SECNAV Del Toro Names Four More Warships at SNA, 16 Ships Named This Month

January 15, 2025 7:32 PM
Secreatary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, speaks with Sailors aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), Jan. 8, 2025. US Navy Photo

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro named four more warships on Wednesday at the annual Surface Navy Association symposium.

Del Toro named three Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers and one Constellation-class guided-missile frigate. Those ships are the future USS Ray Mabus (DDG-147), USS Kyle Carpenter (DDG-148), and USS Robert R. Ingram (DDG-149) and USS Everett Alvarez Jr. (FFG-68).

“Everywhere that these ships sail it will represent the legacies of these four leaders and heroes who placed country over self and service above all else,” Del Toro said at the symposium.

Del Toro has named 16 ships in the last two weeks as his time as the Navy’s top civilian ends next week.

The future Ray Mabus is named for the SECNAV who served in the job for eight years during the Obama administration. Kyle Carpenter is named for Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, who was seriously injured when he saved another Marine in Helmand Province in 2010.

“Lance Cpl. Carpenter and a fellow Marine were manning a rooftop security position on the perimeter of Patrol Base Dakota when the enemy initiated a daylight attack with hand grenades, one of which landed inside their sandbagged position,” reads Carpenter’s biography on the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. Former President Barack Obama awarded Carpenter the Medal of Honor in 2014.

“Without hesitation, and with complete disregard for his own safety, Lance Cpl. Carpenter moved toward the grenade in an attempt to shield his fellow Marine from the deadly blast,” the bio continues. “When the grenade detonated, his body absorbed the brunt of the blast, severely wounding him, but saving the life of his fellow Marine.”

Robert R. Ingram is named for a former Navy corpsman who saved several Marines with the First Battalion, Seventh Marines in Vietnam in 1966.

“Though severely wounded three times, he rendered aid to those incapable until he finally reached the right flank of the platoon,” reads Ingram’s bio on the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. “While dressing the head wound of another corpsman, he sustained his fourth bullet wound. From sixteen hundred hours until just prior to sunset, Petty Officer Ingram pushed, pulled, cajoled, and doctored his Marines.”

Former President Bill Clinton awarded Ingram the Medal of Honor in 1998.

Everett Alvarez Jr. is named for retired Cmdr. Everett Alvarez Jr., who was shot down over Vietnam in 1964 and held captive and tortured in the North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp known as the Hanoi Hilton.

“He was the first American aviator shot down over Vietnam and the longest-held prisoner of war in North Vietnam, released 12 February 1973,” reads his bio Navy History and Heritage Command.

Del Toro announced the name of four submarines earlier this week, including three Block VI Virginia-class attack submarines and one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. The submarines are the future USS Potomac (SSN-814), the future USS Norfolk (SSN 815), the future USS Brooklyn (SSN 816) and the future USS Groton (SSBN-828). None of the four submarines are on contract yet due to ongoing negotiations between the Navy and builders HII’s Newport News and General Dynamics Electric Boat over cost increases.

Mallory Shelbourne

Mallory Shelbourne

Mallory Shelbourne is a reporter for USNI News. She previously covered the Navy for Inside Defense and reported on politics for The Hill.
Follow @MalShelbourne

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