Leaders OK naming U.S. Navy ship ‘Navajo’

Posted by Donovan Quintero | Jun 30, 2017 | News |

Photo courtesy of marinelog.com
A tug and rescue-salvage ship similar to this will soon replace the older T-ATF Powhatan Class fleet ocean tugs and will be named “Navajo,” according to a press release from the Navajo Nation speaker’s office.

WINDOW ROCK

The Navajo Nation and U.S. Navy are on their way to becoming official partners and may one day help patrol the waters of the world, thanks to efforts of U.S. Sen. John McCain, who chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Forces, the 22nd Navajo Nation Council’s Naabik’iyáti’ Committee and the secretary of the Navy.

The USNS Navajo, a T-ATS Class Tug and Rescue-Salvage ship, which is scheduled to be built after a resolution passed by Naabik’iyáti’ in November of 2014 to support the ship naming, urged the Navy to do so.

“The naming of the first ship essentially names the entire class of ships,” read the 2014 NABI resolution. “So if the first T-ATS ship was named the ‘USNS Navajo,’ all of the ships would be referred to as the ‘Navajo Class’ of ships.”

The ship will be one of eight tug-and-salvage ships the Navy, which has a tradition of naming such ships after a Native American tribe, is scheduled to build, according to a June 28 press release from the Navajo Nation speaker’s office. A date for when the ships will begin service was not given.

Money for the construction of the ships was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2018, which was passed Wednesday. The bill would authorize $640 billion in funding for the Department of Defense and security programs under the Department of Energy.

The press release said Speaker of the Council LoRenzo Bates expressed gratitude to McCain and Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley for “advocating on behalf of the Navajo Nation.”

The legislation now goes before the full Senate for consideration. Should it pass, the first “Navajo” ship is estimated to cost a little over $63 million.