The Enterprise is the last flight deck still active that I have set foot on. Tomorrow there will be none left out of six.
And astoundingly, after 51 years in service, she has been refueled only FOUR times.
Back in ‘66 we had a diving job on the USS ENTERPRISE in Subic Bay, PI. The ships crew needed to install new packing on one of the rudder posts.
Our job was to install a dam around the rudder post underwater. Once it was installed the ships crew removed the packing glands and installed new packing.
We spent a few hours doing the job. Our diving barge was tied to the stern. One of our guys took a chipping hammer to the paint on the stern about 5 feet above the waterline. When he was finished he had written “HUEY”, his name, on the stern.
True story not a “Sea Story”.
I had the honor of serving on the USS Enterprise 1983-1986. She was my first ship. I remember standing on the pier in Alameda, fresh from A school, and looking up at that huge monster and thinking, “What the hell have I got myself into?”
Per the SecNav just now at CVN-65’s inactivation ceremony: CVN-80 will be name ENTERPRISE.