The Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, which bears the name of a Marine who earned a posthumous Medal of Honor in combat operations in Iraq, was commissioned Nov. 13 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Lance Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, the new vessel’s namesake, earned the nation’s highest award for combat valor in April 2004 in Karibilah, Iraq. While serving with the Twentynine Palms, Calif.-based Company K., 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, Dunham engaged an enemy fighter in hand-to-hand combat and jumped on a live grenade, thus saving his fellow Marines from harm. He died eight days later. The new destroyer was christened April 1, 2009, at Bath Iron Works, Maine, where it was built. Dunham became the first Marine to earn the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.
