LCS-10 to be named for former Arizona Congresswoman Giffords

Triton

Triton

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The Independence-class LCS-10 is to be named U.S.S. Gabrielle Giffords for former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

http://news.yahoo.com/navy-names-ship-former-congresswoman-giffords-202942575.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gabrielle_Giffords_%28LCS-10%29

Those who were hoping that there would be a naming theme for the littoral combat ship are going to be disappointed.

So I wonder for whom Navy Secretary Ray Mabus will name the Gerald R Ford-class aircraft carrier CVN-80? U.S.S. Bill Clinton or U.S.S. Lyndon B. Johnson? My money is on Johnson getting an aircraft carrier named after him.
 
Triton said:
So I wonder for whom Navy Secretary Ray Mabus will name the Gerald R Ford-class aircraft carrier CVN-80? U.S.S. Bill Clinton or U.S.S. Lyndon B. Johnson? My money is on Johnson getting an aircraft carrier named after him.
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I'm getting mighty damn sick of ships being named not only for politicians, but *living* politicians.
 
The Secretary of the Navy really should name United States Navy ships for persons who actually served in the United States Navy or the United States Marines. Preferential treatment should be given to those service people who have made the ultimate sacrifice. It seems that ship names are now chosen on partisan lines depending on the party affiliation of the Secretary of the Navy.

The shootings on January 8, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona were a tragedy, but does Gabrielle Giffords really deserve to have a United States Navy ship named for her? She never served in the military.
 
I'm getting mighty damn sick of ships being named not only for politicians
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see, that's what you get when you don't have an aristocracy to
name your ships after...
Oh, yes, in the US, the politicians *are* the aristocracy..............................


cheers,
Robin.
 
Of course, her husband is a Gulf War veteran Navy Captain and ex astronaut.


On the other hand, since 1789 thirteen Congress members have been killed and nine wounded, including Congressman Larry McDonald who was aboard Korean Airlines flight 007when it was shot down by the Soviets, and nobody named a ship after him.


Honor the military, who have actually served for their country.
 
I gave up hope in the USN returning to anything like a coherent name scheme years ago.

The naming a ship after a living person -- politician or otherwise -- still rankles, though.
 
Triton said:
The Secretary of the Navy really should name United States Navy ships for persons who actually served in the United States Navy or the United States Marines.
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I prefer myths (i.e. USS Zeus, USS Ares, USS Mjolnir, etc.), battles (USS Iwo Jima, USS Shanksville), American cities & states (USS Los Angeles, USS British Columbia, USS Mare Tranquilitatus) and appropriate concepts (USS Infidel, USS Baconator, USS Excessive Force).

I'd reserve naming ships after actual people for a very few ships, and use only militarily important and relevant people (USS Abe Lincoln, USS Vlad Tepes, USS Theo van Gogh, etc)
 
Orionblamblam said:
Triton said:
The Secretary of the Navy really should name United States Navy ships for persons who actually served in the United States Navy or the United States Marines.
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I prefer myths (i.e. USS Zeus, USS Ares, USS Mjolnir, etc.), battles (USS Iwo Jima, USS Shanksville), American cities & states (USS Los Angeles, USS British Columbia, USS Mare Tranquilitatus) and appropriate concepts (USS Infidel, USS Baconator, USS Excessive Force).

I'd reserve naming ships after actual people for a very few ships, and use only militarily important and relevant people (USS Abe Lincoln, USS Vlad Tepes, USS Theo van Gogh, etc)
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I'm by no means an expert on American politics, but at least this politician kept working under death threats and almost died for serving her country (as an elected representative). So, it is about as close to combat as a civilian can get.

On the other hand, OBB's ship names fit into the category of 'extremely awesome'.
 
Avimimus said:
I'm by no means an expert on American politics, but at least this politician kept working under death threats and almost died for serving her country (as an elected representative).
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I will point out that where she was injured, a number of other people, including a federal judge, were *killed.* Giffords did not act heroically here; she just got shot. This is not a dig against her; it's just a fact. Do we want to name ships after people who were just sitting there oblivious when they got shot out of the blue? She was not a hero or a major leader in The War; she was a victim. And she wasn't even a victim of an enemy nation of ideology, such that "Giffords Revenge" would make a good name.

