May 12 (UPI) — The U.S. Navy will commission the new Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee in a ceremony in Key West Saturday.
The ship, designated DDG-123, will be the second U.S. Navy vessel named for the Canadian-born nurse who in 1908 was one of the first 20 female nurses in the Navy in a group that later came to be known as the “Sacred Twenty.” She later served as superintendent of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps in the first world war.
For her contributions to military nursing, Higbee was the first woman to receive the Navy Cross citation.
The vessel, which was christened on April 24, 2021, at the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., will be able to carry more than 90 missiles and is designed for multiple combat roles, including anti-aircraft warfare, surface to surface warfare, long-range cruise missile strikes, and anti-submarine warfare.
Rear Admiral Cynthia Kuehner, the current director of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps, will deliver opening remarks at Saturday’s ceremony, which is slated to kick off at 10 a.m. EDT and is being streamed live.
Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, also will deliver remarks, along with Naval Secretary Carlos Del Toro, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday, and Key West Mayor Teri Johnstone
The USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee’s sponsors, Louisa Dixon, Virginia Munford, and R. Pickett Wilson, will attend the ceremony.
“Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee was ahead of her time, from being one of the first members of the Navy Nurse Corps, to being its second [U.S. Navy] superintendent, to being the first woman to earn the Navy Cross,” said Del Torro.
“I am confident that the crew who will sail USS Leah Sutcliffe Higbee will continue to honor and embody her trailblazing journey,” he said.
The previous vessel bearing Higbee’s name, the Gearing-class destroyer USS Higbee, was commissioned in January 1945.
This story has been revised to reflect that the new ship is a guided missile destroyer.