Posted on 05/24/2008 1:37:44 PM PDT by radar101
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The yen-only DyDo vending machines disappeared from the ship this week.
Petty Officer 3rd Class David Santiago is filling up on sushi.
Chief Petty Officer Elison Talabong is looking for someone to buy his car.
Such are the many preparations under way for the final farewell of the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, which leaves Japan for good this week.
After a decade in Yokosuka, the 47-year-old aircraft carrier will pull out amid parting festivities and farewells from U.S. and Japanese dignitaries Wednesday morning.
The crew of the Kitty Hawk’s Japanese sister ship, the JS Shirane, will cast off the U.S. carrier’s mooring lines for the final time. The Kitty Hawk’s crew, about 3,000 sailors, will "man the rails" and stand in a formation that spells out "sayonara" in kanji characters on the carrier’s flight deck as it leaves.
And when it goes, the Kitty Hawk will leave a big empty space at its pier and a quieted Yokosuka Naval Base community — until the USS George Washington, Yokosuka’s next forward-deployed aircraft carrier, arrives in August.
But the George Washington isn’t on Chief Petty Officer Ace Elacio’s stress list yet. Only about 30 "GW" families have arrived, compared to the 2,000 Kitty Hawk families processing through Yokosuka’s Personal Property Office. His sayonara started in January with pack-outs of up to 100,000 pounds a day, he said.
"It’s been crazy for us," said Elacio, as office personnel extended hours through weekends and even set up shop aboard the ship. "We learned that we have to be flexible."
For another 900 Kitty Hawk sailors, life won’t change much. Sailors like Petty Officer 2nd Class Rudy Liverpool will simply walk over to the George Washington when the two ships do a "hull swap" in Hawaii in June. They’ll continue their jobs on the new ship, eventually returning to Yokosuka.
"I love Japan — the culture, the fashion," Liverpool said. "I wanted to stay here."
Other sailors’ fates are still written in pencil, awaiting hard orders for their next duty stations. Some wait for approval to remain at Yokosuka beyond Kitty Hawk’s official homeport date change of July 15, due to a mistaken Navy message that originally gave people until January 2009 before moving the date up to July.
"The transition is not easy, but we’ve worked extremely hard to ensure that the process is as easy on everyone as we could make it," said Kitty Hawk commanding officer Capt. Todd Zecchin.
The carrier is even trying to help sailors sell their Japanese vehicles to the incoming George Washington crew, said ship spokesman Chief Petty Officer Jason Chudy.
"We have a list of everyone’s cars, motorcycles and bicycles, and we are pushing hard to make sure every one is either sold or junked," Chudy said. "We do not want our lasting memory to be a bunch of abandoned cars."
New ship on the horizon While there is excitement in waving goodbye to the Kitty Hawk, there’s also flutter surrounding its replacement — the USS George Washington, the first nuclear-propelled ship forward-deployed to Japan.
Accommodating the new carrier required dredging the harbor to handle its deeper draft, and a new power plant is slated to come online to electrify the ship in port. Also, a new waterfront workspace is in place for the 600 Puget Sound Naval Shipyard workers who will make pilgrimages from Bremerton, Wash., to maintain the George Washington’s nuclear propulsion system.
While the Kitty Hawk’s departure will be nostalgic, the George Washington signals a move forward, U.S. Forces Japan commander Air Force Lt. Gen. Edward Rice said last week.
"As strong as the Kitty Hawk has been for the alliance, we are bringing in a capability that’s even stronger, looking toward the next 10 to 20 years," Rice said. "We are going to replace it with an even more capable ship that I’m confident will be, at the end of the day, warmly welcomed by all members of the alliance, and will find a strong home here at Yokosuka."
Sailor Tommy Creaturo, a chief petty officer who will cross decks to the George Washington, called the new ship an upgrade.
"It’s like going from a Pinto to a Cadillac," Creaturo said. Pausing a moment, he rethought the comparison. "Maybe more like going from a Model T to a Cadillac."
In the community, safety concerns about the ship’s nuclear power plant prompted two Yokosuka-based referendum attempts in the past two years. Although citizens’ groups gathered the required number of signatures, the Yokosuka City Council defeated the measure before it could go to a vote of the people.
