This coming July 7, 2007 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Robert A. Heinlein. That day would be a perfect opportunity for the Secretary of the Navy to announce that ship DDG-1001 (or another early hull number) would be named the U.S.S. Robert A. Heinlein.
Why would the name a destroyer after an author? Have they done that before?
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Personally, I'm waiting for the day the USS Tom Clancy leaves drydock...
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
OnToMars:
Did you see the website? There's a Navy institute already named after Heinlein, who served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and graduated from the Naval Academy.
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
I'll admit that I didn't. In my self-righteous smugness and superiority, I assumed I already had all the facts.
Well, it's worked for me up until now.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Indeed, as Snay said. In fact, the introduction to The Past Through Tomorrow has a little "what if" stating that in 1967, there would be a retired admiral quietly tending his garden in California who'd done some good work in the Navy but nothing of major import. It's Heinlein had he not suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis as a lieutenant & been discharged.
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
Then again, in Niven's "The Return of William Proxmire", a time machine and a well-placed hypodermic full of antibiotes result in one Admiral Heinlein running an aggressive space program where Russkies are allowed in on a Mars expedition as long as they pay with nukes to be used in its Orion drive...
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Kosh (Member # 167) on :
I wondered why he was so pro military. That would explain it.