Migration
New Navy destroyer to be named for former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn
Stars and Stripes
May 7, 2019
Retired Gen. Jim Mattis talks with former Sen. Sam Nunn before Mattis' secretary of Defense confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Jan. 12, 2017. (Joe Gromelski/Stars and Stripes)
Retired Gen. Jim Mattis talks with former Sen. Sam Nunn before Mattis' secretary of Defense confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Jan. 12, 2017. (Joe Gromelski/Stars and Stripes)
An artist's rendering of the future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sam Nunn (DDG 133). (U.S. Navy illustration )
The U.S. Navy announced it will name a future Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in honor of former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn.
“His leadership in the Senate, specifically as the long-serving chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, helped streamline the military chain of command and strengthen our Navy and Marine Corps team," said Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer in a Tuesday statement from the service. "I am pleased that Senator Nunn’s legacy of service to our nation will continue in the future USS Sam Nunn.”
Nunn served in the Coast Guard from 1959 to 1960 and stayed in the Coast Guard Reserve through 1968. He represented Georgia in the Senate from 1972 to 1997. He drafted the 1986 Department of Defense Reorganization Act, a reorganization of the nation's military command. With Sen. Richard Lugar, he pushed for the 1991 Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which funded the dismantling of Soviet-era nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
The USS Sam Nunn (DDG 133) will be built in Pascagoula, Miss., by Huntington Ingalls Industries.