Thursday, November 14, 2019

Destroyer Named After Thad

Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith issued the following statement. 

U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today praised a decision by Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer to name a future guided-missile destroyer after her predecessor, the late U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).

Hyde-Smith said Spencer made the decision to honor Cochran by naming a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer for the Pontotoc native.  Cochran, who resigned
in April 2018 and passed away on May 30, 2019, was a Navy veteran who represented Mississippi in the U.S. Congress for almost 46 years.

 “Thad Cochran was a statesman who dedicated his life to serving his nation and his state.  A future USS Thad Cochran destroyer is a fitting tribute to a leader whose service in the Navy was a touchstone for how he conducted himself as a public servant,”

Hyde-Smith said.  “I commend Navy Secretary Spencer and the Department of Defense for honoring a very special son of Mississippi in this way.”

Spencer has sole authority to name Navy vessels, with guided-missile destroyers named to honor members of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard; former secretaries and assistant secretaries of the Navy; and members of Congress closely identified with naval affairs.

“From his service as a legal officer aboard the heavy cruiser USS Macon, to his dedicated work on behalf of our Sailors and Marines on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Thad Cochran was always a strong advocate for our nation’s defense and a courtly voice for cooperation and civility in American politics,” said Spencer.  “We mourned his passing this May, but his legacy will live on wherever this Arleigh Burke-class destroyer may serve.”

Hyde-Smith, who like Cochran serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, committed to working to secure funding to continue Navy procurement of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers,
currently built at shipyards in Pascagoula, Miss., and Bath, Maine.  These ships are capable of fighting air, surface, and subsurface battles simultaneously.

The Senate Appropriations Committee in September approved a FY2020 Defense Appropriations Bill that recommends a $390 million increase for long lead materials for three
DDG-51 destroyers in FY2021.

Cochran, who ended his Senate career as chairman of both the Senate Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Defense, began his military career at the University
of Mississippi with the Navy ROTC.  Cochran was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve and assigned to duty aboard the USS MACON, becoming the ship’s legal officer after graduating as an honor student from the U.S. Navy School of Justice in Newport, Rhode Island.  He also became qualified as Officer of the Deck, in port and underway.  Later, Cochran was assigned to the staff of the Commandant of the Eighth Naval District in New Orleans, Louisiana, to complete his two-year tour of active duty in the Navy.

Cochran served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978.  He was the 10th longest-serving senator in the history of the United States.


28 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you are good to the Military Industrial Complex then it will be good to you.

Anonymous said...

Appropriate considering how much damage Cochran caused in his 46 years of office.

Anonymous said...

It is fitting. Did Thad ever vote against sending Mississippians to a foreign war?

Anonymous said...

We (our elected officials) just love to name things for each other. I'm sure Cochran was a fine man, was kind to old people and dogs and went to church every Sunday. But what he did for the State of Mississippi was what he was supposed to do, what he was paid to do. Yes he was in the Navy for a couple of years, but there is an almost endless list of members of the U.S. Navy who gave their lives for this country who are far more deserving of this honor than Thad Cochran. Aren't there enough things named for him already?

Anonymous said...

Would be fitting if it was kept in a harbor not owned by the U.S.

Anonymous said...

Wow! You people need therapy for your negative cynicism. How does a name on a boat provoke such bs?

Anonymous said...

11:28 + 1, y’all need to get a life...or maybe so do I since I spent the last few minutes reading your gripes and trying to come up with a witty response...

Anonymous said...

Absolute best way to honor Senator Cochran would be to name the ship the USS Porkulus.

Anonymous said...

I pity the poor souls who have so much bitterness and hatred pent up. Life is too short to spend it spouting vile and bitter thoughts. None of y’all would even be able to walk in Thad’s shadow.

Anonymous said...

@1:27
Never worship a man. Neither Senator or President is worthy of reverence. If you honestly think politicians are heroes then you are totally lost.
Look at the absolute state of this country and people like Thad and Bennie are equally culpable.

Anonymous said...

Thad Cochran was one of the most efficient and effective congressmen that any state ever sent to Washington. The positive things he did for the State of Mississippi are too numerous to mention. Naming a building and a warship for this remarkable man is the very least we can do to keep his memory alive. Senator Thad Cochran was a gentleman’s gentleman. Rest In Peace.

Anonymous said...

Bennie? Hell, Bennie has never brought the first dollar or job to his district. If you disagree, please post evidence.

Cynical Sam said...

@4:09 PM - I beg to differ, sir. He brought staffer jobs to his district offices. :)

Anonymous said...

Thad Cochran was a good ole' boy POS. ALL he did was get Mississippi completely addicted to federal money. When the music stops, millions will be asking "What do you mean there's no money?" Because the state dollars are being raped and pillaged by the education industrial complex in Mississippi. No roads, bridges, mental health system, nor educational system....and they're naming a billion dollar boat on the pusher man who made it happen. Good GOD is Mississippi in dark straits intellectually.

