Champagne sprayed as the bottle burst on the ship's railing. "I name thee United States Naval Ship Gunnery Sergeant Fred. W. Stockham," announced ship's sponsor Kitty Crenshaw, wife of U.S. Congressman Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla).

The July 6 ceremony at Blount Island Command, Jacksonville, Fla., marked the official naming of the ship. USNS GYSGT Fred W. Stockham gleamed in a shiny coat of black paint and yards of red, white and blue bunting as it officially joined the Military Sealift Command fleet.

Stockham, the second of three maritime prepositioning force enhanced ships, will join 14 other ships that comprise MSC's Maritime Prepositioning Force. The ships are specially configured to carry supplies for the U.S. Marine Corps. Stockham will operate out of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean where it will preposition Navy Mobile Construction Battalion equipment, fleet hospital equipment, expeditionary airfield materials and a headquarters unit-support materiel.

The crowd of distinguished guests at the naming included Navy Vice Adm. Gordon S. Holder, Commander, Military Sealift Command; Marine Lt. Gen. E.R. "Buck" Bedard, Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations at Headquarters Marine Corps; and U.S Congressman Ander Crenshaw, whose wife Kitty is the ship's sponsor and whose daughters Sarah and Alex are maids of honor.

The ship is named in honor of American hero and Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient Gunnery Sgt. Fred W. Stockham.

Stockham received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his courageous actions in World War I, on the night of June 13 in Bois-de-Belleau -- Belleau Woods -- France.

Fighting in the confusion and darkness of the French forest, Stockham and his fellow Marines were bombarded with artillery fire and deadly mustard gas.

During the intense enemy advance, Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Fred W. Stockham noticed that a wounded comrade's gas mask had been shot away. Without hesitation, he removed his own mask and gave it to the young man fully knowing it would cost him his own life.

Stockham directed and assisted in the evacuation of the wounded without a gas mask until he collapsed and agonizingly died a few days later.

"No man has ever displayed greater heroism or courage and showed more utter contempt of personal danger," wrote Stockham's company commander, 2nd Lt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC, in his recommendation to award Gunnery Sgt. Stockham the Medal of Honor. "His bravery was an inspiration to his men, and his actions undoubtedly saved the lives of many of his wounded comrades."

Cates' recommendation was somehow lost, and the war came to a close with the brave gunny buried in France, his legacy seemingly forgotten. In 1920, Stockham's body was returned to the United States and buried in an unmarked grave in New Jersey near the only semblance of family he had -- a foster mother.

It wasn't until the late 1930s that Cates, who would become Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1948, and Barak Mattingly, the young man Stockham saved, realized that the Medal of Honor had never been awarded. Gen. Cates wrote another citation and gathered affidavits from surviving members of 96th Company.

On Dec. 21, 1939, the Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously to Gunnery Sgt. Fred W. Stockham by direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

There were no next of kin to accept the medal because Stockham was an orphan. There was not so much as a single photograph of the 37-year old Marine. What Stockham did leave behind was a name -- a name that now graces the bow of a Navy ship in his honor.

Ship's sponsor Kitty Crenshaw read everything published on the history of Fred Stockham, taking personal interest in "her" ship's namesake. Speaking with reporters after the ceremony Crenshaw said, "As an adoptive mother, I feel extremely honored to be singled out for this particular ship named for this particular man." The Crenshaws' daughters are both adopted and Kitty is on the board of directors for a South American orphanage.

Military Sealift Command is the ocean transportation provider for the Department of Defense. The Navy command operates more than 110 active ships around the world. Ship missions vary from the transport and afloat prepositioning of defense cargo to underway replenishment and other direct support to Navy ships at sea to at-sea data collection for the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies.

Fred W Stockham