“I got a thrill out of being in charge … of being the number one officer on the ship,” Haymarket resident Samuel L. Gravely Jr. said shortly before his death.
And now, the ship is being named for him.
The U.S. Navy announced last week that it plans to name a destroyer after the late Vice Admiral Gravely, who died in 2004 at the age of 82
The U.S.S. Gravely will be the Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, a fast, high-tech warship designed to launch Tomahawk and anti-aircraft missiles, as well as anti-submarine weapons.