City Council shows support for naming ship USS Aurora
The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a resolution to support the Navy League Council of Aurora’s endeavor to have one of 10 newly commissioned Navy ships named after the city of Aurora.
Robert Moga of the Aurora Navy League brought the idea to Mayor Tom Weisner last month, he said. The Navy will commission 10, 365-foot cruiser ships in the next five years.
“I thought, why shouldn’t we have a ship named after Aurora?” Moga said.
Among the reasons, he said, was that Aurora lost an unusually large number of its citizens during World War II, and because East Aurora High School has the largest junior ROTC program in the nation.
Moga said the ship would have a personal meaning, too, as he lost his brother in the war when he was 8 years old.
“It was the saddest day of my life,” he said.
Moga asked 3rd Ward Alderman Stephanie Kifowit to make an honorary motion in support of the resolution it because she is a Marine Corps veteran.
Getting the ship named after the second-largest city in Illinois should be a “slam-dunk,” Moga said, because of President Barack Obama’s Chicago ties.
“If we can put this over, it’s going to be while the president is from Illinois,” Moga said. “Mayor Tom (Weisner), you know the president, don’t you?”
Weisner responded — “The question is, does he remember me?”
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