of carriers.

I believe that was me...The discussion started with post #1034. Which is on page 69 of the Aircraft carrier intensive PIX thread. And continues to page 71.. here;

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=129481&highlight=Yankee+Station&page=69

[Ordie]

My ship was named after Georgia Congressman Carl Vinson.

A career proponent of the US Navy and one of the few that witnessed the christening of his namesake ship.

The first aircraft launched was "Miss Molly". A C-1 named in honor of Miss Molly Snead, the nurse who cared for Carl Vinson's wife. The tradition carried on with VF-111 F-14 aircraft during my cruise.

Note: Both the RIO and the Pilot written on the aircraft were the CAG and Skipper of the USS Carl Vinson. Both were F-4 Phantom Veterans during Vietnam and were involved with the initial flight tests of the F-14.

http://www.markstyling.com/f14_new_2/F-14-New.cu.12.jpg

[commanding]

thanks Ordie! Carl Vinson was a congress man from Georgia right? That is a great story about the nurse and the F-14. I believe the Vinson carrier is still active, but you likely know but I do not.

[bd popeye]

The first ship I served on was the USS John F Kennedy CVA-67. Named of course after JFK. Interesting she was only the second CV named after a president. The First being the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt CVA-42.

President Johnson named CVA-67 after JFK shortly after his assassination in November 1963. This started a trend of naming carriers after politicians and presidents. Prior to this naming most CVs had been named after famous battles or famous/historical ships.

It appears the USN will return, to a point, to this policy with the naming of LHA-6 America. Of course LHA/LHD type ships are named after battles and famous ships. I wish the the USN would return to the policy of naming aircraft carriers after famous/historical ships or battles.

If I had the authority I would re-name some of the existing CVNs..

CVN-70 Yankee Station
CVN-74 Coral Sea
CVN-75 United States

I do not have any problems with any other CVN names.

For those of you "Historically and Navally Challenged" Yankee Station is where USN carriers conducted air operations in the Tonkin Gulf during the Vietnam War.

By the way CVN-75 original name was to be United States. But the democrats in congress wanted another CVN named after a Democratic president to even the score so to speak. Hence the name change.

[commanding]

The first ship I served on was the USS John F Kennedy CVA-67. Named of course after JFK. Interesting she was only the second CV named after a president. The First being the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt CVA-42.

President Johnson named CVA-67 after JFK shortly after his assassination in November 1963. This started a trend of naming carriers after politicians and presidents. Prior to this naming most CVs had been named after famous battles or famous/historical ships.

It appears the USN will return, to a point, to this policy with the naming of LHA-6 America. Of course LHA/LHD type ships are named after battles and famous ships. I wish the the USN would return to the policy of naming aircraft carriers after famous/historical ships or battles.

If I had the authority I would re-name some of the existing CVNs..

CVN-70 Yankee Station
CVN-74 Coral Sea
CVN-75 United States

I do not have any problems with any other CVN names.

For those of you "Historically and Navally Challenged" Yankee Station is where USN carriers conducted air operations in the Tonkin Gulf during the Vietnam War.

By the way CVN-75 original name was to be United States. But the democrats in congress wanted another CVN named after a Democratic president to even the score so to speak. Hence the name change.

well Popeye, if I had the authority, I would put you in charge of naming navy ships! Naming things is important IMHO. In the building trade I face school districts that want names for new schools, and i am sooo tired of the generic, casper milktoast names they come up with (Central High School, etc). They often ask me to submit possible names, but never listen to my advice. :-( I always submit historically, locally significant names, sometimes hometown heros from the military, Medal of Honor winners etc.
So... I know the kind of thing you talk about on the carriers.

[Ordie]

The fewer the ships, the more politics are involved in naming ships. I prefer the Royal Navy's approach in naming ships. HMS Courage, HMS Invincible, HMS Zulu etc...

I also like the Royal Navy's norm in naming bases after ships. HMS Tamar (Hong Kong)

[commanding]

The fewer the ships, the more politics are involved in naming ships. I prefer the Royal Navy's approach in naming ships. HMS Courage, HMS Invincible, HMS Zulu etc...

I also like the Royal Navy's norm in naming bases after ships. HMS Tamar (Hong Kong)

I on the other hand don't like that approach. We have schools named Liberty, Independence, etc. I had much rather honor some individual who is deserving.... mostly excluding politicians.

[Limeyfellow]

The fewer the ships, the more politics are involved in naming ships. I prefer the Royal Navy's approach in naming ships. HMS Courage, HMS Invincible, HMS Zulu etc...

