SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING THE NAMING OF AN LPD–17 VESSEL.

SEC. 1014. SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING THE NAMING OF AN LPD–17 VESSEL. It is the sense of Congress that, consistent with section 1018 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996 (Public Law 104–106; 110 Stat. 425), the Secretary of the Navy should name the next vessel of the LPD–17 class of amphibious vessels to be named after the date of the enactment of this Act as the U.S.S. Clifton B. Cates, in honor of former Commandant of the Marine Corps Clifton B. Cates (1893–1970), a native of Tennessee whose distinguished career of service in the Marine Corps included combat service in World War I so heroic that he became the most decorated Marine Corps officer of that war, exemplary combat leadership in the Pacific theater during World War II from Guadal canal to Tinian and Iwo Jima and beyond, and appointment in 1948 as the 19th Commandant of the Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant general, a position from which he led the efficient and alacritous response of the Marine Corps to the invasion of the Republic of South Korea by Communist North Korea.