Historics: Carl Vinson

Congressman Carl Vinson (via Wikipedia)

Surfing around in the news is President Trump's order that the USS Carl Vinson - a supercarrier - move toward North Korea and perform exercises with the Japanese and South Koreans as a show of force.

The carrier strike force is definitely something to be reckoned with, but the name Carl Vinson probably doesn't ring many bells these days. Continue reading and that may change - at least for you.

Vinson was a Congressman from Georgia's 10th Congressional District who served from 1914 to 1933. After 1933 his constituency changed to Georgia's 6th Congressional District, where he served until 1965.

He was born November 18, 1883 in Baldwin County, Georgia.

He attended Georgia Military College and subsequently attended Mercer University, where he graduated with a law degree in 1902. He ran for Congress in 1908.

He was a strong proponent of a powerful US navy and was instrumental in securing support for maintaining fleets on both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Due to this, the USS Carl Vinson was named in his honor.

Rep. Vinson was also the longest serving Congressman ever from the state of Georgia and he has yet to be surpassed in length of service. He was also the last  Congressman who had served in at the time of the United State's declaration on the German Empire, which led to World War II.

Like most Southern members of Congress at the time, Vinson was a staunch segregationist and helped author the Southern manifesto. He retired in 1965 at age 82, perhaps in part because of the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

He died in 1981 at the ripe old age of 97.

Historics 2017