Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro named a slew of future Navy ships this week, including the new line of T-AGOS ocean surveillance ships.
The new T-AGOS ocean surveillance ships will be the Explorer class, Del Toro announced Friday at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. The first two ships of the class will bear the names USNS Don Walsh (T-AGOS-25) and USNS Victor Vescovo (T-AGOS-26), according to a Navy news release.
Retired naval officer Don Walsh was an oceanographer known for his 1960 dive to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench with Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard. He also made dives to sunken battleship Bismarck and RMS Titanic. He died in November 2023.
This is the first vessel named after Walsh. Sponsors for the ship include Walsh’s wife and his daughter, Liz.
“The Walsh family is profoundly honored that the Navy has chosen to recognize Don Walsh’s lifetime of service and dedication by naming this new TAGOS ship after him. Don sometimes described being a kid in the San Francisco Bay area, daydreaming about where all those ships were going as they sailed to and for over the horizon; that little boy would certainly marvel that one day his legacy would be memorialized in such an enduring way,” Liz Walsh said at the naming ceremony, according to the Navy release.
Victor Vescovo, a retired Navy commander, is a venture capitalist who has also dived to Challenger Deep. He holds the world record for deepest dive of a crewed vessel and has completed the Explorers’ Grand Slam, meaning he has climbed the highest mountain on each continent and has been to both the north and south poles, according to the Navy release.
Following his dive to Challenger Deep, he completed the Five Deeps challenge, going to the lowest points in each ocean.
“It is a great privilege to honor my friend and colleague in the U.S. Navy and ocean exploration, Capt. Don Walsh. Vessels such as this upgraded T-AGOS class are essential to the U.S. Navy’s mission to safeguard the security of the world ocean as well as contribute to its greater understanding. I am also beyond honored to follow in Captain Walsh’s footsteps both to the bottom of the ocean and in the line of succession of naming these great ships,” Vescovo said in the the release.
Del Toro also named future San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock LPD-33 after 1st Lt. Travis Manion, a recipient of the Silver Star. USS Travis Manion (LPD-33) is the first ship named after the Marine, according to a Navy release.
Manion died in Iraq in April 2007 after his unit was ambushed. He helped recover a fellow Marine, exposing himself to enemy fire and then doing so once again to rescue another Marine. He did so a third time in order to find a better fighting position. He was killed by a sniper, according to the release.
The Travis Manion Foundation was created in his honor.
“Through the words he spoke before his final deployment, ‘If Not Me, ThenWho…’, Travis left a legacy of service that lives on through the hundreds of thousands of veterans and families of the fallen across the country who share this ethos. Today, as our men and women continue to serve on the front lines, I know Travis would want this ship to be a tribute to this entire generation of veterans and a reminder to honor and remember their service and sacrifice,” Chairman Emiretus retired Col. Thomas Manion said in the release.
On Thursday, Del Toro also named a third Bethesda-class expeditionary medical ship. USNS Portsmouth (EMS-3) is named for both the Virginia city and Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. It is the fifth ship to be named Portsmouth.
