http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/1...ier-big-e-makes-final-voyage/?test=latestnews
The story comments on whether there will be another ENTERPRISE.
There better be! There are only a few historic ship names that we've used repeatedly through our 236 years. We need another ENTERPRISE and another SARATOGA.
What other historic names do you folks think we need to use again?
Start with the original six frigates...after that hornet, wasp, Essex, BHR, Olympia, Lexington, Saratoga would be good places to start. Gators keeping the names of battles were marines distinguished themselves are good too, we need to add fallujah to the list...maybe LHA-7? Carriers named after coral sea, midway, Phil sea, leyte gulf, and Okinawa would also be good. Maybe one each for the sacrifices made in Korea in Vietnam. Names that harken back to past victories, but probably won't happen as the dead don't vote.
Even looking at the names of the six original frigates you can see that ship naming was always political, maybe not as overt as it is now, but why do you think the most powerful ships used to be named for states? I was reading "ship of ghosts" and it talks about how the citizens of Houston basically paid to get the cruiser named for their city. When she was sunk in the java sea the citizenry of Houston raised enough money to pay for the entire cost of a new Houston.