Navy destroyer to be named after Ted Stevens

By

The Associated Press

U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, left, speaks as U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, looks on during a 2005 confirmation hearing. Both World War II veterans, the senators are now deceased.(Renee Bouchard/NASA)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska’s congressional delegation says the U.S. Navy plans to name a new guided-missile destroyer after the late former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer announced the news Friday.

Stevens died in a plane crash in Alaska in 2010.

At the time of his death, he had been the longest continuously serving U.S. senator, with a tenure that lasted between 1968 and 2009.

Stevens was convicted in 2008 of federal charges of failing to report gifts, but the conviction was overturned after his defeat in that year’s election.