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This is the list of U.S. Naval warships named for a woman that are in active service (there are a few other ships named for women that are used for supply replenishment, oceangraphic research, etc; and the USS Roosevelt is named for both Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt):

USS Hopper (DDG-70), 1996. Built and commissioned at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer is named for RDML Grace Murray Hopper, a computer technology pioneer who led the Navy into the digital age.

That's it - ONE. UNO. The only.

Hopper was, among other accomplishments, the builder of the first "compiler" (a program to translate a higher-level language to binary machine-code, immensely simplifying the task of programming) and the "mother" of the COBOL computer language (based primarily on the FLOW-MATIC language developed under her direction). COBOL is still widely used in business applications (and, I would guess, still used by the Navy is certain areas like logistics and personnel).

While it is wrong to attribute COBOL solely to Hopper, she had an enormous influence on it (since FLOW-MATIC was, essentially, the only WORKING computer language that formed a basis for COBOL.) And the creation of COBOL is one of the landmarks of technology in the 20th century.

To Hopper we now add: USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) Littoral Combat Ship named for Retired Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Giffords is, in many ways, an admirable woman. Grace Hopper is one of the TITANS in the history of the Navy. There is simply no comparison.

Giffords was out in the open, on the job, meeting with constituents ~ of both parties too if the dead are any indication.

Certainly none of that is heroic work ~ but it is definitely getting harder and harder to find a Congress-critter anywhere but behind a locked door, or in hollering distance of the guards. I know my Congress-critter Rep. Cannoli has had peaceful, well meaning, kind and delightful visiting constituents ARRESTED!!!! And in the US Capitol Building.

I'd like to encourage better behavior by the members of Congress, particularly the Democrats.

We shouldn't need two shootings to get their attention I hope!