WE, your Memorialists, the Members of the 124th Legislature of the State of Maine now assembled in the Second Regular Session, most respectfully present and petition the Secretary of the United States Navy, as follows:

WHEREAS,  there have been 2 United States Navy vessels over the years named the USS Belknap after 2 admirals of the United States Navy, Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap, 1832-1903, and his son, Rear Admiral Reginald Rowan Belknap, 1871-1959; and

WHEREAS,  the first USS Belknap (DD-251) was a destroyer launched in 1919 and decommissioned in 1945 after a career of valiant service; and

WHEREAS,  the second USS Belknap (DLG/CG-26), the lead ship of her class, was a guided missile cruiser in service from 1964 to 1995 and was built at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, a prominent and historic shipyard; and

WHEREAS,  the second USS Belknap was severely damaged in a collision with the USS John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1975, resulting in the loss of 8 lives; and

WHEREAS,  the USS Belknap was reconstructed by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, this time with her superstructure made of steel, which because of the accident became the standard for all ships in classes of surface combatants; and

WHEREAS,  the USS Belknap returned to sea in 1980 and served with distinction over the years as a flagship and played an important role in the 1989 Malta Summit meeting of President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, when the President had his sleeping quarters on the ship; and

WHEREAS,  the second USS Belknap was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1995 and sunk as a target at sea in 1998; and

WHEREAS,  in Bath, Maine, the site of the construction of the second USS Belknap, Bath Iron Works is building 5 new Arleigh Burke destroyers, and this would be a perfect opportunity to resurrect the distinguished name of the USS Belknap, named after 2 notable and patriotic Navy officers; now, therefore be it