The Navy‘s civilian chief has introduced that one of many future America-class amphibious assault ships can be named USS Fallujah — an honor that has been quietly mentioned in Navy circles for years.
“The long run USS Fallujah will commemorate the First and Second Battles of Fallujah, American-led offensives through the Iraq Battle,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro introduced Tuesday in a press launch. He famous that the identify “follows the custom of naming amphibious assault ships after the U.S. Marine Corps‘ battles.”
The pair of battles, fought within the spring and winter of 2004, are thought of the bloodiest engagements of the Iraq Battle, with greater than 100 coalition forces killed and over 600 wounded. The battle additionally led to the emergence of heroes like Maj. Douglas Zembiec, who would change into referred to as “The Lion of Fallujah,” and Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who absorbed a grenade blast together with his physique, saving close by Marines.
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Peralta could be honored with a posthumous Navy Cross and a destroyer named in his honor.
The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David Berger, mentioned that the battle “is, and can stay, imprinted within the minds of all Marines and serves as a reminder to our Nation, and its foes, why our Marines name themselves the world’s best” within the Navy’s assertion.
Berger’s spouse, Donna, was named because the ship’s sponsor — an honorary place that affords her the chance to be current in any respect main development milestones for the ship and, based on the Navy, “will symbolize a lifelong relationship with the ship and crew.”
The ship would be the ninth “touchdown helicopter assault,” or LHA, ship to be constructed. Although the primary ship of the category went into service in 1976, the Navy modernized and altered the design with the united statesAmerica, LHA-6, which was commissioned in 2014.
The push to call a ship for the now-iconic battle goes again years. In 2011, a Twitter account was created with the username “USS_Fallujah.” The account’s biography says it belongs to “a bunch devoted to naming LHA-9 for the Marines who fought there, [and] gripe about DoD ship naming coverage.” One of many account’s first tweets, made in November 2011, was to notice that “7 years in the past the toughest combat of OIF was raging in Fallujah” and name for a LHA to be named of their honor.
In 2012, a retired Navy officer and revered army blogger who goes by the pseudonym CDR Salamander, proposed a USS Fallujah as properly.
By 2016, different retired Navy officers had joined the refrain of supporters clamoring for such an honor. Army.com reported that Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and former director of naval historical past for the service, submitted Fallujah as a ship identify twice — together with for the seventh LHA, which might finally be christened USS Tripoli.
Hendrix advised Army.com in a telephone name Wednesday that, within the early 2010s, “There was some query, because the wars have been nonetheless waging, whether or not we must be naming ships after battles in campaigns that have been nonetheless ongoing.
“However, clearly, that point has handed … and it is nice to see this most instant, previous era of Marines be honored for his or her sacrifices within the Wars on Terror.”
Whereas the selection has been a very long time coming, Hendrix famous that “it has been very clear from the start that this battle was the battle that might should be remembered.”
Huntington Ingalls Industries introduced in October 2022 that it had received a $2.4 billion contract to construct the long run LHA-9, including that development was scheduled to start in December 2022. The corporate can also be constructing Fallujah’s predecessor, the long run USS Bougainville, or LHA-8.
— Konstantin Toropin may be reached at konstantin.toropin@army.com. Observe him on Twitter @ktoropin.
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