191207-N-ZI768-1505 NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Dec. 7, 2019)

191207-N-ZI768-1505
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (Dec. 7, 2019) - President John F. Kennedy’s daughter, the Honorable Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and the ship’s sponsor, smashes a champagne bottle over the hull of the John F. Kennedy. On Dec. 7, 2019, the John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) was christened at Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding (HII-NNS) division, in Newport News, Virginia. Kennedy is the second ship in the next-generation USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)-class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and will be followed by the future USS Enterprise (CVN 80) and the future unnamed CVN-81. The aircraft carrier is named after John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, who served in office from January 1961 to November 1963. This is the second U.S. aircraft carrier named for President Kennedy, with the former being the last conventionally powered carrier, CV-67, which served from 1968 to 2007. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Cory J. Daut)