USS Cooperstown Commanding Officer Daxton Moore Leads Tour of LCS 23 Ready for Commissioning in...

USS Cooperstown Commanding Officer Daxton Moore, a graduate of the Citadel, leads tour of LCS 23 a Littoral Combat Ship ready for Commissioning May 6th in NYC.

Video by Ken Kraetzer for Navy League and CaMMVetsMedia LLC.

Background: USS Cooperstown LCS 23
CO: US Navy

USS Cooperstown is the first naval ship named after Cooperstown, New York and honors the 70 Hall of Famers
https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/hall-of-famer-facts/hall-of-fame-veterans

who served the United States during wartime in a range of conflicts that spanned the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.


While it will be the first naval ship to be named after Cooperstown, it will not be the first ship inspired by baseball as the Liberty Ship, SS Lou Gehrig and others were named after Hall of Famers.


Baseball was introduced into the Navy in the late 1800s as a "rational recreation" to keep sailors out of trouble, active, and happy. What it became over the following decades was a phenomenon that U.S. Sailors - many of whom were major league pros - helped spread around the world. As Sailors traveled the world, so did the sport. Navy ships would play against local teams as early as the 1870s and are credited with introducing the sport to places such as Japan, the Caribbean, Hawaii, China, Nicaragua, and the Philippines over the next few decades.


In Southeast Asia in 1916, teams from ships stationed from the Philippines to Shanghai gathered for a championship series that drew a crowd of more than 30,000. More than 440 major and minor league baseball players fought in World War I. By World War II, with some military branches curtailing organized sports, many professional baseball players joined the Navy. Bob Feller (a chief petty officer and gun captain), Ted Williams (a Marine aviator in both World War II and the Korean War), Yogi Berra (a gunner's mate and participant in the D-Day landings), and Phil Rizzuto (gun captain) were among the more than 500 Major League and 4,000 minor league players to serve.


After the Vietnam War, Major League Baseball honored hundreds of American prisoners of war with a special pass that gave each recipient and one guest exclusive lifetime admission to any baseball game. The "Golden Ticket," as it was known, became a way for POWs to reconnect with their families and rediscover their freedom by enjoying America's national pastime.


Mission Statement


The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a fast, agile, mission-focused platform designed to operate in near-shore environments, winning against 21st-century coastal threats. The LCS is capable of supporting forward presence, maritime security, sea control, and deterrence.


The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a class of Small Surface Combatants armed with capabilities focused on defeating global challenges in the littorals. LCS is designed to provide joint force access in the littorals. LCS can operate independently or in high-threat environments as part of a networked battle force that includes larger, multi-mission surface combatants.