200129-N-XD935-0025 NEWPORT NEWS (Jan. 29, 2020)

200129-N-XD935-0025 NEWPORT NEWS (Jan. 29, 2020)
Pre-Commissioning Unit John F. Kennedy CVN-79 Command Master Chief Thaddeus Wright addresses the crew during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance. Wright read President Kennedy’s televised address to the nation on civil rights and discussed his families personal contribution to civil rights movement of the 1960’s. Kennedy is the second ship in the next-generation USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)-class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The aircraft carrier is named after John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, who served in office from January 1961 to November 1963. This is the second U.S. aircraft carrier named for President Kennedy, with the former being the last conventionally powered carrier, CV-67, which served from 1968 to 2007.
(U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Jayme Pastoric)