![]() NASSCO, the last major shipyard still using the practice, plans to simply float future vessels into the bay to save time and money. to ride the ways - or support rails - into the water. The 689-foot Cesar Chavez apparently will be the final large vessel in the U.S. Saturday’s launch also appears to have made maritime history. The last time NASSCO built more vessels for the Navy was during the early 1970s, when it constructed 17 landing ships. The launch of the Cesar Chavez wrapped up an 11-year, $6.2 billion effort to improve the Navy’s ability to deliver supplies and ammunition across the globe. One of the largest shipbuilding programs in local history ended with a big splash Saturday night when the last of 14 cargo ships built for the Navy by General Dynamics NASSCO slid into San Diego Bay as 7,000 spectators roared and fireworks arced overhead. The U-T San Diego ran an article on the event, but focused more of the industrial aspects: ![]() Today, about 60% of the workers at NASSCO are Mexican-American and Latino. I was a farm worker before and he came to organize us up in the Salinas area and I was a part of that movement.” One of those in attendance at the evening ceremony was Jorge Aguilar, a supervisor at NASSCO, who knew firsthand during the seventies about the poor working conditions of migrant workers whom Chavez organized. “This the perfect name of an American hero who embodied American values that will inspire a generation of sailors.” Some have called on the Navy to explain its choice, calling the naming a political statement that does not follow Navy protocol.ĭuring the ceremony at NASSCO, the assistant secretary of the Navy, Juan Garcia, answered these critics: “Naming a ship after César Chávez goes right along with other recent decisions by the Navy that appear to be more about making a political statement than upholding the Navy’s history and tradition.”Īnd more currently, Senate Republicans have taken up the cause of opposing the ship name. A year ago, local Congressional rep Duncan Hunter, Jr., raised his opposition to the name when the Navy secretary first announced it. Conservatives have been objecting to what they perceive as the politicization of the naming of Navy ships, and in particular to the naming of the ship after a labor leader. Yet another controversy has been brewing for a year. The family did finally relent and agreed ot the naming after they learned that the ship would be used to take carry supplies like food to other ships. ![]() The naming of the Navy supply ship after Chavez – who served in the Navy for two years – had its controversies, however.Īt first, the Cesar Chavez family did not want the ship named after him, as he led the migrant worker movement as a non-violent advocate, and renounced violence. ![]() The cargo ship then slid into San Diego Bay, witnessed by about 7,000 people – many of whom had worked on the ship, amidst overhead fireworks. His widow cracked the champagne bottle and christened the USNS Cesar Chavez at the San Diego shipyard owned by General Dynamics NASSCO near Barrio Logan. On Cinco de Mayo, the Navy’s newest ship was christened in honor of the late Mexican-American labor leader Cesar Chavez.
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