Retired Navy Adm. J. Paul Reason will speak Saturday at the christening of the USS Gravely, Northrop Grumman’s 27th Aegis guided missile destroyer.

The ceremony will be held at Northrop’s shipbuilding facility in Pascagoula.

The ship is named for the late Navy Vice Adm. Samuel L. Gravely Jr., the Navy’s first black admiral. Gravely died in 2004.

Gravely was also the first black to command a warship and to command a numbered fleet.

The USS Gravely will have a crew of 276 officers and enlisted personnel.