General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company recently laid the keel for the Navy’s next Expeditionary Sea Base, the service announced today. NASSCO on Friday laid the keel for the future USS Robert E. Simanek (ESB-7) at its San Diego, Calif., shipyard. “The ship is named for Private First Class Robert Ernest Simanek, who was […]
Before daybreak on Aug. 17, 1952, a grenade landed near 22-year-old Marine Corps Pfc. Robert Simanek. He kicked it away, but the blast injured his foot. A second grenade fell at his side. “I couldn’t move too well. So I just sort of rolled over on top of that grenade,” he later recounted.
USS Robert E. Simanek (ESB 7)
The future Constellation-class frigate USS Chesapeake (FFG 64) will be named for one of the first six Navy frigates authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. The first USS Chesapeake served with honor against the Barbary Pirates in the early 1800. Following an at-sea battle with HMS Shannon in 1813, the ship was captured by the Royal Navy and commissioned her HMS Chesapeake. Braithwaite recently travelled to England where he retrieved a piece of the original frigate from the Chesapeake Mill in Hampshire.
“Like
Constellation, the first
Chesapeake was a mighty sailing ship that declared our nation a maritime power,” said Braithwaite. “The new USS Chesapeake, FFG-64, will proudly carry on the legacy of that name into the new era of great power competition.”