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History
USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81)
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History


USS Winston S. Churchill is a 9,500-ton, 509-foot long, Aegis equipped Arleigh Burke-Class destroyer. It is the 31st Arleigh Burke Class destroyer to be built for the U.S. Navy and is capable of fighting air, surface, and subsurface battles simultaneously. The ship was built by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, taking five years to build. She was launched on April 17, 1999 and commissioned at her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia on March 10, 2001. Mrs. Janet Langhart Cohen, the ship’s sponsor and wife of the then-Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, commissioned the ship alongside Lady Mary Soames, the daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, and the ship’s honorary sponsor from the United Kingdom. Uniquely, Churchill is the only U.S. Navy vessel to have a Foreign Naval Officer permanently assigned to the ship's company. The Navigator is, and has been since the ship’s commissioning, a British Royal Navy Officer.  It is also the only U.S. Naval vessel to fly a foreign ensign; the Royal Navy's White Ensign is flown as well as the Stars and Stripes. She is the 5th U.S. warship to be named in honor of an Englishman and the 16th warship to be named after a foreign national, she is the only one in active service today. The mission of the Churchill is to provide a forward naval presence and ensure the world’s oceans remain free and accessible to all.

 
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