The occasion was attended dignitaries together with The honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the Home Emerita, U.S. Home of Representatives; Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy; U.S. Rep. Darelle Issa, California forty eighth District; U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs, California’s 51st District; Dolores Huerta, civil rights activist; Rear Adm. Brendan McClain, Particular Assistant wo Commander, U.S. Third Fleet; Steven Cade, Govt Director MSC; Capt. Micah Murphy, commander, Army Sealift Command Pacific, and Commander Process Pressure 33; in addition to executives and workers of NASSCO San Diego and members of the Kennedy household.
“Once we christen this ship, we’re recognizing the tenacity and the spirit of Robert Kennedy,” stated Pelosi.
The ship honors Robert F. Kennedy, an American lawyer and politician who served because the sixty fourth United States Lawyer Common from January 1961 to September 1964, throughout his brother John F. Kennedy’s presidency, the place he advocated for the civil rights motion, fought in opposition to organized crime and the Mafia, and involvement in U.S. overseas coverage associated to Cuba. Following his tenure as Lawyer Common, he served as a U.S. Senator from New York. In 1968, Robert Kennedy was thought-about a frontrunner for the Democratic Get together’s presidential nomination. Throughout a marketing campaign occasion in Los Angeles, in June of that 12 months, he was assassinated. A outstanding member of the Democratic Get together, Robert Kennedy has come to be seen by some historians as an icon of contemporary American liberalism.
“Like the opposite nice American Leaders honored by the ships of this class, Robert F. Kennedy contributed a lot to the freedoms we take pleasure in in the present day,” stated Cade throughout his remarks. “A champion of equality who sought to remove disparity and shut alternative gaps that plagued our nation throughout his lifetime. We’re very proud to be related to and eagerly look ahead to crusing a ship in his title.”
The ship was formally christened, when Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Robert Kennedy’s oldest baby and ship’s sponsor, broke the ceremonial bottle of champagne in opposition to the ship’s hull.
“The Navy is a preventing drive and a drive for peace,” stated Kennedy Townsend. “It’s becoming that the Secretary of the Navy named a category of ship after civil rights leaders like my father.”
The 746 foot Kennedy is the fourth ship within the John Lewis-class beforehand referred to as the TAO(X). This class of oilers has the power to hold 162,000 barrels of diesel ship gasoline, aviation gasoline and dry shops cargo. The upgraded oiler is constructed with double hulls to guard in opposition to oil spills and strengthened cargo and ballast tanks, and will likely be outfitted with a fundamental self-defense functionality, together with crew served weapons, degaussing, and Nixie Torpedo decoys, and has area, weight, and energy reservations for Shut In Weapon Methods akin to SeaRAMs, and an Anti-Torpedo Torpedo Protection System. The Lewis-class of oilers will change the present Kaiser Class fleet replenishment oilers and so they age out of the MSC fleet.
