The United States Navy has a history of honoring American heroes, and revered places in American history. Broad consensus for these choices is also a long tradition. Hence we have the USS Ronald Reagan, the USS George Washington, and the USS John F. Kennedy. We also have the destroyer USS The Sullivans named for the sweeping sacrifice of one American family. Honor, victory and sacrifice also led to ships such as the USS Guadalcanal. Scores more are named after Medal of Honor recipients, military leaders, and distinguished Americans from various walks of life.
This long honorable tradition has recently been trashed by the decision of Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to christen a new APD (Transport Dock Ship) the USS John P. Murtha. John Murtha was a former Marine who late in life saw fit to trash Marines in the most incendiary of ways.
Murtha, who missed going to jail by the skin of his teeth in the Abscam scandal of 1980, is despised by the military community for, among other things, accusing US Marines involved in an incident in Iraq of “…[killing] innocent civilians in cold blood…in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.”
Murtha’s venom toward the enlisted Marines later proved false, as Michelle Malkin notes.
There could be no greater insult to the US military than to name a fighting vessel after Murtha. Even the left-wing Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) identified Murtha, a disciple of Nancy Pelosi, as one of the five most corrupt members of Congress.
Ironically, Murtha was a Reserve Colonel in the Corps, and even in that role he exhibited the self-serving attitude that characterized him in Congress. According to several Marines who served with him in Viet Nam, his Purple Hearts and his Bronze Star were highly questionable.
Naming a ship after John Murtha is a slap in the face of those sailors who will be assigned to the USS John P. Murtha.
Mabus has a long history of giving aid to scoundrals. He also restored the civil rights of the convicted felon Ike Brown, the first African American ever found liabile for violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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