SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A new guided missile destroyer bearing the name of a Camp Pendleton-trained Marine who was lauded for heroic acts during the Vietnam War was christened over the weekend in Maine.
The USS Patrick Gallagher, a 505-foot Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, is in final preparations before shipping to its upcoming home port from Bath Iron Works. The siblings of the warship’s namesake Lance Cpl. Patrick “Bob” Gallagher attended Saturday’s christening.
Gallagher was a Camp Pendleton-trained Marine who threw himself onto a grenade in Vietnam in July 1966 to protect his fellow soldiers — a selfless action he ultimately survived after the bomb failed to detonate. The grenade exploded only after he tossed it into a nearby river.
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The 23-year-old was later honored for his bravery with the Navy Cross, the second-highest military medal that can be given to a sailor or Marine. He was later killed on patrol the following year, about a …