HII holds keel-laying ceremony for future USS Jack H. Lucas

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division has held a keel authentication and laying ceremony for the future USS Jack H. Lucas, a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.

The vessel is named after the late Jacklyn H. “Jack” Lucas who, as a 17-year-old US Marine Corps private first class, became the youngest World War II recipient of the Medal of Honor. He received the decoration for actions during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final year of the war.

The future Jack H. Lucas is the final one of five Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that HII will build under a contract awarded in June 2013.