Bob wrote in message
om...
Anybody else bothered by the naming of US aircraft carriers after
people who were still living at the time?

Yes. The risk is that the person will do something to disgrace their name
and then the name of the ship. If the person is deceased, then that risk
goes down considerably.

I remember a situation in the midwest where a University (which had no
building naming policy) named a building after a beloved football coach that
was still alive and still coaching and not all that old either. Later
someone filed a complaint against the coach for something and there was an
investigation which revealed all types of wrongdoing - financial,
recruiting, and otherwise. After that, the University changed the name of
the building which caused an even bigger scandal because then the coach and
the family felt that they were wronged...etc..etc. Changing the name of
the building cost the University quite a bit of money too. You can rest
assured that after that incident, the University came up with a building
naming policy that included, among other things, that the person had to be
deceased for five years before their name could be submitted for a building.
Its not foolproof, but I guess they decided that if something bad was going
to show up, it would show up within five years of the person's death.

And in answer to another poster's question, I believe that the USS (The)
Sullivans is still a commissioned ship.


JD