A name has popped up in the media regarding the last T-AKE being built at NASSCO.The Navy is considering naming a cargo ship that's being built after farmworker activist Cesar Chavez.On the face of it, this is a good suggestion, but there is a fairly obvious problem. If you actually know anything about Cesar Chavez then you would know he frequently described the two worst years of his life as the two years he spent in the US Navy.
James Gill, a spokesman for General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, said Monday the company suggested the name to honor its mostly Hispanic work force and the mostly Hispanic neighborhood, Barrio Logan, where the boat builder is located.
The other 13 cargo ships built by NASSCO for the Navy have been named after such notable Americans as explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and famed aviator Amelia Earhart.
Maybe the Navy should consider naming a ship after someone who didn't hate the US Navy, because ship names represent the first encounter for every strategic communication of any vessel. Here are a few alternative suggestions that might meet the criteria of those who broke major ground in history.
Guy Gabaldon
William Lewis Herndon
Edward Fitzgerald Beale
Charles Emery Rosendahl
Neil Armstrong
All of these folks mentioned seem to fit the criteria already established, but I personally think it would be a real shame if we named a class of ships dedicated to explorers and somehow failed to honor Neil Armstrong, unless you are aware of another person who served in the Navy and was also the first person who explored the surface of the moon.
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