What:   Media day and christening ceremony for the destroyer Ralph Johnson (DDG 114)

When:  10:30 a.m. Friday (media day; closed-toe shoes required)
10 a.m. Saturday (christening ceremony; media should arrive by 8:45 a.m.)

Where: Ingalls Shipbuilding’s Visitor Control Center

Who:    Media Day – Friday

• Ship Sponsor Georgeann McRaven
• Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias
• Shipbuilders of Ralph Johnson
• Cmdr. Jason Patterson, prospective commanding officer, Ralph Johnson 

Christening Day – Saturday

• Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
• Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss.
• Georgeann McRaven, Brian Cuccias and Cmdr. Patterson
• Helen Richards, sister of Ralph Johnson

More DDG 114 info available at: http://ingalls.huntingtoningalls.com/events/ddg114christening/media

RSVP:   Bill Glenn, Huntington Ingalls Industries, (228) 327-1671
[email protected]

Please RSVP by 5 p.m. Thursday.

#JohnsonDDG114 is the hashtag for event.

MEDIA ADVISORY, March 30, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division will christen the company’s 30th Aegis guided missile destroyer, Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), on Saturday. Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, will be the keynote speaker. Georgeann McRaven, wife of Adm. Bill McRaven (U.S. Navy, Ret.), is the ship’s sponsor.

DDG 114 is named to honor Pfc. Ralph Henry Johnson, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions that saved others during the Vietnam War. Johnson shouted a warning to his fellow Marines and hurled himself on an explosive device, saving the life of one Marine and preventing the enemy from penetrating his sector of the patrol’s perimeter. Johnson died instantly. The Charleston, S.C., native had only been in Vietnam for two months and a few days when he was killed at the age of 19.

On April 20, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest recognition and honor a member of the United States military can receive. On Sept. 5, 1991, 23 years after his heroic act, the Veterans Hospital in Charleston was renamed the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Hospital.

About Huntington Ingalls Industries

Huntington Ingalls Industries is America’s largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of engineering, manufacturing and management services to the nuclear energy, oil and gas markets. For more than a century, HII’s Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs nearly 36,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit: