I’d like some of the old names to return to the list. Yorktown, Lexington, Bunker Hill, Hornet, Saratoga. Name ships for cities, states, war heroes and famous battles. Name them after some of the most famous naval aircraft - like Dauntless, Corsair. But Samuel Gompers? Really?
...indeed....!! I never knew they named American warships after British-born labor (or should it be “labour”) activists.... a bit of useless info here...
The USS SAMUEL GOMPERS (AD-37), a Samuel Gompers-class destroyer tender, was commissioned on 1 JUL 1967. USS SAMUEL GOMPERS served her country for 28 years, 3 months and 26 days, until decommissioned on 27 OCT 1995. After commissioning at the Bremerton, WA Naval Ship Yard, SAMUEL GOMPERS transited to her home port of San Diego, CA. She then began her regular cycle of Western Pacific deployments followed by time in home port. In the 1980s and 1990s SAMUEL GOMPERS deployments extended into the Indian Ocean as the US Naval presence grew in the Persian Gulf. USS SAMUEL GOMPERS was decommissioned in October 1995 and then sunk in a fleet exercise on 22 JUL 2003, off the coast of North Carolina.