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The Associated Press
NEWPORT NEWS
Construction of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford got its official kickoff Saturday with a keel-laying ceremony at the shipyard where the $7 billion nuclear-powered ship is being assembled.
The 38th president's daughter, Susan Ford Bales, declared the keel "truly and fairly laid" at an authentication ceremony attended by congressmen, dignitaries and shipworkers at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's shipyard.
Bales, the ship's sponsor, on Friday added her initials in chalk on a metal plate, which was welded to the 900-ton keel - the building block upon which the carrier will rise.
"It's an honor, first of all, to have an aircraft carrier named after my dad," Bales said in an interview before the ceremony. "I'm going to do the best job I can do to represent him."
Bales, 52, said her father learned an aircraft carrier would be named after him before his death in 2006.
"He was very moved by it," she said. "Dad was really proud of it, just incredibly proud."
The carrier, scheduled for delivery to the Navy in 2015, will be the first in the Ford-class series in honor of Ford's service in the Navy.
Ford, who joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1942, served on the light aircraft carrier Monterey during World War II. Aboard the Monterey, Ford served in the South Pacific and came within inches of being swept out to the sea during a typhoon in the Philippine Sea in December 1944, according to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and Library.
Ford led the crew that battled a fire sparked by planes shaken loose in the storm, taking actions that some credited with saving the ship and many lives.
The ship was seriously damaged in the storm and resulting fire and had to be taken out of service. Ford spent the rest of the war ashore and was discharged in February 1946 as a lieutenant commander.
The keel-laying ceremony included many of Ford family members and dignitaries, including Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy.
"Today signifies the official first step in the construction and delivery of this lead ship of a new class," said Mike Petters, president of shipbuilding for Northrop Grumman.
After the ceremony, the keel was to be lowered in drydock 12 at the shipyard.
The Ford represents the first major carrier design change since the 1960s, when the 10-ship Nimitz class was introduced.
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Carter served with the Nuclear Navy? As a landlubber only!!!
The Liberal disaster Democrat Jimmy Carter never served aboard a nuclear submarine. Urban myth dispelled.
Too much politics
There's too much politics involved in naming ships anymore. We need to go back to naming carriers after famous battles instead of people. Ships should not be named after civilian leaders at all. Submarines should go back to being named after fish or sea life and cruisers after cities. I don't have a problem with boomer boats being named after states: they are powerful capital ships now.
Wow dude your getting bent over nothing
just wait I'm sure there will be a name after this president if he doesnt break us first. Oh wait he did i guess there will be one now
President Ford deserves this honor
President Ford not only served in combat, he held the country together in the aftermath of Watergate. He also began the process to restore the US military to what it should be in his response to the Mayaquez incident. Unfortunately, that restoration would leap backward again with the election of the Liberal Democrat disaster Jimmy Carter. And who knows, maybe in another 40 years the Navy will name a paint punt after Obama--even that would be a stretch for what he's done for the military.
A comparison
Ford directed a 40mm gun mount on a light carrier in the Pacific and was an assistant navigator. He did get 10 battle stars just for being there.
Carter graduated from the Naval Academy and served in the sub service. He was one of Admiral Rickover's chosen nuclear submariners and served with the nuclear navy. He only left the Navy when his family needed him to take charge of the family business. We actually had a nuclear engineer as a President when we most needed one: the time of the Three Mile Island disaster when companies were proposing building nuclear power plants all over the country without enough safety built into them to prevent serious disasters. Whereas other Presidents would have been buffaloed into letting this happen, Carter knew what safety measures needed to be taken to keep nuclear reactors safe. A nuclear submarine was named after him, most fittingly.
He also accomplished something no other U.S. President or other world leader has managed to: get a lasting peace agreement signed in the Middle East: the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. There's also the Carter Doctrine that we've based our Persian Gulf policy on ever since.
Hope it dosn't trip much
I really don't see why we are naming this after President Ford. I think a better deal would have been to name it Enterprise. CVN-65 will have been decommissioned for 3 years when Ford commissions. We need to stop naming these awesome ships after people who really don't deserve it. Bush? Come on, he may have served with distinction but he didn't deserve a carrier. Neither does Ford.
We need to bring back some of the past carrier names - Coral Sea, Ranger, Midway, Saratoga, Yorktown, Hornet, Independence, America, or even just to be really historical, the Langley. Any of these would be better than naming our carriers after presidents. We could also start naming them after states, since it seems we that the Boomers are no longer being named exclusively after states.
About ships named after states...
Your right about "Boomers" (SSBN's) not being named for states anymore. Part of the reason is that the last new SSBN, USS Louisiana, was commissioned over 12 years ago. Also, only one SSBN was not named for a state, the USS Henry M. Jackson. Currently, 11 of 12 named Virginia-class submarines are named for states not represented by a SSBN. The other is named for former VA Senator and former SECNAV John Warner. There is also a USS Independence (LCS 2) that is due to be commissioned early next year, so it is unlikely that name will be used for a new Ford-class carrier.
The boomers
With all the destructive power there is in ballistic missile submarines, I don't have a problem with them being named after states. Henry 'Scoop' Jackson from the state of Washington was instrumental in getting the boomers built, so for political reasons they named one after him. All attack boats should be named after fish or sea life like they once were.
There's too much confusion with how ships are named these days. The navy needs to get back to a set system and stick with it.
Attack submarine naming
I do tend to agree with those who argue that the names of today's SSNs don't sound as cool as those of the Cold War and WWII eras, with the USS Seawolf being the notable exception. Of course, it was ADM Rickover, who famously said "Fish don't vote!" to explain why he changed the tradition of naming subs after sea creatures to cities in order to garner support in Congress for the 688-class. I suppose if the Navy could remove the politics from the funding of a $2B warship, it could have more room to name subs in a more traditional way. Since that is unlikely to happen, I wouldn't be surprised to see 1 Seawolf class sub, 17 Ohio class, and 29 Virginia class subs named after states.
Aircraft Carrier Envy?
I wondered, having been a Norfolk citizen of 50 years, how other branches of the military feel about not having a similar attraction for America's medias; the Army could name a new base, if they were making new bases; the Air Force could name a new missle or airplane if only Congress would fund them; Why oh why cannot these services compete with the Navy?