I also like the Royal Navy's norm in naming bases after ships. HMS Tamar (Hong Kong)

I agree. The US really need a new generation of the old ship names. The likes of the USS Monitor, Constitution, Constellation, Independence and the days of the old sailing vessels.

Of course the Royal Navy name lots of their ships after towns and cities (Destroyers and smaller) or counties (Frigates). Very few are named after people.

[CreepingDeath]

By the way CVN-75 original name was to be United States. But the democrats in congress wanted another CVN named after a Democratic president to even the score so to speak. Hence the name change.

so unpatriotic.:-( I like United States better

[bd popeye]

so unpatriotic.:-( I like United States better

I agree 100%..Since President Truman tried on the advice of some zoomie(USAF) Generals that carriers were no longer need because the USAF could drop the atomic bomb on any enemy.

[commanding]

couldn't they name ships after guys like Carlos Hathcock, and Chesty Puller? I suppose there is a ship named for Chester Nimitz, they have Nimitz class.____ dont' they?
Carswell Air Force Base, now Carswell Joint Reserve center, was named for Medal of Honor awarded Horace Carswell, who went to high school with my mom. His photo is in her annual/yearbook.

[bd popeye]

Commanding, Many USN DDGs are named after Medal of Honor winners. In fact all USN DDGs & FFGs are named after US military personnel.. Except one.. The USS Winston S. Churchill DDG-81.

[commanding]

Commanding, Many USN DDGs are named after Medal of Honor winners. In fact all USN DDGs & FFGs are named after US military personnel.. Except one.. The USS Winston S. Churchill DDG-81.

boy, i don't have a problem with that...I admire the heck out of Churchill.
thanks for the info on the other names of USN ships.... that is not my area of expertise (or I am stupid as a rock in that area). :)

[bd popeye]

boy, i don't have a problem with that...I admire the heck out of Churchill.
thanks for the info on the other names of USN ships.... that is not my area of expertise (or I am stupid as a rock in that area). :)

The proper (politically correct) term I use is "Navally Challenged" p-)

[Ordie]

Commanding, Many USN DDGs are named after Medal of Honor winners. In fact all USN DDGs & FFGs are named after US military personnel.. Except one.. The USS Winston S. Churchill DDG-81.

The USS Churchill is the only USN vessel to have a billet dedicated for a Royal Naval officer. In return, the HMS Marlborough (named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough) was the only Royal Navy vessel to have a billet dedicated for a USN officer. The HMS Marlborough was paid off and now serves with the Chilean Navy.

[Ordie]

so unpatriotic.:-( I like United States better

There's a jinx behind the naming of vessels United States.

The first ship was a decommissioned sailing frigate that later became Confederate States' Ship CSS United States (go figure:roll:)

Two other ships never completed.

The last vessel became the Harry Truman.

[Angelino]

My father-in-law served aboard the USS Hank. I wonder if there's one called the USS Bob, USS Phil or USS Joe :D. Seriously most people think he's joking when he says he was on a ship named "Hank", but it's for real USS Hank (DD-702) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hank_(DD-702)) had quite an interesting history.

My vote is for the USS Gunny (or the USS R. Lee Ermey) and it should be the first of a new line of huge aircraft carriers. He deserves the very best!

[Ordie]

My father-in-law served aboard the USS Hank. I wonder if there's one called the USS Bob, USS Phil or USS Joe :D. Seriously most people think he's joking when he says he was on a ship named "Hank", but it's for real USS Hank (DD-702) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hank_(DD-702)) had quite an interesting history.

My vote is for the USS Gunny (or the USS R. Lee Ermey) and it should be the first of a new line of huge aircraft carriers. He deserves the very best!

USS Bob : USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58)
USS Phil : USS Philip (DD/DDE-498)
USS Joe: USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr (DD/DDE-498)

USS Gunny:
USS Basilone (DD/DDE-824)
USS Robert H. McCard (DD-822)

[Angelino]

Nice Ordie, but I was wondering if there were ships officially named USS Joe or USS Bob, just like the USS Hank :).

[Ordie]

Nice Ordie, but I was wondering if there were ships officially named USS Joe or USS Bob, just like the USS Hank :).

That usually happens unofficially by squids over time.

The Constapation (USS Constellation)
Chuckie Vee (USS Carl Vinson)
The Forest Fire (USS Forrestal)
Danger Ranger (USS Ranger)
Indy (USS Independence)
Ike (USS Eisenhower)
Dull Ass (USS Dallas)
Stomper Gompers (Female sailors from the USS Samuel Gompers)

[Angelino]

Hehe, you forgot the $hitty Kitty (USS Kitty Hawk)

[bd popeye]

Kincknames??? Oh... I have a few from back in the day!

