Absolutely. I wish they’d go back to the old “nothing named after you until you’ve been dead at least ten years,” to avoid any embarrassment if something unsavory comes out soon after you snuff it.
There are only a relative handful of aircraft carriers, and these days their names are largely limited to former Presidents and top pro-defense members of Congress. I have three Civil War-related names to suggest for non-carriers.
There hasn’t been a USS Monitor since the early 1960s - long overdue IMHO, to perpetuate the name of one of the most famous ships in U.S. Navy history:
We’ve been eleven years without a USS Cushing, honoring one of the great naval heroes of the war:
And it’s been far too long since the indefatigable SECNAV Gideon Welles was thus honored:
The Navy (and the meddling Congress) should be ashamed of naming the FDR and they ought now go back to naming carriers after battles. Destroyers and frigates are fine to carry on the names of people.
Eh, the Chinese or Russians would just name an attack sub the RKO Outta Nowhere and it would result in the longest, most boring series of naval engagements of all time.
Add Joseph Rochefort to the short list of people who deserve to have a carrier named for them (Rochefort and his codebreaking team were instrumental in the victory at Midway and helped change the course of WWII).
I thought Wasp and Hornet were rather appropriate names for ships whose primary means of attack was to launch swarms of small fliers at their enemies. To continue that theme, I propose Yellowjacket and Honeybee. Mud Dauber could be an amphibious assault ship.
On a more serious note, I would love for them to start bringing back some of the legacy carrier names, to include Langley, Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown, Wolverine, Sable, Ranger, etc.
As someone from Carl Levin’s jurisdiction, just allow me to say… hmm… yet another time when we could really use a vomit smiley…
I don’t know who I’d actually name one after, but it should be either a president or war hero or big important general or something like that, not some bloated career senator.
EDIT: I was just thinking of people, but suggestions of battles or states also sound good, just not random lame politicians