Doris Miller deserves the honour of a carrier bearing his name. Placing that name later in the construction sequence also makes cancellation politically harder. Legislators would be reducing a carrier program and preventing a prominent commemoration of an African American Pearl Harbor hero. This remains an interpretation of the naming choice rather than a demonstrated official explanation, but it shows how naval naming, public memory, and procurement politics can reinforce one another.
Notable Point · 3:13:39-3:14:13
How a symbolic ship name can protect a procurement program
The choice to place Doris Miller later in the carrier program may pair deserved commemoration with a politically powerful obstacle to cancellation.