The aircraft carrier is the symbol of American power – 90,000 tons of diplomacy, the Navy likes to say. Almost all of them are named after presidents – until Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly broke with tradition.
CBS News national security correspondent David Martin said, “So, the list of carriers is going to read Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Reagan, Truman, Eisenhower, Bush, Ford, Kennedy … Miller?”
“Exactly right, and I like it when you put it that way,” said Modly.
That’s Miller as in Dorie Miller. The next aircraft carrier to be built will be named for the grandson of slaves and a son of sharecroppers. The official announcement is on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, at Pearl Harbor.
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Article URL : Next U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to be named after African American Pearl Harbor hero