Posted on 02/10/2012 2:29:31 PM PST by stevie_d_64
..WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy has named a ship for Gabrielle Giffords, the recently retired congresswoman from Arizona who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head received in January 2011.
In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveiled an artist's rendering of the USS Gabrielle Giffords.
The littoral combat ship is among the Navy's most versatile and can operate in shallower coastal waters than larger ships.
Mabus said: "God bless the USS Gabrielle Giffords and all who sail in her."
Mabus also announced that the ship's "sponsor" is Roxanna Green. She's the mother of Christina-Taylor Green. The 9-year-old who was among six people killed in the shooting. Thirteen, including Giffords, were wounded. The sponsor's initials will be welded into the keel of the ship.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
In. The. Tank.
Screw it....
Lets also have a USS Rush Limbaugh! (since we’re going down the road of cheapening how we name ships)
There are dozens of other ways to honor Rep Giffords, but this practice of naming ships after individuals who had nothing to do with the military really bothers me.
USS Pandering
Ridiculous.
As a former sailor, I can say that today’s Navy is a friggin joke. I can’t believe how much it has changed since 1991.
I agree. But I guess all you need is to be a Democrat and get yourself shot.
We wouldn’t have had to worry if she had a (R) after her name.
No disrespect for Ms. Giffords, but other than taking a bullet in the head how does she merit having her name affixed to a warship?
YGBSM
I thought you had to be dead before a ship could be named after you plus some sort of heroics on your part - oh, wait, there’s the USS Murtha (defamed the Marines) and the USS Carter (AKA USS Peanut) who depleted the Navy.
Sorry for what happened to Ms Giffords, but this is insanity. Just looked up to see if there’s a USS Thomas H. Moorer, and couldn’t find anything. Moorer was a USNA grad, at Pearl Harbor, eventually Chmn of Joint Chiefs. He passed away in 2004. Is there a reason we have a Gabrielle Giffords in the USN, but not a ship named for a deceased Navy man who reached the top of the military?
Just think of the symbolism if this one gets sunk with one shot.
Very good questions and comments...
I can think of a list of ship names that should be attributed to those sailors killed in the line of duty since the first Gulf War...
Naming one after Murtha (Marine, and dead democrat politician) was a mistake...Especially after what he said about the Haditha Marines, who were exhonerated of any wrong-doing...
Giffords...Well, I have mixed feelings about it...
They named one after US Navy diver J. Steatham after he was executed on that hyjacked airliner many years ago...
I always thought a CVN should be named after Bob Hope...I thought that would be more appropriate than most anythign else considering all the USO and charity events he did for the military over his lifetime...
Just my opinion...
We started down that road when they renamed CV42 after that dead commie. Naming carriers after places where American patriots made their names shine, ships and battlefields, was IMHO wholly appropriate. Best of all were the ones named for places naval aviators fought and died. I still think there should be a CV named USS Yankee Station.
Relax people, the ship has a complement of 450 heads and no bridge.
And whose main accomplishment was surviving a head wound.
More discussion at this link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2845028/posts
Uh, why?
She got shot in the head. By a liberal extremist. That sucks, but what did she ever do for the Navy? Or the US in general for that matter? Besides getting shot in the head.
The politicization of naming ships has to stop. No ship should be named after a living person. We should go back to traditional ship names, not name ships after the political celebrity of the week. Whats next? USS Kim Kardashian?
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