All The Way With LBJ

[4thofeleven]

I always thought it was kind of odd that the US navy commissioned a ship the USS Winston Churchill - It seems to me there's more than enough famous Americans that their navy should not be using the names of foreign leaders.

Still, Churchill's a pretty famous individual, and Americans seem to have an odd attachment to him, so it's not entirely unexpected that they'd name a ship after him. Less understandable is why the Americans would name a warship after Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt...

Let me give a little background for the non-Australians in the audience. Harold Holt was Prime Minister in the late 60s, and was a strong supporter of the US-Australian Alliance, committing thousands of Australian troops to the war in Vietnam.

This is not what he is famous for.

In Australia, he is remembered most for his... disappearance. In December, 1967, he went for a swim in Port Phillip Bay. He was never seen again. After two days of searches, he was declared 'presumed dead'. In one of the less tasteful memorials in history, a swimming pool complex in Glen Iris was later named in his honour.

Basically, if you say "Harold Holt" to any Australian, they will think "That Prime Minister who vanished while swimming". To find out that another country thought him important enough to name a warship in his honour... well, it makes me wonder why the US Navy managed to avoid commissioning a USS William Harrison or a USS James Garfield. I mean, if you're going to name ships after people famous only because they died in office, you should at least stick to people from your own country...

Comments

[lyore.livejournal.com]

I amused they sunk it as a target... it's probably bad form to do that to ships named after your own presidents! :P