The USS Doris Miller (CVN-81)

[Macanudo 13259]

Navy is announcing the name tomorrow.  For those not familiar with the name, he's the African-American who manned a machine gun (against navy regulations of the time) on the West Virginia on December 7 at Pearl Harbor. 

It took FDR to step in and get him a Navy Cross.  It was almost 2 months after Pearl Harbor before his name even hit the press.

 

[tx 3 putt 78475]

Ford Class Aircraft Carrier 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13710]

surprising.  Aircraft carriers usually are named after politicians or after previous historical ships.  Heroes get represented on other ships.

[SimonBolivar 11039]

He was great in Jerry McGuire.

[DaggerHorns 3148]

 

 

[Scheiss Meister 8452]

That is outstanding news.  The honor is well deserved. 

[Post Oak 20551]

They have erected a statue to him in Waco.  

This is a great honor obviously. 

I listened to a history podcast about him and after he started getting all this attention he was worried that he would be killed at sea and not by the enemy.

 

 

[cajunhorn 10]

This guy fucks

[HouTex 1912]

He also was shown manning the machine gun in Tora! Tora! Tora!.  It was on yesterday.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11856]

He was killed in 1943 when his ship was sunk by a Japanese torpedo, for those who haven’t read the story.   Only 272 of more than 900 aboard survived.

[Cajun 11771]

...sharks took the rest.

I'll never put on a life jacket again.

[Macanudo 13259]

2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

surprising.  Aircraft carriers usually are named after politicians or after previous historical ships.  Heroes get represented on other ships.

Honestly,  I wish we'd just kept Enterprise,  Constellation, Wasp, Hornet, Lexington, Yorktown,  Saratoga, Bonhomme Richard, Ranger, Midway and those kind of historic battle names or historic ships rather than people. Were finally getting the Big E back with CVN-60.  There should ALWAYS be a capital ship named the Enterprise in the US Navy.

But if we're going to name them after people, I'd rather Dory Miller,  Chester Nimitz, Bill Halsey, Ray Spruance or Marc Mitscher than a politican.

The Mitscher could already have a bad ass call sign...  "Turn on the lights."

Edited January 19, 2020 by Macanudo

[Nice Guy Eddie 13710]

Agree that politician names should be kept off capital ships, and perhaps people in general. Especially given how badly divided we are becoming. Could you imagine the uproar if a president right wanted to name a ship Obama or Trump?

[Ghost of LL 15670]

2 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Agree that politician names should be kept off capital ships, and perhaps people in general. Especially given how badly divided we are becoming. Could you imagine the uproar if a president right wanted to name a ship Obama or Trump?

Reminds me of the bit from the latest biography I read on Winston Churchill.  When he was First Lord of the Admiralty, the Navy built four new Dreadnoughts.  Churchill proposed naming one the "Oliver Cromwell."  

One of the few prerogatives the monarch still has in the UK is the right to name His/Her Majesty's Ships.  And George didn't cotton to the idea of naming one of his ships after a regicide.  The ship was instead named the Iron Duke.  

And so the following year, when the Navy proposed building four new Superdreadnoughts, Churchill again proposed naming one the Oliver Cromwell.  

The King again refused.

Some things aren't going to get any less controversial with time.

[RPM 26565]

He was a helluva sailor. I have no problems naming a ship after a Pearl Harbor hero. I do feel they should stick to the historical guidelines as far as the ships named.

[Brisketexan 106642]

Reminds me of the bit from the latest biography I read on Winston Churchill.  When he was First Lord of the Admiralty, the Navy built four new Dreadnoughts.  Churchill proposed naming one the "Oliver Cromwell."  
One of the few prerogatives the monarch still has in the UK is the right to name His/Her Majesty's Ships.  And George didn't cotton to the idea of naming one of his ships after a regicide.  The ship was instead named the Iron Duke.  
And so the following year, when the Navy proposed building four new Superdreadnoughts, Churchill again proposed naming one the Oliver Cromwell.  
The King again refused.
Some things aren't going to get any less controversial with time.

The only proper response from the king would be “we’ll name one ‘Cromwell’ right after we name one ‘Winston’s Mother Was a Whore.’ You game, Winnie?”

[Armybrat 41329]

7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The only proper response from the king would be “we’ll name one ‘Cromwell’ right after we name one ‘Winston’s Mother Was an American Whore.’ You game, Winnie?”

Fify

[RomaVicta 30508]

1 hour ago, Macanudo said:

Honestly,  I wish we'd just kept Enterprise,  Constellation, Wasp, Hornet, Lexington, Yorktown,  Saratoga, Bonhomme Richard, Ranger, Midway and those kind of historic battle names or historic ships rather than people. Were finally getting the Big E back with CVN-60.  There should ALWAYS be a capital ship named the Enterprise in the US Navy.

But if we're going to name them after people, I'd rather Dory Miller,  Chester Nimitz, Bill Halsey, Ray Spruance or Marc Mitscher than a politican.

The Mitscher could already have a bad ass call sign...  "Turn on the lights."

I'm with you all the way on this. I particularly loved Wasp and Hornet which used to pick up the astronauts after splashdown.

