The 43rd guided missile destroyer built by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works was christened over the weekend at Bath Iron Works.
The ship is named for Master Chief Hospital Corpsman William Charette, a career sailor who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Korean War.
The USS William Charette (DDG 130) is BIW’s second Flight III destroyer and the 43rd Arleigh Burke destroyer built at the Maine shipyard.
BIW, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), is led by Charles Krugh, who took the helm as the shipyard’s president in 2022.
At Saturday’s event, Krugh welcomed 1,500 shipbuilders, family members and invited guests to the shipyard’s dry dock.
Heroism
Charette was sent to Korea in January 1953 as a member of F Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. The unit was tasked with retaking a strategic hill near Panmunjom that had been overrun earlier by Chinese forces. During the ensuing engagement, Charette was called upon to treat several injured Marines.
As Charette tended to one man’s injuries, an enemy grenade landed nearby. He threw himself on the Marine to protect him from the blast, which destroyed Charette’s medical aid kit, knocked off his helmet and left him unconscious.
When Charette regained consciousness, he used his clothing as bandages to treat others, ignoring his own wounds. One Marine’s protective vest had been ripped off by an explosion so Charette gave him his. As the unit moved injured Marines along a protective trench toward safety they came to a section that had collapsed. Charette climbed out of the trench, exposing himself to hostile fire, so they could lift the wounded men from one section of trench to the next.
Shipbuilding staple
The Arleigh Burkes have been a staple of BIW’s shipbuilding since the 1980s. The Flight III design variant is centered on an air and missile defense radar system and is considered the most technologically advanced surface warship in the world. DDG is a hull designation that signifies that a ship is a guided missile destroyer.
The class is considered the workhorse of the Navy’s fleet. It was the Navy’s first class designed with shaping techniques to reduce the radar cross-section, improving the likelihood of not being targeted by enemy weapons and sensors.
Other vessels under construction at Bath Iron Works include the Flight III ships Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126), Quentin Walsh (DDG 132), John E. Kilmer (DDG 134), Richard G. Lugar (DDG 136), J. William Middendorf (DDG 138) and Thomas G. Kelley (DDG 140).
Among Maine’s largest employers, BIW is ranked No. 4 in the 2026 Mainebiz Book of Lists. Rankings are based on average monthly employment in the first quarter of 2025, with 6,700 employees as of the fourth quarter of 2025.
