The U.S. Navy commissioned its newest guided-missile destroyer Saturday at Naval Station Norfolk, the first American warship named for a service member who earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.
USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr., hull number DDG 124, entered active service in a ceremony attended by roughly 1,800 guests, according to a release from Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic. Retired Col. Harvey C. "Barney" Barnum Jr., 85, sat in the crowd. His wife, Martha Hill, serves as the ship's sponsor and delivered the traditional order to bring the ship to life.
Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan gave the principal address. Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James W. Kilby and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric M. Smith also spoke.
Cmdr. Ben Cantu is the ship's first commanding officer. Barnum's niece, Chief Petty Officer Courtney Dion, even reported aboard as a hospital corpsman.
The Last of a Line
The Barnum is the 74th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer delivered to the Navy since the class entered service with the commissioning of USS Arleigh Burke at Norfolk on July 4, 1991.
DDG 124 is among the last Flight IIA Technology Insertion variants the Navy will take on before production shifts to the newer Flight III. Flight III ships carry the AN/SPY-6 radar. The Barnum carries the older AN/SPY-1D(V) phased array paired with the Aegis Baseline 9 combat system.
The destroyer measures about 509 feet in length, has a 66-foot beam and displaces roughly 9,200 tons, according to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, which built the ship at its yard on the Kennebec River in Maine. Four GE LM2500 gas turbines drive the hull past 30 knots. A crew of about 300 sailors operates the vessel. Two MH-60R Seahawk helicopters are stored in a double hangar aft.
Primary armament is a 96-cell Mk 41 Vertical Launch System that fires Tomahawk cruise missiles, Standard Missile variants, Evolved Sea Sparrow and VL-ASROC anti-submarine rockets. A 5-inch Mk 45 gun is mounted at the bow. A Phalanx close-in weapon system, two Mk 38 25 mm gun mounts and Mk 32 torpedo tubes round out the armament.
The Navy funded DDG 124 under a $644 million contract modification awarded to the shipyard in March 2016 as part of a multi-year destroyer purchase. Construction began in May 2018. The keel was laid April 6, 2021 and the ship was christened July 29, 2023.
The Navy accepted delivery on Nov. 17, 2025, after dockside and underway trials. DDG 124 left Bath on March 4, 2026, and docked at Norfolk 16 days later.
The crew has taken the nickname Grizzlies. The ship's battle flag carries a grizzly bear, drawn from a line Barnum is often quoted saying, "If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly."
Ky Phu, December 1965
Barnum was 25 years old and on temporary duty in South Vietnam when his Medal of Honor action took place.
On Dec. 18, 1965, he was serving as a forward observer for artillery with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, outside the village of Ky Phu in Quang Tin Province. The action occurred during Operation Harvest Moon.
His company was caught in a crossfire, separated from the rest of the battalion by more than 500 meters of exposed ground and taking casualties fast, according to his Medal of Honor citation at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
The rifle company commander was mortally wounded in the opening minutes. The radio operator was killed. Barnum, a first lieutenant, gave aid to the dying commander, took the radio off the dead operator, strapped it on himself and assumed command of the company.
He reorganized the surviving Marines under fire and led an attack against the enemy positions. With two armed helicopters on station, he directed air strikes against the dug-in North Vietnamese while steering one platoon through a counterattack that cleared key terrain. He then called in transport helicopters, coordinated the evacuation of the dead and wounded, and pushed his company through to the battalion's objective.
The action made Barnum the fourth Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for service in Vietnam, according to the Marine Corps History Division at Marine Corps University.
He returned to Vietnam in 1968 as commander of Battery E, 2nd Battalion, 12th Marines, and built more than a dozen fire bases during Operation Dewey Canyon. He retired as a colonel in 1989 after more than 27 years in uniform and later served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs.
Only a small number of U.S. warships have been named for a living person.
"Our strength is not built on technology alone, but on trust, trust that we will stand by one another and that no one will ever be left behind," Barnum told the crew at the ceremony.
One Hull, a Bigger Problem
The Barnum enters service as the Navy's shipbuilding program continues to fall short of its own plans.
A February 2025 Government Accountability Office report found that 37 of 45 Navy ships under construction, about 85 percent, were running between five months and more than three years behind schedule. The Navy had planned a 313-ship battle force for 2025 under earlier projections but expected to end the year with 287.
Between fiscal 2019 and 2023, the Navy planned to accept delivery of 15 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and 11 Virginia-class attack submarines, the GAO said. It received seven destroyers and four submarines during that time.
A day before the Barnum was commissioned, the Navy League's Center for Maritime Strategy published "Pier Review," a report warning of an "atrophy" of the American maritime industrial base and arguing that the United States cannot rebuild alone.
The nonpartisan think tank's report recommends seven objectives, with the heaviest emphasis on pulling in allies, specifically the Republic of Korea, Italy, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom, to open allied yards, share technical frameworks and help supply skilled labor.
The report calls for a “collective revitalization of the allied maritime industrial base,” with Kenneth Braithwaite, the 77th secretary of the Navy, writing in the foreword that the United States must lean on its naval allies to meet the challenges ahead.
The Trump administration's answer has been its own initiative, announced by the president on Dec. 22, 2025, and branded the Golden Fleet. The plan calls for a mix of manned and unmanned combatants, a new Trump-class battleship program, a frigate based on the Coast Guard's Legend-class National Security Cutter and continued Arleigh Burke production.
The Pentagon's fiscal 2027 budget request seeks $65.8 billion for shipbuilding, the largest such request in real dollars since 1962, according to Congressional Budget Office data
Phelan has said the yards will need to hire roughly 250,000 workers over the next decade to meet demand, with about a quarter of the current shipyard workforce eligible to retire within five years.
Bath Iron Works has seven more destroyers under construction behind the Barnum, including the future USS Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), USS Patrick Gallagher (DDG 127), USS William Charette (DDG 130), USS Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), USS John E. Kilmer (DDG 134), USS Richard G. Lugar (DDG 136) and USS J. William Middendorf (DDG 138).
"This ship is not symbolic, it is combat power," Phelan said at the ceremony.
