The U.S. Navy commissioned USS John L. Canley, a 784-foot expeditionary sea base — or ESB — variant of the Expeditionary Transfer Dock platform, at Naval Air Station North Island on Saturday.
The ship honors the former Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. John L. Canley, who was awarded the Medal of Honor 50 years after his actions during the Battle of Hue City, the Military Sealift Command said.
At the ceremony, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro was joined by Canley Commanding Officer, Capt. Thomas Mays; Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Sgt. Maj. Carlos Ruiz; Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford; and over a thousand other attendees.
“We can only grow as a nation and as a fighting force by learning from our history,” said Del Toro, a 2024 Wash100 awardee. “Ultimately, the strength of our maritime team is in our diversity – diversity of background, of experience, and of thought – which ensures our ability to out-think, outpace, and out-maneuver our adversaries.”
Built by General Dynamics’ NASSCO subsidiary, the ship enables logistics movement from sea to shore to support a broad range of military operations. The highly flexible platform has four core capabilities: aviation, berthing, equipment staging area and command and control.
The shipbuilder christened Canley in June 2022 and handed it over to MSC to join the fleet.