I forgot about the Wasp (LHD-1). And Yorktown needs to be a carrier! But is 20 years service normal for a Destroyer? Or was it just one of the casualties of a smaller Navy?
I'd guess the latter. My husband's former command, the USS Rickover (SSN 709), is being decommissioned this March after *thinks, does the math* 23 years. Hell look at the USS Kitty Hawk, commissioned in '61 and according to Wikipedia not due to decom till 2009? Wow.