Naming carriers after recent presidents is revoltingly political. Nimitz was a good name for a carrier. Washington might be a good one, but otherwise, name them as you say.

[Cajun 11771]

I say use Porn Names.

The USS Chest Rockwell.

Right on the stern have the credo - "This water's cold, and deep too!" stenciled under the ship's name.  I wouldn't take that kinda force projection lightly if I was a Ruskie.

I can just see the meeting back in Tehran after their recon drone sends the data back to the honchos ---

General -"What is this?  This inscription right here?"

Interpreter - "Uh, well sir, uh..."

General -- "Out with it!!!"

Interpreter - "Literally translated, sir, it reads 'I'm here for the gangbang'".

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by Cajun

[Cajun 11771]

37 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I'm with you all the way on this. I particularly loved Wasp and Hornet

 

You old Trekki you!

[Player 4605]

I'm with you all the way on this. I particularly loved Wasp...

Come along children. You can shake your booties down on the dock.

[Cajun 11771]

Goddamnit!

Now I want a Fresca.

Tanks fur nuttin'!

[ConferenceRoom 6211]

1 hour ago, Player said:

 

Come along children. You can shake your booties down on the dock.

 

 

[deter 314]

Give him the Medal of Honor and name the ship something else. 

[MaybeACoordinator 8350]

Now the army should follow suit and rename Fort Hood after Roy Benavidez.

[tx 3 putt 78475]

42 minutes ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

Now the army should follow suit and rename Fort Hood after Roy Benavidez.

Long past due. 1. Hood was a traitor 2. He fucking wasn’t even a good general 

[tx 3 putt 78475]

Zero issues naming an aircraft carrier after a navy vet + president. 
 

seem for naming one after Miller 

[MaybeACoordinator 8350]

6 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

Long past due. 1. Hood was a traitor 2. He fucking wasn’t even a good general 

Hood killed more Texans than the federals and the Spanish flu combined. 

[Macanudo 13259]

From my earlier comment on Mitscher.   This is apocryphal but during the Marianas Turkey Shoot when we launched our aircraft knowing that the aviators would be coming home in the dark, Mitscher made the decision to light up the fleet o they could land.   It opened up our ships to Japanese sub interdiction but Mitscher cared deeply about his pilots.   From The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific 1944-1945 by James Hornfischer;

He passed the order over the TBS radio to his chief of staff, relaying it in a manner that would ring in the history of naval aviation: "Bald Eagle, this is Blue Jacket himself.  Turn on the lights."   Not some of the lights.  All of the rights.  Running lights, truck lights, and glow lights tracing carrier flight decks.  Star shells on parachutes fired by five-inch guns on the screen, flashlights brandished by crew on deck, and twenty-four inch carbon arc searchlights pointed straight up to touch the stars.   

Planes came back and landed on any flattop they see.   It didn't matter which one they were assigned to.   And of those who splashed down, either because of enemy action or running out of gas, 77% were recovered.   Turning the lights on was ballsy.

[HouTex 1912]

The only proper response from the king would be “we’ll name one ‘Cromwell’ right after we name one ‘Winston’s Mother Was a Whore.’ You game, Winnie?”

My avatar would say fuck all of you for calling my mother a whore. He would insult each of you in ways you couldn’t imagine. She was a hot American woman and she knew it. If she were a man, she would be the envy of every male poster on this site.

[deadshank 24654]

I propose the USS Go Fuck Yourself, Bitch.  It's catchy, direct and to the point. 

[Bateshorn 9989]

A. This is very cool.

B. Aircraft carriers are obsolete.

C. The fact that we have multiple military bases named after men who violated their oath and waged war as traitors is bat shit insane. 

[TwiceHorn 31994]

19 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

The only proper response from the king would be “we’ll name one ‘Cromwell’ right after we name one ‘Winston’s Mother Was a Whore.’ You game, Winnie?”

To which Winston could and likely would have replied, well, she may have been an American whore, but at least she wasn't a hunfucker.

Edited January 20, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

Cannot remark on whose name goes on which ship, but what a hero he was. Died in service and what service it was.

Here is ship dedication that did not go as smoothly as I hope the USS Doris Miller does: (check out a younger Maggie Smith of the movies-she's funny)

 

[El Diablo 4232]

January 21, 1917—103 years ago today--Leonard Harmon was born in Cuero. During World War II, he served as a mess attendant first class aboard the USS San Francisco. He was killed in action on November 13, 1942 during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for heroism in the action. In August 1943, he was honored as the first black for whom the Navy named a ship as the USS Harmon was commissioned. The 1,400-ton Buckley class destroyer escort was part of the landings in January 1945 in Leyte and in March operated off Iwo Jima. After the war, she was assigned to duties in both the Pacific and the Atlantic before she was decommissioned in 1947.

[BabaYaga 15532]

Outstanding and long overdue!

[Cajun 11771]

That's what she said.

[Cajun 11771]

"USS Deez Nuts" has a nice rings to it.

[Felix 613]

Dude had three ships sunk out from under him.  I'm not sure I'd want to serve on that bad boy.