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Recently I had the honor of attending an event that should bring great pride to all Michiganders: the keel-laying ceremony for the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier that will proudly carry the name of the former president and Michigan native around the world.
The keel-laying ceremony signifies the formal beginning of a ship’s construction, when, in an earlier era, shipbuilders laid down the beam that held together its hull and upon which everything else depended. Not so long ago, Gerald R. Ford was the sturdy beam that held our nation together. He assumed our highest office at a time of great anguish and confusion. Amid danger and instability, Jerry Ford kept our country on an even keel.
For those familiar with President Ford’s life before politics, that accomplishment is no great surprise. For in his previous service to our nation, as an officer in the United States Navy, he demonstrated the same kind of firm, steady leadership he would later bring to the White House.
Like millions of young Americans at the outbreak of World War II, Jerry Ford put his life on hold to serve his nation, receiving his Navy commission in April 1942. In May 1943, he joined the crew of a ship still under construction, the light aircraft carrier USS Monterey.
The Monterey and its crew served in many of the crucial battles in the Pacific Theater. As an antiaircraft battery officer, Ford and his crew faced the danger of Japanese air raids and the terror of kamikaze attacks. But the sea herself would present the Monterey, and Ford, with their greatest challenge.
In late December 1944, a typhoon struck the fleet. Three destroyers were sunk by the power of the storm, and nearly 800 sailors lost their lives. Strapped into his bunk, Ford was awakened by the call to general quarters. The rough seas had torn aircraft stored on the Monterey’s hangar deck loose from their moorings, and the aircraft soon caught fire.
Ford raced to make his way to the bridge – and was nearly tossed overboard as the ship rolled. The crew was caught between a raging fire and the raging seas. If they could not douse the flames, they would have to abandon ship. Of course, in seas tossed by waves 70 feet high, that would mean likely death.
As the officer of the deck when the Monterey was at general quarters, Ford played a crucial role in the crisis. Captain Stuart Ingersoll ordered Lieutenant Ford to the hangar deck, where he faced the flames to assess the situation, and reported back to the captain, providing vital observations and advice at the time of grave danger. Ford and the rest of the Monterey’s crew saved their ship.
Ford himself saw the parallel between the fire aboard the Monterey and the flames that engulfed our political system as he assumed the presidency in 1974. Recalling the storm and fire many years later, Ford said, “I considered it a marvelous metaphor for the ship of state.”
After 13 terms as a popular and respected member of the House of Representatives, he came to the presidency amid the greatest political crisis in generations, the Watergate scandal. The nation needed a healer, a unifying force. And just as he had in the storm-tossed Pacific, Gerald Ford helped beat back the flames.
The ship that will bear his name is the lead ship of a new class, the most advanced of its type in existence. Thirty-four years ago, President Ford attended the commissioning of another ship, also the first of its class, the most advanced of its day, the USS Nimitz. President Ford said:
“As each of us looks upon this great ship, a single thought must seize our minds: Only the United States of America can make a machine like this. There is nothing like her in the world today. We have witnessed the magic moment when an intricate mass of steel and cable and sophisticated marvels of engineering suddenly become a living thing with a unique personality.”
I know that all who serve aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford will take inspiration from the unique personality of the man for whom she is named. That courage, that commitment, and that steadiness in crisis will carry her through the roughest of seas and the most dangerous of battles. I know that the memory of Gerald Ford will guide the efforts of those who serve aboard her.
Carl Levin is the senior U.S. senator from Michigan.
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