Kitty Hawk prepares for final farewell

STARS & STRIPES ^ | May 25, 2008 | Allison Batdorff,

[magslinger]

SONOBUOY PING!

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Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
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[radar101]

IWO JIMA behind Kitty Hawk

[Conservative4Ever]

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.

[miliantnutcase]

That old oil burner scoots.

[A.A. Cunningham]

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=62182&archive=true

Saturday, May 24, 2008

House considers putting Kennedy, Kitty Hawk back into service in five years


By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, May 16, 2008

WASHINGTON — House officials want to explore the possibility of bringing the USS John F. Kennedy or USS Kitty Hawk back into service in five years to keep the Navy’s carrier fleet at full force.

During debate on their draft of next year’s defense budget authorization, the House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to study the cost and logistics of reactivating the carriers after their decommissioning over the next few years.

At issue is the Navy’s request to drop below the congressionally mandated 11-carrier fleet in 2012, when the USS Enterprise is taken out of service.

It will be replaced by USS Gerald R. Ford, the newest carrier from the class of the same name, but Navy officials have said it won’t be commissioned until 2015 at the earliest.

House officials were even more pessimistic, saying construction delays could leave the Navy with only 10 carriers for up to four years. But for now they’ve rejected the Navy’s request to continue temporarily one carrier short, instead asking for the study.

The committee rejected the idea of extending the USS Enterprise past fiscal 2013, noting the high costs of maintenance and limited nuclear fuel life of the ship. Both the Kennedy, retired two years ago, and the Kitty Hawk, scheduled to be retired next year, are conventionally powered carriers.

Naval officials said annual maintenance on the Kennedy cost more than $120 million before it was decommissioned. The study would also look at the availability of dry docks to repair and maintain the ships if they are reactivated.

Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the study is an important tool for defense planners, if only because it draws more attention to the long-term planning challenges the Navy will face in coming years.

"You can’t really look at this from carriers alone. It has to be where they’re deployed, how it affects the air wings, what that means," he said. "It has to become a total force study, not just a carrier study."

House officials asked for the study to be completed early next year. Senate officials would have to approve the House language before the study could be begun.

© 2007 Stars and Stripes. All Rights Reserved.

[ExpatGator]

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.

[elcid1970]

For that reason I have heard this great ship referred to as the “SH#TTY HAWK”.

[Zman516]

WOW! What a photo!

THANKS!

[StormEye]

"She was a beautiful ship, but smelled like all the other carriers, which is to say she stunk."

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?

[markomalley]

I remember the Kitty Hawk at North Island 28 years ago.

[ConorMacNessa]

USS Kitty Hawk CV-63 arrives Hong Kong Harbor Nov 24, 2005

[OCC]

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)

[ExpatGator]

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.

[ryan71]

“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 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.

[rlmorel]

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.

[rlmorel]

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.

[rlmorel]

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...:)

[rlmorel]

It EFFING better not be.

[elcid1970]

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).