# Navy Ship Names

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-ship-names/2156>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 22, 1999, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-ship-names/2156 "1999-07-22T16:52:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 1999, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-ship-names/2156/21 "1999-07-24T05:16:00Z")

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Whoa! Don’t bother responding. It just hit me…El Paso.

Boy, that was fast.

Chaim Mattis Keller

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 1999, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-ship-names/2156/22 "1999-07-23T20:28:00Z")

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The movie was _The Final Countdown_ and was a moderately decent effort in time travel paradox issues. The senator in question was wondering why the aircraft carrier would be named after a rear admiral of little consequence. Remember, Mimitz made his mark in the war to come, not before it.

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\>\>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.\<\<

—The dragon observes

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 1999, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-ship-names/2156/23 "1999-07-25T08:04:00Z")

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No, Federal law doesn’r require the honoree to be dead. The Post Office put out some Elvis stamps, didn’t they ?

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“Proverbs for Paranoids, 1: You may never get to touch the Master, but you can tickle his creatures.”

- T.Pynchon, _Gravity’s Rainbow_.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 1999, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-ship-names/2156/24 "1999-07-26T03:10:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I do remember learning that only dead people could appear on stamps, but I’ve since noted some living people have been so honored. I wish I could think of an example, perhaps as part of one of the USPS’s entertainment or art series.

The U.S. Post Office still prohibits living people from appearing on American stamps. In fact, except for a former President, you have to be dead several years (five IIRC) before appearing on a stamp. I would guess that whatever stamps you saw were foreign.

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