The Dignity of the United States Navy

Something to remember 75 years after Pearl Harbor: The United States Navy is the best in the world, by an order of magnitude. No other navy is remotely as powerful. There are 40 in-service aircraft carriers in the world; 19 of them are ours. (Russia has just one, and it's in bad shape.) By a civilian count, we have 72 nuclear subs to Russia's 30. Our navy has assured the peace— Pax Americana—for decades, as the British fleet did in 19th century. So far as I can tell, our navy has only one embarrassing shortcoming: Its ships are named by idiots.

The original six frigates of the American Navy were the United States, the President, the Congress, the Chesapeake, the Constellation, and "Old Ironsides"—the Constitution. For a long time, our ship names followed specific naming traditions: battle ships were named for states, cruisers for cities, destroyers for naval heroes, aircraft carriers for great ships of the past, and so on. But, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, I've just learned the name of a new destroyer shortly to be built: the USS Carl M. Levin.

Carl Levin, as you probably know, is a former Democratic senator of no great distinction. Why has he got a ship named for him? He was a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. It turns out that our under-appreciated politicians—in this case, Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy, former governor of Mississippi—have started naming 2-billion dollar warships for each other.

Looking a little further, you will find the USS John P. Murtha, named for a congressman whom the FBI targeted in a bribery sting. Said Murtha to a bribe-bearing undercover agent: "I'm not interested… at this point. We do business for a while, maybe i'll be interested, maybe I won't.

Then there's the USS Gabrielle Giffords, the former congressman who was shot in the head by a deranged constituent. Ray Mabus justified the christening with the argument that the name Gabrielle Giffords was "synonymous with courage" and by pointing out that Ms. Giffords is a "Navy spouse."

Then there's the USNS Cesar Chavez, named for the union activist. Mabus defended that christening by saying that he'd named ships after Chavez, Medger Evers, John Lewis and Harvey Milk, "because these are American heroes too, just in a different arena."

One might point out that they have consequently been honored in different arenas. There are reportedly 16 parks named for Chavez, along with 26 boulevards and highways, seven libraries, 51 public schools, and nine university buildings and departments.

There is also a Cesar Chavez Foundation, which is opening a Caeser Chavez museum, a Cesar Chavez national monument dedicated by President Obama, and Cesar Chavez statues on California State and University of Texas campuses. Per an Obama presidential proclamation, March 31st is Cesar Chavez day. Parts of Texas observe March as Cesar Chavez month. This is quite a lot more recognition than has gone to, say, the tens of thousands of naval heroes this country has produced since 1776. Of course, Mr. Chavez was a Navy veteran. He described his time in the navy as "the worst two years of my life… worse than being in prison."

During World War II, our aircraft carriers were named Lexington, Ranger, Yorktown, Wasp, Saratoga, Enterprise, Hornet, Essex and Intrepid. Our five most recent carriers are named Gerald R. Ford, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Harry S. Truman, and John C. Stennis.

Some of those men are richly deserving of recognition; all have gotten recognition in spades. Despite there being men on that list upon whom thanks enough cannot be heaped, there is something we lose in fixing their names on our ships: traditional, noble, dignified, threatening, artfulness.

The Obama administration decided it would be a good idea to make our currency into a joke by coloring it to match monopoly money: pink 5s, yellow 10s, green 20s and blue 50s. American cash does an important job—it is intrinsically worthless paper that, by being taken seriously, holds the world economy together. Our navy's job is more important still. It needs to be taken seriously; by us, by its enemies, and most importantly, by the people who serve in it. Politicians strip it of its traditions and its gravitas as our peril.

So this is the one area in which the American fleet has been overtaken. Consider the Royal Navy, from which the American Navy sprung. Instead of "Carl Levin," Her Majesty's destroyers are named Daring, Dauntless, and Defender. Her subs are named Vanguard, Victorious, Vigilant, Vengeance, Astute, Ambush, Trenchant and Triumph. Not one of them is named the USS Jimmy Carter.

America's navy is its best foot forward. Its ships should be named to reflect that. Make The Navy Great Again.

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