So, it is about as close to combat as a civilian can get.
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Well, no. There are many videos of people making minimum wage working behind the Quick-E-Mart counter who leap into combat against thugs. Perhaps had things gone slightly differently, Giffords would have leaped over the table and delivered a kung-fu smackdown on Laughner... but she didn't.

There are several names from United Flight 93 that I would suggest as more appropriate.
 
Well, well - to be accurate for the record - Giffords was the target, the rest of the people massacred were by-standers. Giffords had also received death threats in the past (including discharge of weapons at her office, if I recall correctly) and such threats were aimed at discouraging her from public office.

So, yes, she was knowingly risking her life to server her country in the way of her choice (whether that was good or bad for the country is beside the point) and not she was not a by-stander, but a target of armed violence (and violence targeted against part of the elected American government). Surely, it is rational to acknowledge these facts.

What I find very odd is naming ships or tanks after admirals/generals...
 
Grey Havoc said:
Vlad the Impaler? [Raises eyebrow]
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It's part of the same battlegroup as the USS Shadow Hog, the USS Martel, the USS Pershing, the USS Iblis, the USS Kafir Triumphant and the USS Crusaders Revenge. There would of course be a logistics ship as part of the group, used to deliver relief supplies for humanitarian missions... the USS Everything On This Ship Was Touched By A Jewish Lesbian.
 
Avimimus said:
Well, well - to be accurate for the record - Giffords was the target, the rest of the people massacred were by-standers.
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And that makes them less important or noteworthy how?

Giffords had also received death threats in the past (including discharge of weapons at her office, if I recall correctly) and such threats were aimed at discouraging her from public office.
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I wonder if there are any politicians at Representative level and above who *haven't* gotten death threats. Does that make them automatically heroes?

As for putting lives on the line to serve their country... there are any number of cops, soldiers and firefighters who did so much more consciously of their risk than any politician.
 
You Americans have nothing to complain about. At least Ms Giffords was elected to national office and took a bullet to the head and lived; some things that are noteworthy in my book. Back here in Australia our Government named our latest ship (a 16,000 tonne LSD) after Claude Choules. A nice enough guy by all reports who served in the Royal Navy in WWI and the RAN in WWII later in his career as a torpedo and mine specialist. But his claim to fame? He lived to 110 making him the last remaining WWI combat veteran at his time of death which also coincided by a few weeks to the acquisition of this ship. That was it. He was a headline thanks to longevity rather than action that a handful of politicians hoped to capitalise on to garner some headlines.
 
I suggest naming a whole class of ships after famous characters in U.S. popular culture: U.S.S. Popeye, U.S.S. Superman, U.S.S. Garfield, U.S.S. Charlie Brown, U.S.S. Spock, U.S.S. Darth Vader, U.S.S. Bugs Bunny, U.S.S. Ronald McDonald, U.S.S. Jack Daniels, U.S.S. Mickey Mouse...

Or maybe famous creators and artists? U.S.S. Walt Disney, U.S.S. Ernest Hemingway, U.S.S. Jack Kirby, U.S.S. Harvey Kurtzman, U.S.S. Frank Frazetta, U.S.S. Orson Welles, U.S.S. Bob Dylan, U.S.S. Rod Steiger, U.S.S. Gene Roddenberry, U.S.S. George Gershwin...

I'm sure these would be a lot less controversial than politicians!!!
 
Orionblamblam said:
....and use only militarily important and relevant people (USS Abe Lincoln, USS Vlad Tepes, USS Theo van Gogh, etc)
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Vincent van Gogh's younger brother was a militarily important person? ::)

Regards & all,

Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
 
Maybe the other Theo van Gogh? Not particularly militarily important either, but more in line with OBB's other suggestions.
 