Oriskany= The O boat
Bon Homme Richard = The Dirty **** or the Dirty Duck
Hanco*k= Hand job..
Ranger circa 1990/91 = The House of Pain.
Forrestal= Firestall
Saratoga= Sinkin' Sara
Nimitz = Num-nutz or Nummie
Franklin D Roosevelt= Filfty Dirty Rusty or the Swank Frank.
Ranger = Top Gun of the Pacific Fleet Bar None.

The John F Kennedy on which I served.
The John Cool or the Slack Jack. The John Cool is direved from the dope smokin' USN back in the early 70s.

Now some knick names are to endear a ship to it's crew..such as;

Hanco*k= Fightin' Hanna
Saratoga= Super Sara Or my all time favorite Big Sixty from Dixie
Oriskany= The Mighty O
Lake Champlain= The Champ
John F Kennedy = The Big John
Forrestal = FID..First in Defence
Kitty Hawk = The Hawk
Enterprise =The Big E
Carl Vinsion = Starship
Constellation = Connie
Coral Sea = San Franciscos Own

As an added note the only persons permitted to talk smack about a ship is a crewmember of said ship. Anyone else may have "Anchors Aweigh" played on their grille with a pair of fistp-)

[Trigger]

Kincknames??? Oh... I have a few from back in the day!

Lake Champlain= The Champ


:) heh! that's mine: CG-57 Aegis Cruiser, not the Aircraft Carrier from the 50's

[commanding]

man those nicknames are great! thanks for posting those... the one that really got my atttention....was
Forrestal= Firestall

funny in a way..but sad in a way. the FDR as filthy dirty rusty is pretty good too. thanks to all!

[bd popeye]

:) heh! that's mine: CG-57 Aegis Cruiser, not the Aircraft Carrier from the 50's

the USS Lake Champlain CV-39 was most famous for picking up NASA astronauts.

[Hogan]

I know I've got some "I Like Ike" buttons somewhere around here...

[Partial_Panel]

Like Popeye, I served on the JFK, and since we all know the story of that one, Here's one of our escorts:

USS O' Bannon. (DD-987) Spruance-Class destroyer.
Named for Marine Corps Lt. Presley O'Bannon, of "The Shores of Tripoli" fame.
After the battle, Prince Hamet of Tripoli honored O'Bannon by giving him his ornate sword, with the Mamaluke hilt. It was used as the model for the Marine Corps officer sword used to this day, making it the longest serving weapon in the US arsenal. (1805).

Here's a stern shot of her, during UNREP breakaway, taken from the starboard catwalk:
http://militaryphotos.net/forums/picture.php?albumid=62&pictureid=333

PS: The ship in the forground is the USNS Waccamaw (T-AO-109).
Named for a river in South Carolina.

Here's the two together:
http://militaryphotos.net/forums/picture.php?albumid=62&pictureid=327

[Trigger]

the USS Lake Champlain CV-39 was most famous for picking up NASA astronauts.

Yeah, I believe the very first. Was it Alan Sheppard? I forget. Gotta watch The Right Stuff again.

[bd popeye]

Yeah, I believe the very first. Was it Alan Sheppard? I forget. Gotta watch The Right Stuff again.

Yes and you win nothing!p-) Great job..Here's a little history lesson;



Project Mercury
Lake Champlain was selected as the prime recovery ship for the first manned space flight of the USA. She sailed for the recovery area 1 May, and was on station on the 5th when Comdr. Alan Shepard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Shepard) was recovered along with spacecraft Freedom 7 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_7) after splashdown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splashdown_%28spacecraft_landing%29), some 300 miles down range from Cape Kennedy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Kennedy). Helicopters from the carrier visually followed the descent of the capsule and were over the astronaut 2 minutes after the impact. They skillfully recovered Astronaut Shepard and Freedom 7 and carried them safely to Lake Champlain's flight deck.


The last major duty of her career occurred on 5 August when she served as the primary recovery ship for Gemini 5 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_5)

[loganinkosovo]

couldn't they name ships after guys like Carlos Hathcock, and Chesty Puller? I suppose there is a ship named for Chester Nimitz, they have Nimitz class.____ dont' they?
Carswell Air Force Base, now Carswell Joint Reserve center, was named for Medal of Honor awarded Horace Carswell, who went to high school with my mom. His photo is in her annual/yearbook.

