A Russian warship anchored in the Gulf of Finland near Kronstadt, circa October 2018. This warship, among others, was mistakenly identified as a US Navy vessel in many commemoration messages on the Navy’s birthday earlier this week. (Shutterstock/Laskin Nikita)

Some Lawmakers Don’t Know What US Navy Ships Look Like

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A flood of congratulatory messages celebrating the 251st birthday of the US Navy this Monday included many photographs of warships not in it.

For at least the second year in a row, some US lawmakers—mostly, though not exclusively, from the Republican Party—showed they don’t know much about the United States Navy, or at least its warships. In a series of posts on X (and likely other social media platforms) on Tuesday, the lawmakers attempted to commemorate the 251st anniversary of the founding of the Continental Navy, the forerunner of the modern United States Navy.

One such post came from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who wrote, “From the early days of our nation’s founding, the Navy has stood watch over our country and defended freedom across the seas. On its birthday, we salute the sailors whose service, sacrifice, and courage carry that legacy forward.”

The patriotic spirit of Kemp’s message was admirable, but, as Wall Street Journal Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Dave Brown noted, the warships were from the Indian Navy.

While Kemp’s mistake was........

© The National Interest