Ship's Sponsor, Linda Sloan Mundy, wife of former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Carl E. Mundy, Jr., christened the new ship "in the name of the United States and in honor of the heroic defenders of Bataan." at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi. More than 100 members of veterans groups associated with the defense of Bataan and the subsequent infamous "Death March", the Battle of Corregidor, and the aircraft carrier USS Bataan (CVL-29) were at the christening ceremony.