I don't think the "Ching Chong Lee" would go over too well with the ACLU set.....

For those in the dark, Rear Adm. Willis Augustus Lee was nicknamed "Ching Chong Chinaman" Lee and he even used "Ching Chong" when addressing himself. He was a chain-smoking, approachable, bespectacled gunnery expert who relieved tension on the bridge by reading lurid novels or swapping sailor stories with the enlisted men standing watch duty.

You might add Mitchell Paige to your list too.


http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Our_Culture/one_marine_one_ship.htm





One Marine, One Ship


by Vin Suprynowicz

OCT. 22, 2000
Oct. 26 falls on a Thursday this year.
Ask the significance of the date, and you're likely to draw some puzzled looks — five more days to stock up for Halloween?
It's a measure of men like Col. Mitchell Paige and Rear Adm. Willis A. "Ching Chong China" Lee that they wouldn't have had it any other way. What they did 58 years ago, they did precisely so their grandchildren could live in a land of peace and plenty.
Whether we've properly safeguarded the freedoms they fought to leave us, may be a discussion best left for another day. Today we struggle to envision — or, for a few of us, to remember — how the world must have looked on Oct. 26, 1942. A few thousand lonely American Marines had been put ashore on Guadalcanal, a god-forsaken malarial jungle island which just happened to lie like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago — the very route the Japanese Navy would have to take to reach Australia.
On Guadalcanal the Marines built an air field. And Japanese commander Isoroku Yamamoto immediately grasped what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships during any future operations to the south. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven supporting U.S. Navy from inshore waters. The Marines were on their own.
World War Two is generally calculated from Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939. But that's a eurocentric view. The Japanese had been limbering up their muscles in Korea and Manchuria as early as 1931, and in China by 1934. By 1942 they'd devastated every major Pacific military force or stronghold of the great pre-war powers: Britain, Holland, France, and the United States. The bulk of America's proud Pacific fleet lay beached or rusting on the floor of Pearl Harbor. A few aircraft carriers and submarines remained, though as Mitchell Paige and his 30-odd men were sent out to establish their last, thin defensive line on that ridge southwest of the tiny American bridgehead on Guadalcanal on Oct. 25, he would not have been much encouraged to know how those remaining American aircraft carriers were faring offshore.
(The next day, their Mark XV torpedoes — carrying faulty magnetic detonators reverse-engineered from a First World War German design — proved so ineffective that the United States Navy couldn't even scuttle the doomed and listing carrier Hornet with eight carefully aimed torpedoes. Instead, our forces suffered the ignominy of leaving the abandoned ship to be polished off by the enemy ... only after Japanese commanders determined she was damaged too badly to be successfully towed back to Tokyo as a trophy.)
As Paige — then a platoon sergeant — and his riflemen set about carefully emplacing their four water-cooled Brownings, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide the definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated attackers?
The Japanese Army had not failed in an attempt to seize any major objective since the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Their commanders certainly did not expect the war to be lost on some God-forsaken jungle ridge manned by one thin line of Yanks in khaki in October of 1942.
But in preceding days, Marine commander Vandegrift had defied War College doctrine, "dangling" his men in exposed positions to draw Japanese attacks, then springing his traps "with the steel vise of firepower and artillery," in the words of Naval historian David Lippman.
The Japanese regiments had been chewed up, good. Still, the American forces had so little to work with that Paige's men would have only the four 30-caliber Brownings to defend the one ridge through which the Japanese opted to launch their final assault against Henderson Field, that fateful night of Oct. 25.
By the time the night was over, "The 29th (Japanese) Infantry Regiment has lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its 2,554 men," historian Lippman reports. "The 16th (Japanese) Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the 164th's burial parties handle 975 Japanese bodies. ... The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low."
Among the 90 American dead and wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon. Every one. As the night wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.
The citation for Paige's Congressional Medal of Honor picks up the tale: "When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, commanding a machinegun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire."
In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings — the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition at its first U.S. Army trial — and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt. Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.
The weapon did not fail.
Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley first discovered the answer to our question: How many able-bodied Marines does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat?
On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.
One hill: one Marine.
But that was the second problem. Part of the American line had fallen to the last Japanese attack. "In the early morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off, and vapor from the barrels of their machine guns was clearly visible," reports historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position."
