The Navy commissioned USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) on Saturday.
Delbert D. Black, an Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA guided-missile destroyer, is named for the service’s first Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON).
“Commissioning a ship after the first Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy is an honor without equal. The Navy has always been and will always be indelibly influenced by the leadership of our senior enlisted sailors epitomized by Delbert Black,” Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite said in a statement.
“They are the ones who teach both our junior enlisted as well as our junior officers what it means to lead,” he continued. “They lay the keel by which the Navy operates, and as such this ship named for one of the most influential master chiefs ever to wear three stars will be a visible reminder of their importance to our Navy.”
The destroyer, which was built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., will be based in Mayport, Fla., along with several other DDGs, the Pentagon said.
Delbert D. Black wrapped up acceptance trials earlier this year, USNI News previously reported.
The ship’s commissioning had been slated for 2019 but was delayed after Delbert D. Black was damaged pier-side during a March 2019 accident in the Pascagoula shipyard. During the incident, a heavy-lift vessel bringing a floating dry dock to Pascagoula crashed into a testing barge that was operating next to Black. The National Transportation Safety Board in its incident report assessed the damage costs to be between $15 million and $20 million.
