Having a carrier based in the Gulf of Mexico also sends a nice warning to Msrs. Castro and Chavez.
That was proven to me when in 1991, the closest USAF SAC base in the lower 48 to the then-USSR (Loring AFB) was closed.
Why? Because it was in far northern Maine. No congressional clout, national security be damned.
I thought the GW was supposed to be based permanently in Japan.
That’s a big deal. Mayport hasn’t been the same since they decomissioned all of the conventional carriers. I think the last flat-top to call Mayport home was USS Saratoga CV-60...
“Suckin’ Sixty from Dixie” was her nickname for a while because she got caught in the mud pier side one year when a hurricane pulled all the water out of the bay, and left Sara sitting stuck in the mud and sucking a bunch of it up through her uptakes...
CAFSU (Carrier and Field Service Unit) or (Come Aboard, F**k Sumpthin’ Up) used to have quite a good Field Office near the pier in Mayport, and they did a ton of work on any carrier that pulled in down there. I would expect they will be doing a Land-Office business with a nuke boat home-ported there.