A U.S. Navy ship named after former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will be commissioned in a waterfront ceremony in Galveston, Texas, on Saturday.
The Gabrielle Giffords is an Independence-class littoral combat ship. It is the 10th littoral combat ship in the Navy, the 16th Navy ship named after a woman and the 13th ship named after a living person, according to a Navy video released on Friday.
Giffords represented Arizona’s 8th District in Congress from 2007 to 2012 and was shot in the head during an assassination attempt in January 2011.
“We want to make sure we project that [strength] as we try to take this over the horizon to make sure that we honor her,” Cmdr. Mark Woodley, the ship’s commanding officer, told Houston’s local KTRK.
The Navy video notes that Giffords is a Navy spouse; her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, is a retired captain. KTRK noted that he is from Houston, which is why the Navy decided to hold the commissioning ceremony in Galveston.
The aluminum trimaran hull is built by Austal USA and is designed to operate near shore and carry interchangeable mission modules to counteract mines, surface threats and underwater threats.
