By JERRY HARKAVY, Associated Press Writer
Sat May 10, 3:19 PM ET



BATH, Maine - The Navy's newest guided missile destroyer was christened Saturday with the name of a fighter pilot who spent 7 1/2 years in captivity in North Vietnam, received the Medal of Honor and served as presidential candidate Ross Perot's running mate.



Four Medal of Honor recipients and seven former prisoners of war attended the ceremony at Bath Iron Works that marked a milestone in construction of the 9,200-ton ship named for Vice Adm. James Stockdale.

Stockdale's widow, Sybil, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and uses a wheelchair, let loose a champagne bottle propelled by rope that swung across the Stockdale's bow. On the second try, the bottle exploded, the band broke into "Anchors Aweigh" and red, white and blue streamers filled the air.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080510/...le_christening

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Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.obamatruth.org/

My grandfather had a Haskell-class attack transport named after him.

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"You are just stuck in a box."

--Zaro

wow too cool!

__________________
Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.obamatruth.org/

That's awesome! Do you have any pictures or links?

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SUPPORT THE TROOPS: RIDE A BIKE

It's not very well known (it was a transport), but here's the Wiki article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Grimes_%28APA-172%29

When they retired her, they gave us the flag that they flew over the ship and we now have it framed (its really beat up, to say the least).

__________________

"You are just stuck in a box."

--Zaro

here is what this class looked like

__________________
Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.obamatruth.org/