|
PCU ''Gerald R. Ford'' (CVN-78) is to be the lead ship of her class of United States Navy supercarriers. As announced by the U.S. Navy on 16 January 2007, the ship is named after the 38th President of the United States Gerald R. Ford, whose World War II naval service included combat duty aboard the light aircraft carrier in the Pacific Theater.〔(Navy Names New Aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford ) - Official Announcement from Secretary of the Navy.〕 The keel of ''Gerald R. Ford'' was laid down on 13 November 2009.〔 Construction began on 11 August 2005, when Northrop Grumman held a ceremonial steel cut for a 15-ton plate that forms part of a side shell unit of the carrier. She was christened on 9 November 2013.〔 The schedule calls for the ship to join the U.S. Navy's fleet in March 2016 with the first deployment in 2019.〔 ''Gerald R. Ford'' will enter the fleet replacing the inactive , which ended her 51 years of active service in December 2012.〔(Navy CVN-21 Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress ) Retrieved 8 December 2006.〕 ==Naming== In 2006, while Gerald Ford was still alive, Senator John Warner of Virginia proposed to amend a 2007 defense-spending bill to declare that CVN-78 "shall be named the USS ''Gerald Ford''."〔United States Library of Congress. , Senate Amendment 4211. Retrieved 5 December 2006.〕 The final version signed by President George W. Bush on 17 October 2006〔Defense Link News Article. (President Signs 2007 Defense Authorization Act ). Retrieved 1 December 2006〕 declared only that it "is the sense of Congress that ... CVN-78 should be named the U.S.S. ''Gerald R. Ford''."〔United States Library of Congress. (House Resolution 5122, Section 1012 ) (p. 292). Retrieved 1 December 2006.〕 Since such "sense of" language is typically non-binding and does not carry the force of law,〔C-SPAN's Capitol Questions. (Sense of Congress ). Retrieved 5 December 2006.〕 the Navy was not required to name the ship after Ford. On 3 January 2007, former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that the aircraft carrier would be named after Ford during a eulogy for President Ford at Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids, Michigan.〔(Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum )〕 Rumsfeld indicated that he had personally told Ford of the honor during a visit to his home in Rancho Mirage a few weeks before Ford's death. This makes the aircraft carrier one of the few U.S. ships named after a living person. Later in the day, the Navy confirmed that the aircraft carrier would indeed be named after the former President.〔(Next Navy aircraft carrier to be named for late President Gerald Ford, buried Wednesday ) Retrieved 3 January 2007.〕 On 16 January 2007, Navy Secretary Donald Winter officially named CVN-78 the USS ''Gerald R. Ford''. Ford's daughter Susan Ford Bales was named the ship's sponsor. The announcements were made at a Pentagon ceremony attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, Senators Warner (R-VA) and Levin (D-MI), Major General Guy C. Swan III, Bales, Ford's other three children, and others.〔(Gerald R. Ford Foundation and exhibits, speakers and activities it supports )〕 The USS ''America'' Carrier Veterans Association (CVA) had pushed to name the ship USS ''America''. The CVA is an association of sailors who served aboard USS ''America'' (CV-66), which was decommissioned in 1996 and scuttled in the Atlantic as part of a damage test of large deck aircraft carriers in 2005. Eventually, LHA-6 was named ''America''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Gerald R. Ford」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|