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Ex-President Bush Marks Aircraft Carrier

Posted on: Saturday, 6 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

Former President Bush printed his initials in chalk on a metal plate Saturday to literally mark the first milestone in the construction of a $4 billion aircraft carrier that will bear his name.

A welder then etched the initials into the plate with a torch during a ceremony at Northrop Grumman's Newport News shipyard, the nation's only builder of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

"I hereby declare the keel of this ... U.S. Navy aircraft carrier true and fairly laid," Bush, a decorated World War II Navy pilot, told the 3,000 invited guests.

Bush started to write his initials, GHWB, on the plate, then wiped them off and rewrote them in larger script. He said he thought the letters in his first effort were too small.

The keel-laying ceremony is a tradition dating to the era of wooden sailing ships. The initials of the guest of honor would be carved into the keel, or timber backbone of the ship, to "authenticate" the keel.

With modern modular construction techniques, the carrier does not have a true keel. The plate with Bush's initials will be attached to one of several hundred steel pieces that workers are putting together to form the ship's outer structure.

Also attending the ceremony were former first lady Barbara Bush and the couple's daughter, Doro Bush Koch, who is the ship's sponsor.

President Bush, Bush's son, did not attend.

The carrier has been under construction since 2001. The country's 10th Nimitz-class carrier, the Bush is expected to be ready to join the Navy's fleet in 2008.

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On the Net:

Northrop Grumman Newport News:

http://www.nn.northropgrumman.com/index.asp

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