khyberbill
Posts: 1941
Joined: 9/11/2007 From: new milford, ct Status: offline
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quote:
The US Navy has gone through a dizzying series of name change procedures since 1945. CV's were named after US battles, or old ships of the USN.The USS Frankin D. Roosevelt changed this. Then presidents, Secretaries of defense and even congressmen had carriers named after them. Battleships and large monitors (also Armored cruisers) were named after states. With the arrival of the Ohio class, States became names for SSBN's , then SSN's. Conneticut , then Virginia class. Cruisers traditionally had city names , small cities and towns became gunboat names (also some old USN ships names). After the Long Beach , we stopped building cruisers, and begame building "Large Frigates" (which sounded less agressive. ) Large frigates were named after people...Truxton, Bainbridge, Yarnell and Halsy for examples. (They were DLG's). In the late 1970's they were renamed "cruisers" and the Ticonderoga class aegis cruisers had Carrier names....battles and old ships of the USN. During this period city names went to LSD's, various landing vessels , LKA's , replenishment ships. In 1976 Hyman Rickover began naming submarines after cities to appeal to congressmen who were on good terms with him (the Los Angles class) . When pressed about the submarines traditionally being named after fish , he's quoted as saying "fish don't vote". He also named four submarines after congressmen. Also battle names were going to amphiibious landing ships like Tarawa, Saipan and Inchon. Today these ships are named Wasp, Essex and the newest one ,America. Virtually every single naming tradition has been scrapped and rescrapped.The worst example is the three SSN's of the Seawolf class. Seawolf was to be a return to traditional naming. The next boat was named Connetict , the last Jimmy Carter! Confused yet? In the mid 80's , I was asked to help out a local recruiter at nearby mall on a recruiter day . (He wanted a aviation type present , as we were a naval air station , and he was a surface type). An old timer wearing a USS Leyte cap came up to me. "I hear that they gave the name of my old carrier to a tin-can. Is that true ?' , he asked. "No , actually it's a cruiser " I replied. "Really? I was also on the Portland before the war. Is there a ships named for her?' "Yes , it's LSD", I replied. He looked panic stricken. "I was also on the cruiser Los Angles after the war. What the hell is she now a submarine?!". "I don't know how to tell you this, but yes, she is". "G--D----0 Navy"! he said, walking off and shaking his head. Yes, it is kind of sad. I wont let a Navy person tell me about tradition any more.
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"Its a dog eat dog world Sammy and I am wearing Milkbone underwear" -Norm.
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