For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point, together with a cook and a few messmen who had brought food to the position the evening before."
Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at 5:40 a.m., discovering that "the extremely short range allowed the optimum use of grenades." In the end, "The element of surprise permitted the small force to clear the crest."
And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal. Because of a handful of U.S. Marines, one of whom, now 82, lives out a quiet retirement with his wife Marilyn in La Quinta, Calif.
But while the Marines had won their battle on land, it would be meaningless unless the U.S. Navy could figure out a way to stop losing night battles in "The Slot" to the northwest of the island, through which the Japanese kept sending in barges filled with supplies and reinforcements for their own desperate forces on Guadalcanal.
The U.S. Navy had lost so many ships in those dreaded night actions that the waters off Savo were given the grisly sailor's nickname by which they're still known today: Ironbottom Sound.
So desperate did things become that finally, 18 days after Mitchell Paige won his Congressional Medal of Honor on that ridge above Henderson Field, Admiral Bull Halsey himself broke a stern War College edict — the one against committing capital ships in restricted waters. Gambling the future of the cut-off troops on Guadalcanal on one final roll of the dice, Halsey dispatched into the Slot his two remaining fast battleships, the USS South Dakota and the USS Washington, escorted by the only four destroyers with enough fuel in their bunkers to get them there and back.
In command of the 28-knot battlewagons was the right man at the right pla4ce, gunnery expert Rear Adm. Willis A. "Ching Chong China" Lee. Lee's flag flew aboard the Washington, in turn commanded by Captain Glenn Davis.
Lee was a nut for gunnery drills. "He tested every gunnery-book rule with exercises," Lippman writes, "and ordered gunnery drills under odd conditions — turret firing with relief crews, anything that might simulate the freakishness of battle."
As it turned out, the American destroyers need not have worried about carrying enough fuel to get home. By 11 p.m. on Nov. 13, outnumbered better than three-to-one by a massive Japanese task force driving down from the northwest, every one of the four American destroyers had been shot up, sunk, or set aflame, while the South Dakota — known throughout the fleet as a jinx ship — managed to damage some lesser Japanese vessels but continued to be plagued with electrical and fire control problems.
"Washington was now the only intact ship left in the force," Lippman writes. "In fact, at that moment Washington was the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet. She was the only barrier between (Admiral) Kondo's ships and Guadalcanal. If this one ship did not stop 14 Japanese ships right then and there, America might lose the war. ...
"On Washington's bridge, Lieutenant Ray Hunter still had the conn. He had just heard that South Dakota had gone off the air and had seen (destroyers) Walke and Preston "blow sky high." Dead ahead lay their burning wreckage, while hundreds of men were swimming in the water and Japanese ships were racing in.
"Hunter had to do something. The course he took now could decide the war. 'Come left,' he said, and Washington straightened out on a course parallel to the one on which she (had been) steaming. Washington's rudder change put the burning destroyers between her and the enemy, preventing her from being silhouetted by their fires.
"The move made the Japanese momentarily cease fire. Lacking radar, they could not spot Washington behind the fires. ...
"Meanwhile, Washington raced through burning seas. Everyone could see dozens of men in the water clinging to floating wreckage. Flag Lieutenant Raymond Thompson said, "Seeing that burning, sinking ship as it passed so close aboard, and realizing that there was nothing I, or anyone, could do about it, was a devastating experience.'
"Commander Ayrault, Washington's executive officer, clambered down ladders, ran to Bart Stoodley's damage-control post, and ordered Stoodley to cut loose life rafts. That saved a lot of lives. But the men in the water had some fight left in them. One was heard to scream, 'Get after them, Washington!' "
Sacrificing their ships by maneuvering into the path of torpedoes intended for the Washington, the captains of the American destroyers had given China Lee one final chance. The Washington was fast, undamaged, and bristling with 16-inch guns. And, thanks to Lt. Hunter's course change, she was also now invisible to the enemy.
Blinded by the smoke and flames, the Japanese battleship Kirishima turned on her searchlights, illuminating the helpless South Dakota, and opened fire. Finally, standing out in the darkness, Lee and Davis could positively identify an enemy target.
The Washington's main batteries opened fire at 12 midnight precisely. Her new SG radar fire control system worked perfectly. Between midnight and 12:07 a.m., Nov. 14, the "last ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet" stunned the battleship Kirishima with 75, 16-inch shells. For those aboard the Kirishima, it rained steel.
In seven minutes, the Japanese battleship was reduced to a funeral pyre. She went down at 3:25 a.m., the first enemy sunk by an American battleship since the Spanish-American War. Stunned, the remaining Japanese ships withdrew. Within days, Yamamoto and his staff reviewed their mounting losses and recommended the unthinkable to the emperor — withdrawal from Guadalcanal.
But who remembers, today, how close-run a thing it was — the ridge held by a single Marine, the battle won by the last American ship?
In the autumn of 1942.
When the Hasbro Toy Co. called up some years back, asking permission to put the retired colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking.
But they weren't. That's his mug, on the little Marine they call "GI Joe."




