WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Navy is naming a destroyer for Carl Levin, the dean of Jewish senators prior to his retirement and once the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“It is a great honor to name this ship in recognition of such a dedicated public servant,” Ray Mabus, the secretary of the Navy, said Monday in a statement.
The next Arleigh Burke class destroyer, DDG 120, will be named Carl M/ Levin. According to the release, the destroyer is “capable of fighting air, surface and subsurface battles simultaneously.”
Levin, of Michigan, who retired following the 2014 elections after serving 36 years, was key in shepherding through funding for the military during his last eight years in the Senate, when he served as chairman of the committee.
In the statement, Levin said he and his family were “deeply moved by this singular honor.”
Levin has maintained a public profile since his retirement, emerging last year as a defender of the Iran nuclear deal.
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