U.S. Navy’s Newest Guided Missile Destroyer Named After First Black Marine Corps Aviator to be Commissioned In Charleston

Nicole Duncan-Smith

Tue, May 3, 2022, 3:00 AM·4 min read

The United States Navy has christened a new vessel, naming it after an outstanding African-American military hero. The guided-missile destroyer will be commissioned this spring bearing the motto “Into the Tiger’s Jaw,” a saying the Black Marine often said in combat.

Gen. Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG121Commissioning.org)

Gen. Frank E. Petersen Jr., the first African-American Marine Corps aviator and the first Black Marine Corps officer to be promoted to brigadier general, will be immortalized with an Arleigh Burke-class vessel to be commissioned in Charleston, S.C., on May 14 at 10 a.m.

The ceremony will be hosted at the Columbus Street Terminal, Gate 19, at the intersection of Concord and Charlotte Streets, near the Aquarium. The location will be the same place where the USS Ralph Johnson was launched in 2018.

This honor is being bestowed on the officer seven years after his death at age 83.

The Frank E. Petersen Jr. [DDG 121] left HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding division on April 8, 2022, to make its way to Charleston. The ship will be the 33rd destroyer Ingalls has built for the U.S. Navy, with five more currently under construction for the government, a release said.

Kari Wilkinson, president of the Ingalls Shipbuilding, said of those who worked on the vessel, “I’m very grateful for the resilient and dedicated shipbuilders on our team, each is world-class.”

Donny Dorsey, Ingalls vice president of operations and previously DDG 121 ship program manager, agreed that the ship represents resilience.

He said, “Watching Frank E. Petersen Jr. sail away demonstrates what this shipyard is capable of, even in the face of a pandemic.”

“The Ingalls Shipbuilding team, and all those that contribute to the mission, are the best,” Dorsey said. “Despite challenges, the hard work of the entire shipbuilding team enables this very proud day — watching the Navy sail this ship and join the fleet to support the defense of our nation.”

Resilience was key in Petersen’s career.

Petersen was born in Topeka, Kansas, on March 2, 1932, and joined the Navy as a seaman apprentice in 1950. He was an electronics technician until 1951 when he joined the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. A year later, after he completed flight training, he accepted a commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, an extraordinary feat for a Black man in the Jim Crow era.