And now you know.




PltSgt MITCHELL PAIGE
(http://www.usmc.mil/moh.nsf/0/0000033ba9f47a7385255fa400607d51?OpenDocument) Medal of Honor
1942
2/7/1
Solomon Islands

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to
PLATOON SERGEANT MITCHELL PAIGE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:
"For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division, in combat against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands Area on October 26, 1942. When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, Platoon Sergeant Paige, commanding a machine-gun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he manned his gun, and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire against the advancing hordes until reinforcements finally arrived. Then, forming a new line, he dauntlessly and aggressively led a bayonet charge, driving the enemy back and preventing a break through in our lines. His great personal valor and unyielding devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."
/S/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

[bd popeye]

I don't think the "Ching Chong Lee" would go over too well with the ACLU set.....How about the USS Chung-Hoon DDG-93?

http://www.chung-hoon.navy.mil/site%20pages/home.aspx

Chung-Hoon was an Admiral also.



http://www.chung-hoon.navy.mil/site%20pages/radm.aspx

Rear Admiral Gordon Pai'ea Chung-Hoon was born on July 25, 1910, in Honolulu, Hawaii. The second youngest of five Chung-Hoon children, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in May 1934. While at the Naval Academy, he was a valued member of the Navy Football team.

Rear Admiral Chung-Hoon is a recipient of the Navy Cross and Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary heroism as Commanding Officer of USS Sigsbee (DD 502) from May 1944 to October 1945. In the spring of 1945, Sigsbee assisted in the destruction of 20 enemy planes while screening a carrier strike force off the Japanese island of Kyushu. On April 14, 1945, while on radar picket station off Okinawa, a kamikaze crashed into Sigsbee, reducing her starboard engine to five knots and knocking out the ship's port engine and steering control. Despite the damage, Admiral Chung-Hoon, then a Commander, valiantly kept his anti-aircraft batteries delivering "prolonged and effective fire" against the continuing enemy air attack while simultaneously directing the damage control efforts that allowed Sigsbee to make port under her own power.

After retiring from the Navy in 1959, Rear Admiral Chung-Hoon was appointed by William Quinn, Hawaii’s first elected governor since statehood, to serve as director of the state Department of Agriculture. Rear Admiral Chung-Hoon died in July 1979.

[Panchito12]

couldn't they name ships after guys like Carlos Hathcock, and Chesty Puller? I suppose there is a ship named for Chester Nimitz, they have Nimitz class.____ dont' they?
Carswell Air Force Base, now Carswell Joint Reserve center, was named for Medal of Honor awarded Horace Carswell, who went to high school with my mom. His photo is in her annual/yearbook.


Carlos Hatchcock

(1) The "Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock Award" is presented annually to the Marine who does the most to promote marksmanship training.
(2) A sniper range is also named for Hathcock at Camp Lejeune, NC.
(3) The rifle and pistol complex at MCAS MIRAMAR was officially renamed the Carlos Hathcock Range Complex

Lewis "Chesty" Puller

(1) The frigate USS Lewis B. Puller (FFG-23) was named after him.
(2) The headquarters building for 2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team at NAVWEPSTA Yorktown is named Puller Hall in his honor.
(3) On November 10, 2005, the United States Postal Service issued its Distinguished Marines stamps in which Puller was honored.
(4) The Marine Mascot "Chesty", an English Bulldog.

I think that covers it.

[Panchito12]

That usually happens unofficially by squids over time.

The Constapation (USS Constellation)
Chuckie Vee (USS Carl Vinson)
The Forest Fire (USS Forrestal)
Danger Ranger (USS Ranger)
Indy (USS Independence)
Ike (USS Eisenhower)
Dull Ass (USS Dallas)
Stomper Gompers (Female sailors from the USS Samuel Gompers)

The Big Stick (USS Theodore Roosevelt)
Big **** (USS Bonhomme Richard)
Sammie B (USS Samuel B. Roberts)
Connie (USS Constellation)
Big E (USS Enterprise)
GW (USS George Washington)
ABE (USS Abraham Lincoln)
Elmer Maru (USS Elmer Montgomery)
Jack **** (USS John F. Kennedy)