A Regicidal Proposal for Aircraft Carriers

By Luther Ray Abel

Friday, August 21, 2026

 

This post is in response to Why Would We Rename the USS Doris Miller Aircraft Carrier?

 

By Jim Geraghty

 

The U.S. Navy’s capital ships should not bear the names of politicians. Dead, living, or vegetative, a president or congressman should not have his name — an inherently partisan handle — slathered across one of our country’s greatest warships.

 

While serving aboard the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), named after the navalist congressman from Georgia, and trudged past the likes of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), I came to this view when “Carl Vinson, arriving” was announced by the OOD on the ship’s 1MC as the ship’s captain, Karl Thomas (the most captain-looking captain to ever command a ship), came aboard. Every day, “Carl Vinson” would come and go (rarely speaking of Michelangelo). Captain Thomas and his successor, Captain Verissimo, were both excellent (and have since made admiral), and they deserved a better moniker for the duration of their commands than that of a congressman.

 

This is the crux of the matter: One man’s name, no matter how great a president, admiral, or war hero he may have been, is ludicrous — positively insufficient — when assigned to a vessel as awesome as an aircraft carrier. So when I saw Jim’s piece this morning about the possible name-swap of the USS Doris Miller (CVN-81) to a “USS Donald J. Trump,” ahead of the planned USS William J. Clinton (CVN-82) and USS George W. Bush (CVN-83), the story and debate confirmed everything I dislike about modern carrier naming conventions.

 

Jim is right to take umbrage at the proposed renaming:

 

The good news is that neither CNN nor NBC News reports that President Trump himself has suggested, requested, or ordered the name change. No, this is entirely the work of some unctuous sycophant(s) trying to come up with some new way to impress the boss. Why stop at just renaming the ship? You might as well put his face on it and make the whole thing gold.

 

As with the efforts to fire Lisa Cook at the Federal Reserve, the hunt for another excuse to prosecute Olympic canoeist David Hearn, and decisions to put the president’s face on giant banners on federal buildings, the Trump administration specializes in picking stupid fights with no political upside.

 

One has to credit the Trump 1 administration for managing to put down a political sea mine — the naming of the future Doris Miller — into which the Trump 2 administration willingly tacked. Tremendous work, everyone.

 

But I’ll go much further than Jim. Not only should CVN-81 not be named in honor of Trump, but it also shouldn’t be named in honor of Doris Miller. The Ford (CVN-78) should be renamed along with the rest of its class to honor carriers of the past. Credit to the Navy for at least putting Enterprise back in rotation, but that should be the start rather than the anomaly. These are singular vessels with singularly incredible feats in wartime. While the USS Wasp lives on as an amphib, the Yorktown, Hornet, Essex, Intrepid, and Lexington are right there. Or, to send a message that America is back, get a Reprisal in the water.

 

But what of Doris Miller? We already have a class of vessels for individual war heroes: the Arleigh Burke destroyer. A battleship sailor, Doris Miller would be best honored with a vessel that functions for the fleet as his USS West Virginia did: defending airspace and sending payloads down range with a vengeance. Consider what the Arleigh Burkes have done in combating incoming attacks in the Middle East over the past couple of years.

 

Naval historians will point out that JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and H.W. all served honorably as officers, many in wartime. But none other than JFK and HW did things above and beyond a normal tour of duty, and JFK’s exploits were on fast-attack boats. Naming a Riverine unit or MEU after Kennedy is the most logical way to honor his service, while H.W. might be the exception to prove the rule, a torpedo bomber pilot who flew dozens of missions and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. George H.W. Bush is the standard, gentlemen.

 

The greatest sin of honoring politicians with aircraft carriers is this: It creates a perverse incentive for the White House to lobby for $13 billion carriers not because they’re what the Navy, and therefore the country’s defense, needs, but because today’s president wants tomorrow’s president (or his own admin) to hook him up with naming rights.

 

The presidency is imperial enough without the executive running around like a two-bit yacht club commodore. Get some two-part primer out and put some names we can be proud of on those big, beautiful hulls.