After decades of service, the USS Enterprise will take her final bow Friday

WKTR ^ | 1/31/2017 | Todd Corillo

[TermLimitsforAll]

The sun is setting on one of the most famous warships to ever serve in the U.S. Naval Fleet.

On Feb. 3, the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) will be officially decommissioned at the Newport News Shipyard, the same place where the ship was built decades ago.

On December 1, 2012, the USS Enterprise was inactivated at Naval Station Norfolk less than a month after returning from her final deployment, marking her 25th and final homecoming after 51 years of service.

In June 2013, the USS Enterprise made her final voyage, transiting from Naval Station Norfolk to the Newport News Shipyard where the ship has spent the past several years having nuclear fuel removed from its eight nuclear reactors.

[misanthrope]

1981-1985
G-2 WEPS

[johnk]

Largest World Naval Powers as of 2016

https://thaimilitaryandasianregion.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/50ac7-pacom_2.png?w=625

[MeganC]

The nuclear carriers are VERY fast! I read on another site how one of them was reported to go from one place to another in a certain amount of time and if you did the math it worked out to 52 knots!!!

Crazy if that’s true! It’s like imagining the Empire State Building moving at freeway speeds!!!

[xrmusn]

The US Navy has named ships after people going all they way back to the Continental Navy.
= = = = = = = = = =

But you must notice...

Nary an Aircraft Carrier........<: <: <:

[Army Air Corps]

I fully agree that in recent years the naming convention has become politicized. I mean, naming a ship after the child molester Harvey Milk? C’mon!

[rlmorel]

"...FW/FS Enterprise, you will be back..."

Love your last line. I am terribly sentimental, especially about traditional things like...naval ships.

[rlmorel]

Really. A fleet oiler named after Harvey Milk.

I still can't figure out if that was a elaborate joke or not.

[Army Air Corps]

Good one!

It is worthy to note that the very first aircraft carrier in the USN was named after a person.

[TermLimitsforAll]

I was an AC on the ship in 86-89. Once the ship reached a certain speed even those of us with a “secret” clearance wouldn’t know how many knots we were actually doing. If my memory serves me correctly the speedometers in the cattc would shut down at 28 knots.

Pretty cool part of my time on board was spent doing work ups in the Bering Sea. We were actually the only carrier to ever conduct flight operations there at the time. Donning the cold weather gear to perform a FOD walk down didn’t even come close to keeping us warm.

If I recall correctly the Carl Vinson was co-ed at the time I was in Alameda. I dated a girl who was an RPO (Religious Petty Officer) for a while before she went AWOL and never heard from her again. Could have been another vessel but I thought the Vinson.

[SubMareener]

Enterprise has eight reactors about the size of a submarine’s. IIRC it only took six to power everything including the catapults.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Whatever happened to Captain Kirk? He got a new billet:

https://news.usni.org/2014/04/11/interview-zumwalt-commander-capt-james-kirk

[rlmorel]

All of our large carriers are extremely fast. When I was on the JFK, we were heading across the Atlantic after leaving Norfolk, and I awoke in the early morning to the thudding of the screws, and my rack vibrating to the thuds.

It was extremely loud...to get a good approximation, whack your hand on a table 24 times in about six seconds. I got up and went down to the fantail, and there was a mountain of white water. Not quite a rooster tail, but a hill of water.

And the water was whipping by at an astonishing speed. I don’t know how fast those things go, but I can say, looking out the hangar bay doors at the water, it was like sitting on a bus going down a highway.

[Army Air Corps]

I still can't figure out if that was a elaborate joke or not.

It does make ya wonder.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

To Navy fans:
The carrier Midway is berthed in San Diego. It is now a museum featuring airplanes from nearly every era. Of special interest is the RA-5 Vigilante Navy bomber. This nuclear bomb-capable jet was taken out of service once our boomer fleet came into being.
The Midway is the only aircraft carrier born a straight decker, then converted to an angle deck. Touring the ship take a full day...

[lakeman]

I served as a Marine manual morse operator on a run from Pearl to Subic in Sept of 82. Grand Ship, Huge and formidable.

[rlmorel]

I am only semi-joking. When I heard about it, I imagined that despicable POS Ashton Carter and Ray Mabus having themselves a great hoot of a laugh as they considered it:

"Hahahahahaha! Just think, it will be a giant thumb in the eyes of those pathetic conservatives, and will also undermine the morale of the Naval Service. A win-win!"

Grrrrrrrrrrr. It makes me angry even to contemplate imaginary behavior by those people. How I despise them for what they have done.

[2CAVTrooper]

I personally have no problem with naming warships for people as long as they have served with honor. Ships like USS John Paul Jones, USS The Sullivans, etc.

I do have a problem with naming ships purely for political reasons such as USNS harvey milk, ceasar chavez, USS gabby giffords, etc.

[Army Air Corps]

The Midway is the only aircraft carrier born a straight decker, then converted to an angle deck.

USS Essex started her career as a straight deck carrier only to be converted to an angled deck after WWII.

[rlmorel]

Heh, I had to search to make sure I spelled Mabus’ name correctly (I keep trying to spell it “Mabius”) and it has a link to an official Navy site with his farewell address, and out of morbid curiosity, I had to read it.

As I read it, I got angrier and angrier, then it occurred to me “No way are they going to allow a comments section...” but...they did.

I literally laughed out loud as I read it. The anger and vitriol (richly deserved) that was pervasive (Several pages, and not one comment that wasn’t condemning him!)

Now, that was entertainment.

[mad_as_he$$]

Enterprise (CVN-80) will be the third Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier to be built for the United States Navy.[2][3] She will be the ninth United States naval vessel to bear the name, and is scheduled to be constructed and in operation by 2027.

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