Who could possibly object to the naming of a Navy ship after Gabrielle Giffords? I suppose by now I should know the answer...
As reported by The Daily Caller.
Retired Rear Admiral George Worthington, former commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, told The Daily Caller that there are many people more worthy of a ship bearing their name.
“Here is the issue. There are a lot of dead Marines out there whose names could go on anything that appears to be an amphibious ship,” he said, explaining that a past recipient of the Medal of Honor, Dakota Meyer, might be a good candidate.
Worthington added his email “inbox” has been filled with messages from military friends who are “shocked and angered” by the decision.
“We think fallen Marines and perhaps supporting sailors should go on fantails before random victims,” he said.
Former U.S. Naval Institute CEO, retired Marine Maj. Gen. Tom Wilkerson, expressed disappointment at the recent evolution of ship dedication.
“If you were to look at one thing that has changed with Secretary Mabus it has been going from naming warships to honor people who have served or are intimately connected to the sea services to reaching into a more political environment and doing things almost on a feel-good basis,” he said, noting his dismay at recent decisions to name ships after Cesar Chavez and former Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha.
Wilkerson went on to say that what happened to Giffords was a tragedy, but that she was neither a service hero nor a major supporter/sponsor of the sea services and their contributions to national security.
Maybe I should give this a big "whatever" - it doesn't surprise me that in the ranks of the retired military brass you can find a few folks who would dismiss Giffords as a mere "random victim".
And it certainly isn't surprising that a giant swamp of blogging fail like Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller would make a story out of it, in their desperate attempt to convince someone, even if it is just themselves, that they are somehow relevant and necessary to the Silent Plurality (which is really just as good as a Majority, according to Politifact).
But then I looked at the DC comments section - already at 350+ and climbing, and believe me, 99% of them utterly vile.
Which led to a bit of Googling, which demonstrated that this ship is indeed a matter of outrage - OUTRAGE! - throughout the right-wing blogosphere.
If you want to quibble that Giffords had no obvious connection with the service, I won't argue with you - its a valid quibble. But deserving of the high dudgeon being expressed? I don't think so. As Robert Farley, blogging at Lawyers, Guns and Money wrote:
I would generally prefer that the Navy pick a naming scheme for a ship type and stick to it (attack subs=cities, aircraft carriers=Presidents, boomers=states, cruisers=battles), but that ship has sailed, so to speak. And given that we’ve named two 90000 ton nuclear aircraft carriers after white supremacist Southern Senators*, I’m not too worked up about naming a 2800 ton frigate-like-thing after Gabrielle Giffords.
*Stennis and Vinson.
UPDATE: Thanks to Adam B for this link to a list of US military vessels named after living Americans.
UPDATE 2: Thanks to tbkd in the comments for the interesting information that there is now a USNS Medgar Evers - something I did not know! As tbkd notes, he wasn't a Marine, wasn't a sailor either. He was United States Army. And, just like Gabby, Medgar Evers was more than just a victim of "random" violence, even if some want to belittle them in that fashion.