HOUSTON — The Navy’s newest combat ship was put into active service following a commissioning ceremony Saturday, named after former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who was injured during a 2011 shooting.
Giffords told a crowd at the ceremony in Galveston that she was honored the 421-foot-long ship will carry her name and the vessel is “strong and tough, just like her crew.”
“I thought of you in my darkest days, the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines of the United States of America … You make me proud. You make America proud,” Giffords said as she stood next to her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, who was in the Navy.
Speakers including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said Giffords’ strength and courage made her worthy of being the namesake of the ship, the USS Gabrielle Giffords.
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