Biden Names Carriers Clinton and Bush
A surprising honor.
The White House, “Statement from President Biden Announcing the Names of CVN 82 and CVN 83.”
I am proud to announce that the next two Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers will be named for two former presidents: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
When I personally delivered the news to Bill and George, they were deeply humbled. Each knows firsthand the weight of the responsibilities that come with being Commander-in-Chief. And both know well our duty to support the families and loved ones who wait and worry for the safe return of their servicemember.
The future USS William J. Clinton (CVN 82) and the future USS George W. Bush (CVN 83) will begin construction in the years ahead. When complete, they will join the most capable, flexible, and professional Navy that has ever put to sea. They will be crewed by Sailors who hail from every corner of the United States, and who will sail these ships into harm’s way, defending our interests overseas and our safety here at home.
Those Sailors will demonstrate not only the example of our power, but the power of our example. And our nation remains grateful to them, their families, and all the talented shipyard workers who will bring these ships to life.
May God protect all who sail aboard USS William J. Clinton, USS George W. Bush and every other ship in our fleet. And may God continue to bless our troops.
Heather Mongilio and Sam LaGrone, reporting for US Naval Institute News (“White House: Next Two Aircraft Carriers Named for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush“) add some important context:
Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro picked the names for the two carriers, as naming falls under the duties of the secretary of the Navy, according to two Navy officials However, the White House made the announcement.
[…]
The future USS William J. Clinton (CVN-82) and USS George W. Bush (CVN-83) are not yet under construction nor have contracts been issued to carrier yard HII’s Newport News.
HII has advocated for the Navy to utilize a block buy contracting strategy to purchase the carriers, like the service did for the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80) and USS Doris Miller (CVN-81). In a briefing with reporters last week, HII president Chris Kastner said the shipbuilder would like to see CVN-82 purchased in Fiscal Year 2028.
While of course the shipbuilder would like the Navy to order multiple ships at a time, it’s in fact far more cost effective to do so than piecemealing them. This allows HII to plan more than a decade in advance and offer at least some economies of scale to the taxpayer. The vagaries of annual budgeting, however, can be a fly in the ointment.
I don’t follow the protocols of these things closely enough to know how unusual it is, but it does seem odd for a SECNAV to name two carriers that haven’t been ordered yet on his way out the door.
Our first aircraft carrier, commissioned way back in 1922, was the CV-1 Langley (although, like all of the earliest carriers, it was converted from an existing ship of another class). While most have had rather innocuous names, many have indeed been named after politicians, notably US Presidents. The first of those, the Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) was commissioned in 1945, months after his death. The second, the John F. Kennedy (CV-67), was commissioned in 1968 under his successor’s administration. The Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) was commissioned in 1977; the Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) in 1986; the Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) in 1989; the George Washington (CVN-73) in 1992; the Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) in 1998; the Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) in 2003; the George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) in 2009; the Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78, the lead ship in a new class) in 2017. Those ships are all still in service.
A second John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) is scheduled to launch this year and, again, the Clinton and Bush have yet to be ordered.
Trump will be the 47th President upon his inauguration but, like Grover Cleveland, it will be his second non-consecutive term and he’s taking up two numbers. So, only 45 men have held the office. A handful of others (William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, James A. Garfield) died within a year or so of taking office. So that leaves 42 candidates.
The most noteworthy Presidents not honored with a carrier naming are John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Woodrow Wilson, and Lyndon Johnson. We can safely write off Jackson and Wilson. But I must say, I’m a bit surprised that Ford, much less the impeached Clinton and controversial GWB, got a carrier named after them before Adams, Jefferson, and Grant.
Of the Presidents in my lifetime, only Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama (plus Trump and Biden, presumably not yet eligible) have not been honored. One presumes the USS Nixon will not be forthcoming, his undistinguished WWII Navy service notwithstanding
I’m a bit shocked that Del Toro chose Clinton and Bush over Obama (or, again, Jefferson).
It would have been fitting to announce the USS Jimmy Carter before his death. Carter was a Naval Academy graduate and rising star in the Navy before his father’s untimely passing forced a career change. But Carter has already been honored with a nuclear attack submarine, which is perhaps more appropriate.
Since impeached Presidents are apparently fair game, will we one day see a USS Donald Trump? It seems unlikely. But I’d have said the same of the Ford, Clinton, and GWB as well.
I’m not a fan of naming vessels after Presidents unless, perhaps, where they played a major role in an actual war (Eisenhower, Lincoln). I didn’t like it when it was done for Reagan and Ford, although at least Ford saw active duty in WWII. But Bush and Clinton seem disrespectful. Bush got his daddy to help him avoid the draft by “serving” in the National Guard, which at that time meant no chance to see combat, and which he seemed to treat as optional at times, and while Clinton didn’t have a powerful family to keep him out of the draft, he certainly made no bones about not wanting to serve.
Still, I guess it’s better than the U.S.S. Ivanka and Vladimir…
I’m generally not in favor of naming things or erecting statues of people who are still alive. I’m not politically opposed but it seems to me you should really be an extraordinary person to have things like this named after you. Don’t think either Clinton or Bush cuts it.
But the carriers need to be named, better these than whoever Trump would name based on how much money he receives from the honoree.
Trump won’t let this stand. It will eat at him.
