laststandonzombieisland

Ingalls last week authenticated the keel of the future Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Thad Cochran (DDG 135), named after a Cold War Navy veteran and former U.S. senator who represented Mississippi across four decades, from 1978 to 2018.

I generally loathe naming warships after politicians, but at least Ole Thad served underway.

After graduating from Ole Miss in 1959, Cochran was commissioned an ensign in the USNR and served aboard the USS Macon (CA-132), a WWII-era Baltimore-class heavy cruiser. He spent 18 months aboard Macon, eventually becoming the ship’s legal officer.

Upon the decommissioning of his cruiser, Cochran was transferred to New Orleans to complete the rest of his active tour assigned to the staff of the Commandant of the Eighth Naval District, then taught military law and naval orientation at OCS in Newport. Cochran completed his active service as a lieutenant in 1961.

While on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cochran championed funding for critical Navy shipbuilding programs– which, of course, helped Ingalls in Pascagoula– and supported military bases and installations across Mississippi and the nation. He is surely a big reason why half of the Burkes were built in the Magnolia State.

Cochran during a 2014 visit to Ingalls. He was a regular at the yard, as was Pascagoula-local Trent Lott back in the day

In recognition of Cochran’s military and civil service, the Trump-era NAVSEC, Richard V. Spencer, posthumously named the future DDG-135 after him in 2019.

As far as the class goes, as noted by Ingalls:

To date, Ingalls has delivered 35 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, including the first Flight III, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), and is currently constructing Ted Stevens (DDG 128), which recently completed its first builder’s sea trials and is currently underway for its second trials, Jeremiah Denton (DDG 129), George M. Neal (DDG 131), Sam Nunn (DDG 133), and Thad Cochran (DDG 135).