New carrier named for Kennedy
The U.S. Navy’s next aircraft carrier will be named after the late John F. Kennedy, the popular 35th president who came to define a generation.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced the naming Sunday at the president’s namesake library in Boston on what would have been Kennedy’s 94th birthday.
The carrier, known until Sunday only as the CVN-79, is the second to be named after Kennedy, the 35th president. The conventionally powered carrier CV-67 was decommissioned in 2007 after nearly 40 years of service to the fleet, including a key role in Operation Desert Storm.