Construction has officially begun on the new Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), named after a World War II hero and Navy Cross recipient.

The vessel’s keel was laid May 20 during a ceremony at General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works in Maine, during which Walsh’s great-granddaughter, Madison Ann Zolper, welded her initials into the keel plate as is customary for a ship’s sponsor.

Walsh, a captain in the U.S. Coast Guard, helped plan the capture of Cherbourg in the days leading up to the invasion of Normandy on D-Day on June 6, 1944. He earned his place in history when, in a series of daring enterprises , he captured about 750 German soldiers with a force of 53 men and liberated 52 U.S. paratroopers in the wake of the D-Day landings. He continued to lead a l

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