Oh please! Ken Starr’s carefully engineered perjury trap? Donnez moi un break.
It should be noted Ford was a Ltc. In the navy during WWII
In compensation, as would only be right and just, I move we name every last Army and Marine latrine after the felon.
@Stormy Dragon: So was Johnson, albeit appointed at that rank. Also a Silver Star awardee, if controversially. I can’t quite figure out what rank Nixon attained during the war, although he did make full Commander in the reserves. By that point, though, he had already served in the Senate and was the sitting Vice President, so the merit of the promotion is suspect.
Here’s hoping the future USS George W Bush doesn’t randomly identify and attack the wrong “enemy.”
I suspect there are no formal rules that stop a sitting president from naming a carrier after himself? If not I would not be surprised to see Trump name one after himself. Also, is it possible for a new president to change those future names? If there is no formal rule against that it would not surprise me to see him change those.
Steve
@Not the IT Dept.:
The USS Elon Musk, self-helming scourge of the seas? The fighting Miriam Adelson? The USS Mellon Heirs? The USS Bradley Foundation?
Are the two Bush’s going to be active at the same time? That seems confusing. And especially redundant as the H. W. Bush was pretty openly a suck up to then prez W, and is called the Bush. Perhaps some future D prez could honor Trump with the USS Stormy Daniels.
Mike Reynolds: my wife looked over my shoulder as I typed my entry and she said “he reminds me of someone” but couldn’t remember who. She just came up to me and said, “I got it! He looks kind of like Quark from Deep Space 9.”
I had to agree. I think it’s the way the hat brim comes down over your eyes like Quark’s brow came down over his, and the glasses look like large eyes. However, the ears are definitely not the same.
FWIW, my wife thinks you’re cute. She loves DS9.
@Stormy Dragon: Just to be pedantic about abbreviations, Ford’s highest rank attained was Lieutenant Commander which is equivalent to a Major in other services. The abbreviation is generally LCDR. so as not to be confused with a light colonel in the other services.
On becoming Lord of the Admiralty for the first time, Winston Churchill proposed naming a battleship Oliver Cromwell. King George V rejected naming one of HMS ships after the man who chopped off the head of King Charles I.
Is there a garbage scow that can be named after the MAGA cult leader?
I support not naming things after living people like we do with stamps. Also, we should wait five years after the death. I recall a plethora of JFK named things after his death.
There already is a USS Jimmy Carter, SSN-23, befitting a Navy Submarine Officer. Its tasks are very classified (beyond most submarines).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jimmy_Carter
@Not the IT Dept.:
The more of me I conceal with hat and beard, the handsomer I look.
“There will be no sexual harrassment on the USS Bill Clinton!”
@Fortune:
And when Trump makes an official visit, he’ll be followed to make sure he doesn’t grab ’em by the pussy.
It really started when FDR got a carrier named after him, a few months after his death. Prior to that time, carriers were named after historic warships (Enterprise), battles (Lexington), or long-dead historical figures (Franklin).
Can’t say I’m a fan of naming ships after living people, especially recent Presidents. This just tees up a future carrier for Trump as well.
I don’t know if it’s unprecedented, but I think it’s extremely weird to name ships that have not been appropriated yet, much less begun construction.
@Michael Reynolds:
The plan for the Navy to get another carrier approved by Trump is revealed! Those sneaky, shameless squids sure know how to make things happen. Rickover was the master, he musta left notes in his desk.
@Fortune & @Not the IT Dept.:
Perhaps we can all agree that both of their attitudes and behavior around women are really bad and it would be best for all of us if both exited public life along ago.
@Matt Bernius:
We can agree that “Biden Names Carriers Clinton and Bush” is six words with three presidents’ names, none of them Trump. People can’t read six words without complaining about Trump?
The norm of not naming things after living persons went by the boards pretty badly when a Republican group formed to push naming everything in sight after Reagan as soon as he left office.
My then home of Cincinnati renamed an existing freeway the Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway. Which in a way was appropriate. It only went part way across, construction had stopped when it hit rich neighborhoods.
@gVOR10:
You must have missed all the Robert C. Byrd buildings, libraries, highways, porta-potties, etc in WV when the WV Senator was still alive.
Ditto postage stamps not having someone alive on them (Apollo 11 being a slight exception, Man on the moon). If a Trump stamp comes out in the next 4 years, I’ll be upset. [Cough, bought a couple of sheets of the D&D stamps for my Christmas cards this year.]
I’ll repeat my previous comment, zero diss to Jimmy Carter as he has a fabulous submarine named after him SSN-23 (he was a Submariner and was involved in the boat, Rosalyn was the ship’s Sponsor). I have an idea what it does (OK, it spies).
As for Rickover, he too had a boat named after him while still alive. And as he famously (at least in my world) said, “Fish don’t vote” as submarine names went to States and Cities (latest name announcements are after fabulous WW II boats).
BTW, CAPT Rickover was the father of the nuclear Navy, not the later Admiral Rickover (today a flag officer with a zillion aides).
The Secretary of the Navy is the sole authority on naming ships by law (cough, of course the White House has input). But this can get reversed by the next Administration (just like Secretary of the Navy under Biden did on some names).
This is minor, won’t keep me up at night.
@Richard Gardner:
That sounds like a tattoo along the lower front.