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Destroyer christened in honor of MoH Marine

BATH, MAINE — Debra Dunham swung true with her silver bottle of champagne Saturday, cracking it against the bulbus sonar dome on the bow of the Navy destroyer that bears the name of her son. With its traditional alcoholic bath, the hull known as DDG 109 took its real name: “Jason Dunham.”

The Dunham is the Navy’s 59th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and the first named for a naval hero of the 21st century. The story of its namesake, Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, was told and re-told in speeches during the morning ceremony: Dunham died April 22, 2004, eight days after he smothered a grenade with his body during a fight with an Iraqi insurgent. He and two other Marines were badly injured when the grenade exploded, but while Dunham eventually died of his wounds, his squad-mates survived.

More on Jason Dunham

Read Jason’s Medal of Honor citation in the Military Times Hall of Valor

“Today we are reminded that freedom is not free — it comes at a terrible price,” said Rear Adm. Bill Landay, the Navy’s program executive officer for ships. In remarks by Landay and other speakers, including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., the ceremony was as much a memorial for Dunham as it was a ceremony to give his name to the Navy destroyer that towered on its supports over the audience.

Mabus remembered Dunham’s devotion to his family, telling a story about how he told his younger sister, Katie, that she was forbidden from dating until she was 40, and only then after she had been married. And former Marine Corps Commandant retired Gen. Mike Hagee, described how Dunham’s leadership skills were such that he’d been able to be serve as a squad leader as a corporal, even though that post normally is held by a sergeant on his second tour.

When the speeches were finished, Debra Dunham walked onto a small platform set just ahead of the destroyer’s sonar dome, which had been equipped with a narrow striking bar to ensure a good crack of her champagne bottle. She made no remarks other than the traditional, “I christen you Jason Dunham,” before she whollaped the bar. The crowd applauded; colorful streamers rained down.

Shipyard workers immediately set to advancing the 9,200-ton warship off the main part of the yard onto an enormous floating dry dock, which eventually will sink into the Kennebec River and enable the Dunham to float for the first time. Gone are the days when a destroyer would slide backwards down greased ways into the river.

The destroyer Dunham still has several months of work in the shipyard before its crew can move aboard, then still more trials and work-ups before the ship is commissioned into the fleet.

When it does, said Massa — whose district includes the Dunham family’s home town of Scio, N.Y. — the Jason Dunham “will sail the oceans on the wings of an angel, which will return the ship home, always.”