On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[shrike6]

Originally Posted by chico20854

My bad! I should have caught that...

I read that when a ship is decommissioned the name is released although the hull number is not. (i.e. the battleship USS South Dakota BB-57 when decommissioned became the ex-South Dakota, freeing the name up for the new USS South Dakota SSN-790). Usually the old ship is long gone by the time the name is reused - there hasn't been a USS Kansas in 100 years!

So the old Decatur-class destroyer should have been renamed before being recommissioned.

I kind of thought so. It would become confusing to have two ships with the same name. The good news is you have a wide range of names to choose from.