MILITARY: Navy naming ships after trio of local military heroes

NC Times ^ | February 15, 2012 | Mark Walker

[jazusamo]

The U.S. Navy announced Wednesday morning that it has named one of its new ships after Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, a San Diego native who died a hero in Iraq in 2004.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced the move, saying a new guided-missile destroyer will be named the USS Rafael Peralta.

A Pentagon statement said Mabus named that ship and two other new destroyers after Navy and Marine Corps heroes whose actions occurred during different conflicts but "were united in their uncommon valor."

Peralta was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross after using his body to shield fellow Marines from an insurgent grenade during house-to-house fighting in Fallujah.

Mabus said he wanted to ensure that sacrifice "will be known by today's sailors and Marine and honored for several decades to come by a new generation of Americans and people from around the world who will come in contact with these ships."

Known as an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, the ship will conduct a variety of operations and capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles.

Along with the USS Peralta, two other new destroyers are being named the USS John Finn and the USS Ralph Johnson.

[zerosix]

Who is Navy Sec. Raymond Mabus: some statements at the "Progressive Policy Institute" might give you an update on some of his thoughts:

".....Spearheaded by Ray Mabus, President Obama’s secretary of the Navy and the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the Navy and Marines are building a strategy for “out-greening” Al Qaeda, “out-greening” the Taliban and “out-greening” the world’s petro-dictators. Their efforts are based in part on a recent study from 2007 data that found that the U.S. military loses one person, killed or wounded, for every 24 fuel convoys it runs in Afghanistan. Today, there are hundreds and hundreds of these convoys needed to truck fuel — to run air-conditioners and power diesel generators — to remote bases all over Afghanistan.

Mabus’s argument is that if the U.S. Navy and Marines could replace those generators with renewable power and more energy efficient buildings, and run its ships on nuclear energy, biofuels and hybrid engines, and fly its jets with bio-fuels, then it could out-green the Taliban — the best way to avoid a roadside bomb is to not have vehicles on the roads — and out-green all the petro-dictators now telling the world what to do."

[I cannot think of a name]

I've felt for a long time, even when Bush was still in office, like there was some concerted effort to downplay this war and the people that fought it. I don't know if they are afraid of offending our Muslim ‘allies’ or if even the DOD higher-ups have been infiltrated by the “we hate American soldiers” whack-jobs.

[smoothsailing]

Thanks for the ping. Finally, a shipnaming that makes sense.

[jazusamo]

Finally, a shipnaming that makes sense.

Amen! All three of these brave men deserved it.