What's In A Name...USS Cowpens....

AKA "The Big Moo" is in town here in Hong Kong. Lots of young soldiers wandering around and saw some of them last night. The first USS Cowpens was a small aircraft carrier that served in the Pacific theater during WWII. The second USS Cowpens...

On March 3, 1989, the US Navy launched the second USS Cowpens, CG-63, a guided missile cruiser from Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. She was commissioned two years later in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 9, 1991 and was the seventeenth Aegis cruiser of the Ticonderoga class. This ship is also known as the "Mighty Moo" and her crew call themselves "the Herd."

It is an odd name and one that deserves further research...

The Cowpens was named in honor of the Revolutionary War battle of January 17, 1781, fought seven miles north of the town of Cowpens, South Carolina. This battle was a victory in the campaign which led to the surrender of the British at Yorktown, Virginia.

So, it kind of commemorates when the ragtag Americans kicked some British ass.