General Dynamics Bath Iron Works held a keel-laying ceremony Sept. 10 for the future USS John E. Kilmer (DDG 134), an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer under construction at the Bath, Maine, shipyard.
The Navy named the ship for hospital corpsman John E. Kilmer, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Korean War. Kilmer was killed Aug. 12, 1952, while protecting a wounded Marine during the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Ship sponsor Linda Gilday, wife of retired Adm. Michael Gilday, former chief of naval operations, marked the milestone by scribing her initials onto a keel plate that will become part of the ship. Douglas Sinclair, a Bath Iron Works welder with 19 years of experience, assisted her.
“To the shipbuilders of Bath Iron Works, I just want to say thank you,” Gilday said. “What you build in steel today, sailors will depend on with their lives tomorrow.”
The John E. Kilmer is one of seven Flight III destroyers currently under construction at Bath Iron Works. The others are the future Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), William Charette (DDG 130), Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), Richard G. Lugar (DDG 136), J. William Middendorf (DDG 138) and Thomas G. Kelley (DDG 140).
