Posted on 01/12/2011 9:44:24 AM PST by Libloather
The U.S. Navy's Name Game
Posted by Mark Thompson
Sunday January 9, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Prospective parents battling over the names of their unborn kids have nothing on the U.S. Navy, which is in the middle of a spat over the wisdom of naming a new ship for the late Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha. In fact, it has kicked off a bigger battle over just who, or what, should be honored with their names on the great gray hulls of the nation's warships. "It comes down to two points," says military historian James Caiella. "Who and what we are as Americans, and what symbols do we want to represent those ideals?"
**SNIP**
But Mabus' decision has unleashed a continuing torrent of opposition from many former sailors and Marines. They say that naming a vessel for Murtha rewards a lawmaker who called for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq in late 2005 during the war's toughest days, and one who was implicated in bribery and pork-barrel politics. On Friday, a former Murtha aide-turned-lobbyist was sentenced to 27 months in prison for evading limits on campaign donations; Murtha also was an "unindicted co-conspirator" in 1980's FBI-run Abscam sting.
And that isn't the worst of it, according to sailors and Marines: putting Murtha's name on an amphibious warship designed to carry 700 Marines is outrageous, they maintain, given Murtha's 2006 charge that Marines in the Iraqi city of Haditha "killed innocent civilians in cold blood." (One of the eight Marines charged in the case still faces trial; six have had their charges dismissed and one was acquitted.)
(Excerpt) Read more at swampland.blogs.time.com ...
How about the USS Mutha?
My Navy vet hubby is all for sinking even the IDEA of doing such a thing!
Is there a word for this? Yes. It’s an abortion.
How about the USS Obama with a 100% gay crew?
Garbage scow?
Can we just murthball it?
A dinghy maybe. But not a warship. Fat Jack didn’t “believe” in war.
At least it’s not a Submarine named afetr Bawney Fwank.....
Carter....Murtha....who’s next, John Kerry?
I can also see a USS Code Pink in the Navy’s future.
The Obama navy shows itself. Next is the USS JANE FONDA
The garbage scow is a useful, even necessary vessel for proper harbor operation. It should not be dishonoured with murtha's name.
Former LPD-8 sailor . . .
Wrong. It comes down to “How can we get a bigger budget out of Congress?” Otherwise, SSNs would be named after fish, just like WWII SSs (and the USS Nautilus). CGs would be named after cities, CVNs after famous ships or battles (Enterprise, Saratoga, Yorktown), etc.
If they do name the ship after Murtha, they’ll probably have to adjust the navigation system to prevent it from always trying to redeploy to Okinawa.
Change the name of an existing nondescript sort of vessel such as a barge or something of that nature to Murtha if it’s so damned important to have his name on a naval vessel, and then sink it as a reef off the coast of Louisiana, or someplace to improve fishing.
Probably be the only positive thing associated with the bastard.
No way, shape or form this should happen, it's outrageous.
Ray Mabus is a disgrace for even considering this, let alone actually going through with naming this ship for a corrupt, lying politician.
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