Cynical Sam said...

But, but, he "brought home the bacon."

What's the national debt these days?

Anonymous said...

"... Dedicated his life to serving nation and state..' Until it was time to retire and then he pretended he could serve six more years and thereby denied the voters the right to chose his successor and put any who wished that seat and weren't chosen by the power brokers at a huge disadvantage.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps . . . one day, in the very VERY distant future . . . we can have an aircraft carrier
named the USS Bennie Thompson.

Anonymous said...

Cynical Sam - how much smarter do you think you are than everyone else? I have yet to see one positive post from you on any thread. You are always tearing others down. It would be one thing if you demonstrated a shred of intelligence while doing so. Instead, you chose to be stupid and mean at the same time. No way to go through life, kid...

Anonymous said...

I'm not going to pile the hate in Sen. Cochran. But what happened to naming ships after glorious victories or terrifying creatures?

Anonymous said...

Thad Cochran was a true public servant. He worked hard for decades to improve Mississippi. He represented out state with charm dignity and great intelligence. We were lucky to have him. I wish we had him back.

Anonymous said...

Not to knock Thad, but to name a warship after him, especially an Arleigh Burke, is rather odd. Arleigh Burke served in the U.S. Navy for nearly 40 years, in 2 wars,was awarded the Nacy Cross, three NDSMs and a Silver Star. Thad was in for a couple years during peacetime. Now, if Huntington Ingalls was paying for this ship, by all means it (and its predecessors) have billions of reasons to name a warship after him, but the U.S. Navy, not so much.

That said, if Mississippi wants to name something else after him, it doing so would be at least arguably reasonable. For example, if Jackson and Oxford "farm to table"/"nouvelle southern cuisine" type restaurants want to come up with a pork loin stuffed with secret sausage and comeback-infused cornbread, that might be a more-suitable tribute to the man and his legend.

Franklin said...

10:09.

Rarely does a comment so plainly reveal the writer as a pompous windbag.

And the knowledge of “secret sausage” reveals a good bit more.

Good to know JJ fanbase extends to San Francisco

At Least It's Not Named For Mabus (yet) said...

(1) "Appropriate considering how much damage Cochran caused in his 46 years of office. November 14, 2019 at 9:57 AM"

Name one. We'll wait.

(2) "It is fitting. Did Thad ever vote against sending Mississippians to a foreign war?"

Can you post the date and results of ANY such vote?

(3) Without men like Stennis, Eastland, Sonny Montgomery, Cochran and Lott, many portions of this state would resemble the Mississippi Delta. It's a congressman's/senator's job to bring home a little bacon.

Half the buildings, runways and ditches in West Virginia are named for a Klansman who served in high office for 51 years. At least the efforts of OUR men brought tens of thousands of lasting jobs to this state.

Anonymous said...

The McDanielites are out in force on this thread. Boy y’all sure are still butthurt from the whooping Thad put on him. Look snowflakes your boy lost and is now an irrelevant has-been that never was. So get over it and move on.

Anonymous said...

10:09 PM here. First, it is hilarious that at least one commenter thought of homosexuality and SF on the mention of "sausage" rather than the very common political reference to sausage-making and most folks not wanting to know how it is made. I also find it pretty humorous that so many folks in a "conservative" state like Mississippi have no problem with excess pork for themselves, but abhor it for others. And I find it sad that with all the pork that has flowed into Mississippi, it is still near the bottom of so many lists of positive things and near the top of so many lists of negative things. Maybe if the people of Mississippi had a little less pork the state wouldn't have the health and obesity issues it has.

As to my original point, Thad simply did not have a distinguished naval career during warfare or conflict nor did he have much of a military career at all. I assign no blame and intend no slight to him because of it (he served a couple of years around 1960, so he had no opportunity to serve during a war) and it has nothing to do with him being a "good" or "bad" politician. If a political building were named for him, it would at least be arguably appropriate. Would reasonable people question if Faulkner were named to a sports hall of fame for his literary work, or if Manning were named to a literary hall of fame for his sports career? I suggest they would, so it seems equally questionable for a man with no substantive military career to have an Arleigh Burke bear his name.

Anonymous said...

Thanks 10:39 & 2:02 - Truth!

Anonymous said...

@11:48
the average IQ of Mississippians are in the double digits. Things are the way they are because of this. Everyone with triple digit IQ flees.

Anonymous said...

11:48 - Who the hell are you to evaluate Cochran's military service?

You also made this insipid remark: "I also find it pretty humorous that so many folks in a "conservative" state like Mississippi have no problem with excess pork for themselves.."

Newsflash: People in 50 states find fault with the pork brought to the other 49 while relishing that which lands in their own. It's silly of you to suggest otherwise. You must not be from 'round here or you'd know this poor state has been the recipient of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in wages and taxes that have resulted from 'pork'. Get the hell out of here with your nonsense!


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