To date, only six former presidents were “Navy men” – and that included John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush. Three of those former commander-in-chiefs have had aircraft carriers named for them, while JFK will be the first to have had two, the former Kitty Hawk-class variant CVN-67 and the future Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier CVN-79.
In the case of Johnson, a Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer was named in his honor, while a Sea Wolf-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine was named for Carter, who passed away last December at age 100. It was a fitting choice as Carter was the only submariner to serve in the Oval Office.
No warship has been named to date for Nixon, who served in the U.S. Naval Reserve despite being eligible for the draft as a birthright Quaker. Nixon, who remains the only president to resign from the highest office in the land, isn’t the only former president not to see a warship named for him.
The Presidents Without a Warship Bearing Their Name
Along with Nixon, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Benjamin Harrison, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover were without warships named for them. W.H. Harrison was president for just a month, and his service in the wars against the Native American tribes will likely disqualify him.
Tyler was notably a supporter of the Confederacy in the Civil War, while Taylor was also noted for the third-shortest presidential term, serving just 16 months.
In the case of the other former presidents, a combination of scandals and lack of memorable legacy likely played a factor in why they’ve been denied the honor of a warship bearing their names.
Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, Games A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and William McKinley also never had warships to bear their names, but various civilian and non-military vessels were named for them.
Honoring George Washington
It may be somewhat fitting that Founding Father and first President George Washington may top the list with the most warships to bear his name. The first was a schooner acquired before the country even declared independence. Originally named Endeavor, it was acquired by General Washington, who renamed it Washington. A row gallery was also named for the future president during the Revolutionary War – while the USS Washington was one of the 13 frigates authorized by the Continental Congress, only to be destroyed before commissioning.
The first true U.S. Navy, USS George Washington, was a 24-gun sloop-of-war commissioned in 1798, followed by USS Washington, a ship of the line that saw service after the War of 1812. During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy honored the father of the country with the USS George Washington (SSBN-598), the lead ship of a class of nuclear ballistic missile submarines that saw service from 1959 until 1985.
The current vessel to be named for the general and later president is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier (CVN-73). Commissioned in 1992, she completed her midlife complex overhaul (RCOH) in 2023, and recently returned to Yokosuka, Japan, serving as the only forward-deployed U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.
Other Supercarriers Named for Presidents
Six other Nimitz-class carriers have been named in honor of former presidents, and these include USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), USS Harry S. Truman (VN-75), USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77).
As noted, Gerald F. Ford was honored by having the Navy’s newest class of supercarriers named in his honor, and subsequent vessels of the class will include the second flattop named for Kennedy. In January, it was also announced that future carriers of the Ford class would bear the names of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
There could be some confusion as the future CVN-83, the sixth Ford-class carrier, will almost certainly see her service overlap with that of CVN-77 – meaning warships named for the father and son presidents could even be deployed together. How the two will be distinguished is a good question, but likely, the one named for the 41st president will be known as “the Bush” while the one for the 43rd president may be known as “W.”
A pair of vessels now in service honors the two presidents from the Roosevelt clan, but it gets a little confusing. CV-42, the second of three Midway-class aircraft carriers, was named for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Launched just four weeks after the death of FDR, she was commissioned in October 1945, becoming the first carrier named for a president. That carrier was decommissioned in 1977.
However, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG-80) was named to honor both the late president and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. Launched in 1999, that warship is still in service. As the destroyer is homeported at Naval Station Rota in Spain, she likely rarely crosses paths with the Bremerton, Washington-based CVN-71.
In addition to the carrier now named for Franklin’s distant cousin Theodore, two other vessels bore the name Theodore Roosevelt, including a troop transport (ID-1478) and a George Washington-class submarine (SSBN-600).
A troop transport had also previously been named for Lincoln, while another George Washington-class sub – SSBN-602 – was named for Honest Abe
The Other Founding Fathers and 19th Century POTUS
The second to fifth presidents – John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe – have had U.S. warships named for them. All were most recently honored with submarines that bore their respective names, and that included the James Madison-class ballistic missile submarine.
Likewise, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, James K. Polk, and Ulysses S. Grant seemed to have left enough of a mark that multiple vessels had been named for each of those men. By contrast, James Buchanan only briefly had a troop transport named after him before it was renamed USS Republic (AP-33), while Rutherford B. Hayes was honored with a President Jackson-class attack transport.
Finally, the Lafayette-class ballistic missile submarine USS Woodrow Wilson (SSBN-624) was in service from 1963 to 1994. That leaves the aforementioned Hoover and then Nixon as being the last two non-living former presidents not to see warships named in their honor.
What could come next? It is possible some of those late presidents could have a vessel bearing their name. Yet, given that it is the Secretary of the Navy, with input from the sitting president, who decides the names for future warships, we can only assume it could be a while until any vessel is named for Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
