U.S. Navy Names Zumwalt Class Destroyer USS Lyndon B. Johnson

Sec­re­tary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced today the next Zumwalt-class destroy­er will be named the USS Lyn­don B. John­son.

The selec­tion of Lyn­don B. John­son, des­ig­nat­ed DDG 1002, con­tin­ues the Navy tra­di­tion of nam­ing ships after pres­i­dents and hon­ors the nation’s 36th president. 

The USS Lyn­don B. John­son is the 34th ship named by the Navy after a U.S. president. 

“I am pleased to hon­or Pres­i­dent John­son with the nam­ing of this ship,” Mabus said. “His ded­i­ca­tion to a life of pub­lic ser­vice includ­ed brave­ly step­ping for­ward to fight for his coun­try dur­ing our entry into World War II.” 

A Texas con­gress­man, John­son was the first mem­ber of Con­gress to enlist in the mil­i­tary fol­low­ing the start of World War II. After his naval ser­vice, John­son was elect­ed to the U.S. Sen­ate in 1948, where he served as both minor­i­ty and major­i­ty leader before being elect­ed vice pres­i­dent Nov. 8, 1960. 

Fol­low­ing Pres­i­dent Kennedy’s assas­si­na­tion Nov. 22 1963, John­son suc­ceed­ed to the pres­i­den­cy, fin­ished the remain­ing term, and was reelect­ed for a full term as pres­i­dent, by the great­est per­cent­age of total pop­u­lar vote (61 per­cent) ever attained by a pres­i­den­tial candidate. 

Johnson’s time as pres­i­dent was marked by the pas­sage of pro­grams that great­ly influ­enced and impact­ed edu­ca­tion, health­care and civ­il rights for gen­er­a­tions to come. He signed the Civ­il Rights Act of 1964 into law, enact­ing com­pre­hen­sive pro­vi­sions pro­tect­ing the right to vote and guard­ing against racial dis­crim­i­na­tion. His work on civ­il rights con­tin­ued with the pas­sage of the Vot­ing Rights Act, which guar­an­teed vot­ing rights for all peo­ple, regard­less of race. 

John­son signed leg­is­la­tion estab­lish­ing Medicare, which allowed mil­lions of elder­ly Amer­i­cans access to cheap­er med­ical ser­vices. He also launched the Head Start Pro­gram, which pro­vid­ed preschool chil­dren from low-income fam­i­lies with class­es, med­ical care, and oth­er services. 

As a naval offi­cer, John­son request­ed a com­bat assign­ment after the attack on Pearl Har­bor and served in the Pacif­ic the­ater dur­ing World War II. After return­ing from active duty ser­vice, John­son report­ed back to Navy lead­ers and Con­gress on what he believed were deplorable con­di­tions for the warfight­ers, and con­tin­ued to fight for bet­ter stan­dards for all mil­i­tary members. 

USS Lyn­don B. John­son will be the third Zumwalt-class (DDG 1000) destroy­er. Con­struc­tion began on the ship at Gen­er­al Dynam­ics-Bath Iron Works April 4 and is expect­ed to deliv­er to the Navy in fis­cal 2018. The mul­ti­mis­sion DDG 1000 class destroy­ers are designed for sus­tained oper­a­tions in the lit­torals and land attack and will pro­vide inde­pen­dent for­ward pres­ence and deter­rence, sup­port spe­cial oper­a­tions forces, and oper­ate as an inte­gral part of joint and com­bined expe­di­tionary forces. This war­ship inte­grates numer­ous crit­i­cal tech­nolo­gies, sys­tems, and prin­ci­ples into a com­plete warfight­ing sys­tem. Zumwalt ships will be 600 feet in length, have a beam of 80.7 feet, dis­place approx­i­mate­ly 15,000 tons, and capa­ble of mak­ing 30 knots speed. Each ship will have a crew size of 148 offi­cers and Sailors. 

Media may direct queries to the Navy Office of Infor­ma­tion at 703–697-5342. For more news from sec­re­tary of the Navy pub­lic affairs, vis­it www.navy.mil/SECNAV .

Addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about the Zumwalt-class destroy­er is avail­able online at http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&tid=900&ct=4 .

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)