Posted on 05/24/2008 5:46:02 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
why don’t we melt it down and turn it into oil drilling eq. and refinery’s so we can afford gas for our cars
I really think it’s a mistake to take them down. If anything, convert ‘em to nuclear power and upgrade them. I think we’ll be needing them very soon. I have a feeling we’re going to lose a few carriers in the near future and you just can’t put one together quickly.
My brother served 3 years on the “Shitty Kitty”....... LOLOL!!!
We were just talking about this boat yesterday......... he was complaining about the nightmare it was to serve on such an old boat........... while I was jealous as I told him serving on that boat gave him an opportunity to serve on a boat with a personality.......... I told him he and his crew mates were “real” sailors for sailing on the only boat of its kind right now in our modern military............ I told him he should be thankful.
He just whined about taking showers that were either ice cold, pure steam, or after lathering himself with soap out of water for 2 hours. HEHE!
But I could tell in his voice he missed the “Shitty Kitty”!!!
Boy, the title is scary. It’s hard to believe that no one knows what’s going to happen to this warship.
Wasn’t there talk of selling her to India for their navy?
If they were going to sell the Kitty Hawk, it should be sold to either Japan or Taiwan, under the most generous lend-lease style purchase agreement.
It appears the talk of the sale to India was a fabrication on the Indians so they could pressure the Russians on their rip-off massive cost overrun refit of the Gorshkov for the Indians.
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fabrication OF the Indians, that is.
Physically impossible to convert to nuclear power.
Old ships are old ships. There's a point where it's not worth it to repair or upgrade them.
We had a serious fire in the engineering spaces on the way over to WestPac in Dec 1973.We lost #1 Main Machinery Room,and I really mean lost,the fire gutted it,stuff was melted,the paint on bulkheads on the second deck was charred.It was bad.Six sailors died and a bunch had smoke inhalation problems.
The interior of the ship was filled with black smoke and a large part of us had to evacuate to the flight deck.We were dead in the water for awhile and when we finally could get underway all we could manage was 9 to 10 knots.
This all happened about 300 miles west of Guam and made it necessary for us to become the first American warship since WW2 to transit San Bernadino Strait,since that was the shortest route to Subic Bay,P.I. We spent some time there while Ship Repair Facility,Subic Bay put us back together again so we could go to the Indian Ocean where we got far enough ahead of the supply train to run out of lotsa stuff,including toilet paper.
In other words that six month deployment was the usual. That means it lasted eight months and the unexpected always happened.
You can't change engine rooms nuke to conventional or vice versa once the keel is laid. That said they should mothball but not sink it or the JFK. In a pinch the boilers could be re-tubed the steam lines replaced and pressed into service.
You can also train and qualify a conventional crew much quicker than a nuke. In event of loss of one or several carriers KH and JFK could be put back into commission probably in about 18 months which is quicker than a nuke or conventional could be built.
Our other ships from Mothball Fleet besides the CONNIE are from the Forestall Class.
I remember riding it up to the 04 level on my daily trips (in person)to main-com and CAG-11 to pick up messages that were in written form.
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