THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 10, 1994 TAG: 9412100245
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
If Virginia Sen. John Warner has his way, Ronald Reagan would join Washington, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Kennedy as presidents with a modern aircraft carrier named after them.
In a letter to President Clinton, the state's senior senator said the designation would ``serve as a symbol of America's role, together with other nations of the free world, in successfully defeating Communism.''
During Reagan's two terms, the Navy undertook one of the most aggressive buildups in its history. The former president's defense and foreign policies ``laid the foundation for the decline and ultimate demise of European Communist nations,'' Warner wrote.
The Navy this week awarded a $2.5 billion contract for construction of the ship to Newport News Shipbuilding, the only yard building U.S. aircraft carriers. Work is expected to be complete in 2002. The ship is now known only as CVN-76.
The decision on naming the ship belongs to Navy Secretary John H. Dalton, a Democrat appointed by Clinton. Reagan is a Republican whose leadership Clinton often has praised but whose economic policies he has sought to reverse.
A ``U.S.S. Ronald Reagan'' would be the fifth Nimitz-class carrier built or approved. The carriers, the length of three football fields, carry more than 5,000 people to sea and are the world's largest warships.
The last two carriers named were the John C. Stennis, for a former senator, and the United States. Both are under construction at Newport News. by CNB