Even though she has safety concerns, one 48-year-old Yokosuka woman called the carrier’s arrival "inevitable" due to the financial implications.
Kimie Noji, a 76-year-old liquor store owner, took a fatalist view indicative of a woman who has spent her life in a Navy town.
"Ships come and go," Noji said.
Goodbye, for now But Kitty Hawk still has many nautical miles to go before she sleeps.
After the "hull swap" in Hawaii, the carrier will steam to its former homeport of San Diego for a welcome-home party, then to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard to await decommissioning.
Although the decommissioning date has been set by instruction at Jan. 31, it is largely dependent on when the Navy’s newest carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, is ready for commissioning due to an 11-carrier mandate set by Congress.
Former Petty Officer 1st Class Camilo Martinez said he will attend the decommissioning when the Kitty Hawk gets to her final resting place.
"In the Bible book of Ecclesiastes we read, ‘For everything there is an appointed time … a time for birth and a time to die....’ " Martinez said in an e-mail. "Thus, even though the Hawk, in recent pictures, looks as awesome and majestic as when I first saw her, it is time for her to go."
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IWO JIMA behind Kitty Hawk
Wow...was visiting on the USS Kitty Hawk in the 80’s...family day cruise...what a great day for me and my kids...had a blast.
That old oil burner scoots.
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I was the ship’s rescue swimmer on my ship and spent many an hour in the wake of the Kitty Hawk during plane guard. She was a beautiful ship, but smelled like all the other carriers, which is to say she stunk.
For that reason I have heard this great ship referred to as the “SH#TTY HAWK”.
WOW! What a photo!
THANKS!
I've never been on a Navy ship before. When you say the ship "stunk", exactly what did it smell like? Was it jet fuel or jet exhaust or just too many "people odors"? Do all Navy ships have bad smells to?
I remember the Kitty Hawk at North Island 28 years ago.
I’m sorry to hear the battle to name the new carrier USS America was lost in favor of USS Gerald R. Ford. Will CVN-79 be the USS William J. Clinton?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gerald_R._Ford_(CVN-78)
All the bird farms (carriers) have a certain stench to them. Jet fuel, diesel stink, vents from CHT holding tanks (human waste), and the cooking smells conspire to create an unforgettable odor.
The carrier that really sticks in my mind was the French carrier, if I remember correctly, Clemenceau. Went aboard it as a teenager. PEEEEEEUUUUUUUWWWWWWW! Only after visiting France did I realize that it was a tradition.
I served aboard a destroyer and a carrier (later Nimitz class).
Every step you take is a different smell. Not so much human odor. It's more industrial. you smell different fuels, fluids, food, paint, oil, grease, chemicals, and a lot of things I never identified.
A ship, especially a carrier, truly is a city crammed into a city block.
That was 18 years ago. If I went back tomorrow (and from time to time I have dreams they called me back) I'm sure it would be all too familiar.
Having spent time on a bunch of different ships, some ships are REALLY BAD such as the USS Lexington, which nearly asphyxiated me one night, and I could taste naval distillate for days after I left the ship.
That said, if you blindfolded and earplugged me and then placed me on a ship, I would be able to tell you unequivocally that I was on a ship.
It brings back to me immediate memories from 30 years ago. Immediate and vivid, the way jet exhaust does when I am at an airport.
The smell is a not unpleasant combination of oil, paint, solvents, cooking oils, canvas, exhaust, and so on. It is distinctive and on all ships...:)
Anyone who has spent time on ships can tell you that.
I just went on the USS Midway in San Diego the day before yesterday, and...as I said, all the memories came flooding back due to the smell. I went on the rustbucket Soviet sub they have nearby, and it still has a distinctive smell that is similar in some way to every other ship.
Heh, I think the crew referred to it as the S*itty Hawk for much the same reason the crew on the Kennedy when I was on it referred to it as “The Big John”, the word “John” referring obliquely (or not so obliquely) to a toilet.
Every sailor at some time or another has a love-hate relationship with a vessel. Especially if you are on it, and wish you weren’t...:)
It EFFING better not be.
Years ago I had a co-worker who was a crew member on a nuclear submarine in 1963. He said his most onerous duty was that of “s**thouse mouse” (submarines have waste disposal systems which require constant attention).
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