JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Navy will name a ship after the late Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who was a Navy veteran.
Cochran’s successor, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, says Wednesday that Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer has decided a future guided-missile destroyer will be called the USS Thad Cochran.
Spencer said in a statement that Cochran was a strong advocate for national defense and “a courtly voice for cooperation and civility in American politics.”
Cochran served six years in the House before winning a Senate seat in 1978. As longtime chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he oversaw federal spending.
Cochran was the 10th longest-serving senator in history when he resigned amid health concerns in April 2018. He was 81 when he died in May of this year.