And I thought we couldn't get any worse than naming a ship after John Murtha, who at least served honorably in the USMC before coming a corrupt sleazy politician who'd fall in line with his party to slander future marines.
 
Triton said:
The Secretary of the Navy really should name United States Navy ships for persons who actually served in the United States Navy or the United States Marines. Preferential treatment should be given to those service people who have made the ultimate sacrifice. It seems that ship names are now chosen on partisan lines depending on the party affiliation of the Secretary of the Navy.

The shootings on January 8, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona were a tragedy, but does Gabrielle Giffords really deserve to have a United States Navy ship named for her? She never served in the military.
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The Secretary of the Navy generally does what he is told by those that appointed him or Congress. Sometimes he makes a strategic move: I suspect CVN-79 was named the Kennedy instead of the Enterprise because he thought that naming the ship after a Democratic icon ) and former Congresscritter might help it actually get built.
 
Stargazer2006 said:
I suggest naming a whole class of ships after famous characters in U.S. popular culture: U.S.S. Popeye, U.S.S. Superman, U.S.S. Garfield, U.S.S. Charlie Brown, U.S.S. Spock, U.S.S. Darth Vader, U.S.S. Bugs Bunny, U.S.S. Ronald McDonald, U.S.S. Jack Daniels, U.S.S. Mickey Mouse...

Or maybe famous creators and artists? U.S.S. Walt Disney, U.S.S. Ernest Hemingway, U.S.S. Jack Kirby, U.S.S. Harvey Kurtzman, U.S.S. Frank Frazetta, U.S.S. Orson Welles, U.S.S. Bob Dylan, U.S.S. Rod Steiger, U.S.S. Gene Roddenberry, U.S.S. George Gershwin...

I'm sure these would be a lot less controversial than politicians!!!
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Personally, I still think as long as our system of naming ships has no coherence, I repeat what I said in a similar topic about aircraft carrier names. We want something that dictates power and puts some pause in the monds of those who oppose us:

CVN-80: the USS Superman
 
F-14D said:
We want something that dictates power and puts some pause in the monds of those who oppose us:

CVN-80: the USS Superman
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Wouldn't "USS Hannibal Lector" be better?

Superman will simply toss the bad guys in jail. Lector will cut the tops of their skulls off and feed them slices of their own brains.

Of course, there's always "USS Joker."
 
My vote is for USS Darth Vader, that's a great name.

It's really worrying to see how fast is America mirroring the end days of the Roman Empire.
 
Orionblamblam said:
F-14D said:
We want something that dictates power and puts some pause in the monds of those who oppose us:

CVN-80: the USS Superman
Click to expand...

Wouldn't "USS Hannibal Lector" be better?

Superman will simply toss the bad guys in jail. Lector will cut the tops of their skulls off and feed them slices of their own brains.

Of course, there's always "USS Joker."
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Your point about Superman is well-taken, although he may rough them up a bit. USS Batman would be better, because he'll beat the crap out of them before he throws them in jail. But then, such a ship would work mostly at night. Can't your other two because they're both insane and evil. However, your post has given me thn answer that can fulfill all of our desires: Powerful, on the side of right, protect the innocent and REALLY punish the guilty (permanently), lethal and very effective. I give you CVN-80, the:

USS Dirty Harry


and what a choice ship's motto:

"Go ahead . Make my day." or:

"Do you feel Lucky?"
​
 
U.S.S. Dirty Harry?? Cooool!

How about U.S.S. Rocky Balboa, U.S.S. John Rambo, U.S.S. Terminator, U.S.S. John McClane?

Talk about some kickass fleet!!!
 
I'm all for USS John Connor or USS Kyle Reese. The ship's motto would be "Come with me if you want to live".
 
From CDR Salamander:
Want to let everyone know you "get it?" Simple.

Step 1. The USS Murtha (LPD-26) needs to be renamed USS FALLUJAH (LPD-26). No one will complain (except Nancy Pelosi) and everyone will instead heap praises on the SECNAV. Iraq victory parade not possible? Fine, the Marines will take an LPD name - fair.
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