Gabby Gifford’s ship has come in.
A Navy warship named for the former Arizona congresswoman hit the water for the first time Thursday, Giffords announced on Twitter.
The U.S.S. Gabrielle Giffords entered the river outside Austal Shipbuilding in Mobile, Ala., as workers placed finishing touches before its August launch, a picture showed.
U.S. Navy officials announced they were building the ship to be named for Giffords in 2012, a year after she was shot in the head in an assassination attempt.
Giffords is the only living female namesake of a U.S. Navy ship.
The ship was ceremonially sponsored by Roxanna Green, whose daughter Christina Taylor-Green was one of six people killed during Giffords’ appearance outside Tucson. Thirteen others were wounded in the massacre by Jared Lee Loughner.
Construction on the variant littoral combat ship began in April, when Giffords laid the first keel during a ceremony.
The ship is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in August.
When completed, the U.S.S. Gabrielle Giffords will be 419 feet long and will be able to travel faster than 40 knots, Navy officials said in a statement.
Some people criticized the Navy for honoring a civilian politician. But Giffords is a “Navy spouse,” Mark Prentice, her press secretary, told the Daily News. Her husband, retired Capt. Mark Kelly, served in the Navy for 25 years.
Giffords served on the House Armed Services Committee during her three terms in the House of Representatives.
She has been at the center of the fight for gun regulations and has tried to counter lobbying efforts by the National Rifle Association. Still, the NRA grew more financially powerful thanks to a swell in donations — $96.4 million — two years after her attack.
