Why Would Obama Name a Navy Ship After a Communist Who Hated the Navy??

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Jane Jamison| 2 Comments

U.S. Navy Photo

Lawmaker blasts naming ship for Cesar Chavez

Gidget Fuentes of the Military Times writes about the Obama administration’s controversial plans to name a new Navy ship after the late immigration/union activist Cesar Chavez.
Investigative journalist Trevor Loudon of New Zeal and Key Wiki blogs has detailed Chavez life-time ties to the Community Party, along with other well-known activists Bert Corona, Saul Alinsky and Harry Bridges. [read here.]

Communist Party USA organizer Bert Corona and Cesar Chavez

Brian Sussman Show of KSFO Radio San Francisco posts a PBS archived article of Chavez where he says his two years in the Navy were “the worst two years of my life.” [read here.]

“In the early 1940s the Chavez family settled in Delano, a small farm town in the California’s San Joaquin valley, where Cesar would spend his teenage years. In 1946, 17 year-old Cesar Chavez enlisted in the Navy, spending what he would later describe as “the two worst years of my life.”

If he is looking for Latino namesakes, would Commander-in-Chief Obama name a Navy ship after a Communist who hated the Navy when there are TRUE Hispanic military heroes???

Military Times: “A California congressman on Tuesday criticized the Navy’s purported decision to name a new cargo ship after the late civil rights leader and union activist Cesar Chavez.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.)
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., was notified by a Navy official earlier Tuesday that the service planned to name the 14th and final ship in the Lewis-and-Clark class of cargo ships after Chavez, a spokesman for Hunter said.
“This decision shows the direction the Navy is heading. Naming a ship after Cesar Chavez goes right along with other recent decisions by the Navy that appear to be more about making a political statement than upholding the Navy’s history and tradition,” Hunter said in a news release.
Hunter, a Marine Corps veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said the Navy should consider naming a ship after the late Lt. John Finn, a World War II veteran who received the Medal of Honor, or the late Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004, when he died after smothering a grenade to save the lives of Marines nearby.

Sgt. Rafael Peralta AP/ U.S. Marine Photo
[ read about Peralta's bravery here.]
“Peralta is one of many Hispanic war heroes — some of whom are worthy of the same recognition,” Hunter said in the statement.
Joe Kasperc, a spokesman for Hunter, said the congressman believes many other people are more worthy of having a naval vessel bearing their name than the late labor leader.
“Where does someone like him fall into the mix?” Kasper said. “There’s a lot of other people better suited for a ship of this type than Cesar Chavez.”
Kasper said years ago, others’ efforts to name a post office after Chavez “ran into a bunch of resistance. Members of the Republican delegation refused to sign that because of concerns about some of his affiliations with communism … and Marxism,” he said.
The Lewis-and-Clark, or T-AKE, class of dry cargo ships are being built by General Dynamics NASSCO, a San Diego shipbuilder with a shipyard in the city’s Barrio Logan neighborhood, a gritty, industrial area with a largely Hispanic community that also neighbors Naval Base San Diego. The shipbuilder on May 10 marked the keel-laying of the 14th ship.
NASSCO had suggested the name to the Navy “because we are in Barrio Logan and want to be good neighbors, and we want to show respect for our workers,” company spokesman Jim Gill told the San Diego Union-Tribune in a story that ran Monday. The newspaper reported that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus was scheduled to make the official announcement Tuesday in San Diego.
NASSCO spokesmen could not be reached for comment as of midday Tuesday.
The Lewis-and-Clark ships are named for pioneers or explorers and include astronauts Alan Shepard and Wally Schirra, explorers Robert E. Peary, famed pilot Amelia Earhart and Medgar Evers, an African-America civil rights activist and World War II veteran for whom the 13th ship in the class was named.
Chavez, who was born in Yuma, Ariz., and rose to prominence in California’s Central Valley where he advocated for farm workers’ rights, served two years in the Navy, enlisting in 1944. He founded the United Farm Workers, a union that organized and lobbied for collective agreements and safe working conditions, according to biography posted on UFW’s website. He died in 1993 at age 66, and his widow received the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton in 1994.
Kasper said Hunter last year asked the Navy to name a ship after Finn, a veteran of the Pearl Harbor attacks honored for his actions exposing himself to gunfire while he manned machine guns to shoot down enemy Japanese airplanes attacking the base at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.
If the Navy wants to honor Hispanics, he said, Hunter believes it should consider Peralta, whose supporters have lobbied the military to upgrade his Navy Cross to the Medal of Honor. Peralta was a Mexican immigrant whose mother reportedly came to the U.S. illegally. “Peralta … was a legal resident alien,” Kasper said, and “should be honored for what he did.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer ( D - Calif.) supports naming ship after Chavez