Re: The Building of America's next "super" Carrier
Time is running out for the Sec. USN to name CVN-78 something other than
USS Gerald Ford..Whadda joke...
Name of new carrier a matter of some debate
By JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
© December 18, 2006
Tom Trujillo has about run out of ideas to persuade the Navy to name its next aircraft carrier the USS America.
The former petty officer on the previous flattop America - which was based in Norfolk before it was retired in 1996 and sunk in 2005 in an experiment - has written to Navy Secretary Donald Winter many times.
He's asked Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., to help arrange a meeting with the secretary to discuss the name issue. It hasn't happened. Not only that, there's an effort in Congress to name the next carrier after former President Gerald Ford.
"There can be no better way to establish the next class of carriers than by naming the first of the class America," Walt Waite, another former crew member, wrote to Winter.
"If the name America is pushed aside in favor of Gerald Ford," he added, "then the small group of politicians win and the voice of the people will once again be ignored."
Trujillo, along with Waite, runs a Web site called "Name CVN 78 USS America." (The address is
.) They are president and vice president, respectively, of the USS America Carrier Veterans Association.
They've gotten more than 800 people to petition Winter on the issue, and they say they've written to 950 newspapers trying to get their effort some ink.
An 1819 act of Congress gives the s ecretary of the Navy responsibility for choosing ship names, a prerogative he still exercises, according to the Naval Historical Center's Web site.
Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., amended the 2007 defense bill to encourage the Navy to name the next carrier after Ford, who served in the Navy during World War II and grew up in Michigan.
"At least we were able to get the wording changed in the amendment from being a mandate to a recommendation," Waite said.
Warner is the outgoing chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Levin is the incoming chairman.
So far, nothing has worked, the former sailors said.
"You would think this would be a slam dunk with all these guys spouting off about patriotism," Trujillo said by telephone from his Connecticut home.
In a letter to Waite last month, Capt. Rebecca Brenton, special assistant for public affairs to the Navy secretary, said it is understandable many people support naming the next carrier America.
"As I am sure you are aware, a sense of Congress, while not legally binding, must be carefully considered as part of the ship-naming process," Brenton wrote.
"That looks as if they are setting us up for a let down," Waite said by telephone from his Pennsylvania home. "Previously there was reason to hold out hope, but this letter looks like he's squashing that."
Trujillo said Ford doesn't have the standing to have a carrier named after him.
"While I certainly don't agree with naming carriers after politicians, does Gerald R. Ford live up to the likes of a Washington, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Lincoln or a Reagan?" he asked. Those are the names of aircraft carriers, all currently in commission.
Waite, in a letter to Winter last week noted that Ford already has a freeway, library, museum, airport, foundation and school at the University of Michigan named after him.
"And quite frankly, sir, that is enough," he wrote. " Mr. Ford did nothing to deserve having the Navy's mightiest ship named for him except to be friends with Sen. Levin. There are dozens of more deserving Americans whose names belong on Navy ships before Mr. Ford's."
Efforts to sway the Navy secretary to name a ship after a city, a hero or a famous person are not new, said Defense Department spokesman Kevin Wensing. When residents of New Mexico asked that a ship be named for their state, more than 20,000 signed petitions, he said.
"We said, OK, enough, we get it," Wensing said. In December 2004, then-Navy Secretary Gordon England named the sixth ship of the Virginia-class of nuclear-powered submarines the New Mexico.
Wensing would not disclose other names being suggested for CVN 78.
He did say, however, that the ship-naming process is so varied that it doesn't always follow any reason. For example, the three submarines in the Seawolf class are named Seawolf, Connecticut and Jimmy Carter, Wensing said.
"So they are named after a seawolf, whatever that is, a state and a former president. Go figure."
