USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118) was built by Bath Iron Works.
More than 1,000 guests including servicemembers, veterans, and their families witnessed as the Navy’s 69th Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer joined the fleet.
The ship honors the local hero and statesman, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. Sen. Inouye was a U.S. senator from Hawaii who served in congress from 1962 until his death in 2012. During World War II, Inouye served in the U.S. Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team, one of the most decorated military units in U.S. history. For his combat heroism, which cost him his right arm, Inouye was awarded the Medal of Honor.
During the ceremony, Ken Inouye, Daniel Inouye’s son, thanked the crew and the commissioning committee for honoring his father.
“I hope that in the spirit of aloha and the spirit of ohana you all consider yourselves a part of our ohana,” said Inouye.
The commissioning ceremony coincided with 80th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Remembrance commemoration events and caps a weeklong series of events celebrating the ship and its namesake. On December 7, 1941, Inouye was a 17-year-old senior at Honolulu’s McKinley High School, and rushed to a Red Cross aid station to help civilians and Sailors wounded in the attack.
USS Daniel Inouye, the first U.S. warship to bear its name, is nearly 510 feet in length and has a navigational draft of 33 feet. Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers are the backbone of the U.S. Navy’s surface fleet and critical to the future Navy. They are highly capable, multi-mission ships, and can conduct a variety of operations, from peacetime presence and crisis management, to sea control and power projection – all in support of the United States military strategy.
https://www.navalnews.com/naval-new...sions-its-69th-arleigh-burke-class-destroyer/