Joseph Robert Kerrey is a model American. He led a distinguished career in both national politics and in his home state of Nebraska. The one-time presidential candidate served on the 9/11 Commission, spent two terms representing his state in the U.S. Senate and was the 35th governor of Nebraska. Before he did all of that, however, he was leading Navy SEALs into combat during the Vietnam War.

Like many SEALs, Kerrey was called on to do what might have been otherwise impossible, such as conduct daring raids on Vietnamese coastal cities to capture high-ranking enemy personnel for intelligence. It was on one of these raids, in the city of Nha Trang in 1969, where he fought until he nearly passed out from blood loss. His subsequent 1970 Medal of Honor for his “courageous and inspiring leadership, valiant fighting spirit, and tenacious devotion to duty in the face of almost overwhelming opposition” marked the first time the medal was ever awarded to a SEAL.

It’s no wonder that the Navy’s newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer was named the USS Robert Kerrey in his honor, as Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced on Jan. 4, 2025.

“This will be the first Navy vessel named in his honor, and it is most appropriate we do so, for his actions in Vietnam and his continued service to this country well beyond his Naval service,” Del Toro said in a statement.

Kerrey was a Nebraska-born military brat, but his family planted deep roots there. His father, James, was a World War II veteran of the Army Air Forces. During the war, he was sent to Lincoln, Nebraska, and the family stayed put when the war ended. Bob was an active child, participating in the Boy Scouts and playing high school football. He attended the University of Nebraska to study pharmacy and became a pharmacist upon graduating in 1965. It wasn’t long before he received a notice to get a physical, and, assuming he might be drafted, joined the Navy.

American intervention in South Vietnam was beginning to heat up as Kerrey entered Officer Candidate School. By the time he graduated in 1968, the United States was committed to keeping the country from falling to communism. Kerrey decided he wanted to join the Navy SEALs, then a nascent special operations force. He soon found himself in Vietnam as one of two officers leading 12 enlisted sailors in SEAL Team 1.

Three months after Kerrey’s arrival in South Vietnam in January 1969, his team was tasked with capturing important North Vietnamese political leaders. This meant making amphibious landings in enemy-held territory, finding and subduing their targets and making a clean getaway without losing their captives — and hopefully any of their sailors — to enemy fire. It was not an easy task, but it would be one Navy SEALs were uniquely qualified to accomplish.

In March 1969, Kerrey’s team received information from a North Vietnamese defector that the communist forces had set up an important base on the island of Nha Trang and was willing to lead the team to the island. On March 14, the SEAL team set out for the base under the cover of the early-morning darkness. It was divided into two elements, with the first landing on the front of the island while Kerrey led another team up a 350-foot-high sea cliff in the rear. The goal was to surprise the enemy by taking a high ledge above its position. But no sooner had they scaled the cliffs than they ran into the North Vietnamese.

“They were sleeping in two different groups,” Kerrey recalled in a 2023 interview. “The second sleeping group — we got there a bit too late. They had broken camp and were on the move, and they made contact with us.”

That contact came first in the form of a grenade, one that shredded Kerrey’s right leg and blew him backward onto an outcropping of jagged rocks. Then the bullets started flying. He put a tourniquet on his leg and tried to stand, but it was useless; he was bleeding heavily and found it difficult to move. Luckily, he didn’t need to move that much. He directed his men to fire into the North Vietnamese encampment, then called in for the second element’s fire support The enemy troops soon found themselves in a crossfire between the two SEAL squads.

Though Kerrey could feel his consciousness fading, he continued directing his forces until they could find an exfiltration site. The SEALs were well-trained and many had previous combat experience, so they knew what to look for and how to defend it until they could be evacuated. The prisoners were successfully evacuated and provided crucial intelligence to the South Vietnamese and their American advisers.

Kerrey was taken to Japan to recover and was flown to Philadelphia shortly after. His wounds required doctors to amputate his leg below the knee. When he found out he would receive the Medal of Honor, he originally didn’t want to accept it, because he didn’t like the culture of medals in the military. Encouraged by his fellow SEALs, he accepted it, but not just for himself. The medal was presented to him by President Richard Nixon at the White House on May 14, 1970.

“I talked to some of the guys who I trusted,” Kerrey later said. “They talked me into accepting it for them and for other guys who didn’t get anything.”

Kerrey returned to Nebraska after leaving the Navy, resuming his life as a pharmacist before becoming an entrepreneur and, eventually, entering politics. He was elected governor of Nebraska in 1983, serving for four years before running for Senate, where he served from 1989 until 2001. He was asked to serve on the 9/11 Commission to determine how the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were carried out and how best to safeguard against future threats to the United States.

The USS Robert Kerrey will be an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the third named for a Navy SEAL after the USS Michael P. Murphy and USS McFaul. Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are built around the Aegis radar system and are designed to defend U.S. Navy battle groups from air attacks.

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