Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding once again christened a destroyer for the US Navy on 24 April. The Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) was supposed to go through this ceremony last year, but the pandemic threw a spanner in the Navy's works. The ceremony is named after a nurse who was one of the first women to join the newly established Navy Nurse Corps in October 1908. As part of a group that later became known as "The Sacred Twenty", she was also one of the first women in the United States Armed Forces. After rising to the rank of second superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, Higbee retired in 1922. In 1918, she became the first living woman to be awarded the Navy Cross for her extraordinary achievements.
The destroyer now named after her belongs to Flight IIA of the Arleigh-Burke-class. With a length of 160 metres, these ships displace around 9300 tonnes. In addition to the 127-millimetre gun, the main armament consists of two vertical launching systems with 64 and 32 cells respectively. These can fire SM-2 or Tomahawk missiles, as well as Asrocs. The crew consists of 380 men and women. The Higbee is the 34. Arleigh-Burke-destroyer, which was built at Huntington Ingalls.
Text: mb; Photo: Huntington Ingalls Shipbuilding
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