SAN DIEGO — The U.S. Navy christened its newest John Lewis-class fleet replenishment oiler, USNS Thurgood Marshall, during a ceremony Saturday morning at the General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company shipyard in San Diego, adding the seventh ship of its class to the Navy’s Combat Logistics Force.
The christening took place on the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy, a deliberate connection the Navy drew to the ship’s mission of sustaining fleet operations at sea — echoing the role that logistics and replenishment vessels played in supporting the Allied victory in World War II.
Marine Corps Maj. Gen. David Bligh, Judge Advocate General of the Navy, delivered the principal address. Additional remarks were provided by Vice Adm. Doug Verissimo, Commander of Naval Air Forces and Naval Air Force U.S. Pacific Fleet; Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson, Commander of Military Sealift Command; and David Carver, President of General Dynamics NASSCO.
In a time-honored naval tradition, the ship’s sponsors — Cecilia L. Marshall and Melonie Tibbs, granddaughters of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, and granddaughter-in-law Alissa Kamens Marshall — christened the vessel by breaking a bottle of champagne across the bow.
T-AO 211 is named in honor of Justice Thurgood Marshall, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly 25 years. The ship marks the thirteenth naval logistics vessel named for a Supreme Court justice, a tradition dating to 1942 with the launch of the SS John Jay, which supported the Allied logistics buildup preceding the D-Day landings.
The John Lewis-class ships are built to commercial design standards and are operated by the Navy’s Military Sealift Command to provide underway replenishment of fuel to Navy vessels at sea, replacing the aging T-AO 187-class fleet.