A future destroyer to be built by Bath Iron Works will be named for a former Navy secretary and WWII veteran who died last week.
The Navy recently held a ceremony celebrating the keel-plate unveiling for the warship J. William Middendorf.
Middendorf, 101, who died Friday in Fall River, Massachusetts, was secretary of the Navy under presidents Nixon and Ford from 1974-77.
In fact, when BIW launched the USS Oliver Hazard Perry in 1976, then-Secretary Middendorf came to Bath to speak at the ceremony.
The USS J. William Middendorf, named in 2022 in the former secretary’s honor, is the planned 88th Arleigh Burke-class Flight III Aegis guided missile destroyer under contract at BIW.
“When commissioned, the USS J. William Middendorf will be the most capable surface combatant ever built,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said at the destroyer’s recent keel-unveiling ceremony.
Del Toro said the threat of China – a subject addressed in a new book Middendorf was writing well into his 90s and had just released – “requires our nation’s maritime power to meet it.”
“The future USS J. William Middendorf is key to that goal,” he added. “We look forward to welcoming her into our fleet and are excited for its future crew to represent our nation on a global scale, just as her namesake did throughout his life.”
Middendorf served in the Navy from 1944-46 as engineer officer and navigator aboard USS LCS(L) 53.
He earned two bachelor’s degrees – one from Holy Cross and one from Harvard. Originally an investment banker, Middendorf served as treasurer for the presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater and later for the Republican National Committee.
As Navy secretary, Middendorf championed the Aegis Weapons System with which several Arleigh Burke-class destroyers built in Bath are now equipped.
