Mabus Gets One Right
According to this DoD Press Release, comes the following:
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced today the next Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer (DDG) will be named the USS Thomas Hudner.
Thomas J. Hudner Jr., a naval aviator who retired as a captain, received the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman for displaying uncommon valor during an attack on his wingman, the first African American naval aviator to fly in combat, Ensign Jesse L. Brown. During the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in the Korean War, anti-aircraft fire hit Brown’s aircraft, damaging a fuel line and causing him to crash. After it became clear Brown was seriously injured and unable to free himself Hudner proceeded to purposefully crash his own aircraft to join Brown and provide aid. Hudner injured his own back during his crash landing, but he stayed with Brown until a rescue helicopter arrived. Hudner and the rescue pilot worked in the sub-zero, snow-laden area in an unsuccessful attempt to free Brown from the smoking wreckage.
Hudner is the last living Navy recipient of the Medal of Honor from the Korean War.
Nice to see that amid all the namings to placate the anti-American, Marine-hating (Murtha), ghey lobby crowd, SecNav pulled his head out of his ass just long enough to recognize an American who deserves the honor of having one of our ever-dwindling number of warships named after them.
Category: Navy
Can’t go wrong with a bona fide hero!
+1
Interesting the history I learn on this site. . .
Big sigh of relief here. I was sure they were going to go with the USS Freddie Mercury or something equally as “morale building”.
Not that Freddie couldn’t sign mind you.
Doug Sterner’s Home of Heroes site has an excellent article on Hudner and Brown. Fair warning: someone nearby may be chopping onions while you read it.
http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/hudner.html
Postscript to my comment 6 above: in a way, this completes the circle. Jesse Brown had a ship named after him previously (USS Jesse L. Brown, DE-1089). He was the first Black American so honored. Forty years later, the man who tried to rescue him – and would not leave him behind to die alone – now receives a similar honor.
Murtha isn’t the only garDC garbage with a boat – let’s not forget about the Zumwalt class DDG, USS Lyndon Baines “I’ll have those n###### voting democrat for the next two hundred years” Johnson and Cesar “the worst two years of my life” Chavez, and San Francisco’s darling Harvey Milk.
Johnson was the architect of almost everything wrong with today’s society. Chavez was a lettuce picker that found union activism to be a better way to steal a living. Milk was just an everyday three dollar bill politician in the Land of the Whispering Bushes.
ghey?
No. 7 Frank:
Thanks for reminding THE GLOBE,
how vicious and rotten was LB JOHNSON —
it can not be overstated.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. Hope the trend continues.
They need to think about how to keep the “Enterprise” name and heritage alive. The current Enterprise will be taken out of service within the next couple of years, and she richly deserves to be replaced by another aircraft carrier bearing the same name.
One isn’t a trend, but it is a start. I’m sure folks in the other side are flaming pissed the ship isn’t named for Abu Mumia Jamal.
Gentlemen, sailors and zooms too, WE, and I mean WE, must remember the only way to get these asshats out of DC is to work with our local political parties to ensure ‘right thinkers’ are elected to represent us. That way the USS Gabriele Gifford doesn’t happen again and REAL heroes are honored. Allow me to step off my soapbox!
Roger that on Lyndon Baines Never-To-Be-Sufficiently-Damned Johnson. May God damn his filthy soul to Hell and Separation Everlasting. Between him and Wilson, I don’t know who is more evil.
I couldn’t be happier about this. I have had the great honor of meeting CAPT Hudner. Everytime I am speechless (imagine that!).
For me the best part is that he is still here to share in this with us!
Until there is a USS Fallujah, Anbar, Hemland, Kongral, and Khe Sahn this means nothing.
Little tough to name a ship less than ten years after the battle that was fought. And USS Hue City not good enough for ya?