Today, when supercarriers deploy to far off corners of the world, they represent four acres of sovereign U.S. territory. In an even more dramatic way than the flagships of past fleets, these movable air bases symbolize the nation that built them. These mammoth vessels are at the heart of naval operations, the core of any battle group, and the tip of any spear.
The U.S. Navy, cognizant of the importance of its greatest ships, traditionally exercised meticulous care in their naming. Battleships were named after the states; submarines tended to be named after various species of fish. As battleships disappeared from the vessel register, submarines began to be named for politically important cities and states.
Early aircraft carriers generally were named after either historic ships, such as the Enterprise, Intrepid, and Constellation or famous battles, such as Lexington, Saratoga, and Yorktown. Every now and then, exceptions arose, but in recent years a wholesale shift has occurred. The names attached to carriers started to come from the universe of U.S. Presidents, initially in sympathy to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy, both of whom died in office and had some connection to the Navy.
The names of a string of Presidents, including former military commanders Dwight Eisenhower and George Washington, subsequently were adopted. When the Navy announced several years ago that it was naming one of its carriers after President Harry Truman, more than a few eyebrows were raised—for it was Truman's administration that severely cut the carrier budget in the defense drawdown following World War II.
Along the way, the Navy loosened its criteria and politicians who advanced no further than defense appropriation chairmanships in the House and Senate were recognized—resulting in the Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and John C. Stennis (CVN-74) now roaming the seas. Nowhere in the Navy's news releases ballyhooing the naming of these carriers, however, was there mention of the less flattering aspects of the political careers of those being memorialized. The historical record reminds us that the late John Stennis, a long-serving senator from Mississippi who parlayed his considerable seniority into a fiefdom that doled out defense dollars, had vehemently resisted the dismantling of his state's notorious segregationist system.
The latest carrier, designated CVN77, recently was named after George H. W. Bush, only the second living ex-President to be so honored. From the pantheon of outstanding U.S. statesmen and patriots there could be no finer or more logical choice than the young naval aviator who distinguished himself at the controls of a torpedo plane in World War II and who later led U.S. forces to victory as commander-in-chief during the Persian Gulf War. The George H. W. Bush, slated to join the fleet in 2009, will be the last of the Nimitz class and a great opportunity to reestablish the Navy's customary policy on naming with the carriers that follow.
Using the first of the next generation of carriers, the CVN(X) class, to reestablish the naming traditions of the past would be quite fitting. Doing so would signal a welcome abandonment of the infectious politicization as well as the brazen self-indulgence that developed into a high art form in the prior administration. Otherwise, could there someday be a supercarrier named the William Jefferson (or even Hillary Rodham) Clinton?
Going back to the names of historic ships and famous battles would allow us to recalibrate how we project ourselves as a nation. Christened accordingly, our most visible symbols on the world stage would manifestly and uniformly reflect the inner strength of our ideals. Most important, sailors could take imperturbable pride in their floating homes with a reinvigorated sense of mission. It is worth remembering that adopted Texan Bush flew into combat from the deck of the San Jacinto (CVL-30), a carrier named, not inconsequentially, to honor the pivotal battle of Texas's war of independence.
Maybe the best solution for the inaugural ship of the next generation of supercarriers is to reach back more than half a century to a name that should have been used for a carrier in the late 1940s, but wasn't. To me there is an unmistakable resonance to the name USS United States.
Mr. Handleman, the author or editor of 17 aviation books, has been a pilot for 31 years and currently flies a vintage U.S. Navy airplane.