Posted on 01/21/2022 1:01:22 AM PST by 11th_VA
Kitty Hawk, the last oil-fired Navy aircraft carrier, departed Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Washington, Saturday for its final transit to a ship-breaking facility in Texas.
Kitty Hawk served for 48 years before it was decommissioned in 2009, earning the nickname “Shitty Kitty” among some crew members assigned to its aged, non-nuclear-powered hull…
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/01/18/uss-kitty-hawk-headed-for-the-scrapyard/
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/01/18/uss-kitty-hawk-headed-for-the-scrapyard/
Your link now with single clickety goodness.
Thanks !
Thank you for your service. Job well done, she is still afloat. Even if not for long.
There is something a little sad when the navy sends a ship with damn near a half a century service to the breakers.
ping
A fine ship. They used to let our 180’ Coastie boat park right next to her when we went to Yokosuka for yearly training.
Yes
I got to go onboard both the kitty and midway while I was in the navy in the early 90’s. Was serving onboard my home USS Comstock but got to go onboard those historic vessels for parts. I love the history of these 2 vessels. It’s a shame they didn’t find a home for the kitty hawk like they did for the midway.
Served in her Task Force wake onboard the USS Robert E. Peary FF-1073 back in the days of the Iran hostage crisis…
Ah yes, I did a lot of work on the Kitty Hawk, including installing the ADNS network, CIC upgrades and the redesign of SUPPLOT and TFCC spaces. She was affectionatly known as the Shitty Kitty, but she always seemed to have the best crew with with. To bad she’s gone, she would have made a great museum.
The Shitty Kitty
the fate of most ships, the bottom or the breakers.
Why don’t they give it to the Afganis?
Fitzcarraldo-style, hauling her over the Khyber Pass...
Son lives just above the navy base. A whole line of old carriers and other vessels at dock waiting for the scrapyard…and a whole history of the last 50 years of the Navy. All served us well.
I hear that. They had sailors from various ships in PI provision her for ‘Gonzo Station’. She was at the end of her 6 month West PAC - heading back to the states. I was one of the ‘lucky ones’ that spend all night loading her up.
Or maybe that was the Constellation…
Haze gray and underway
I feel much the same way. I know it sounds odd, but I was glad the America was used as a test target.
In my mind’s eye, the vision of her sitting at the bottom of the ocean, always deployed, submerged in her element, rather than being cut up, is a comforting thing to me.
What is it about a ship? Some people would say it is only a big hunk of metal. But in my mind, the one I spent the most time on is more than that. I used to read about ships having a personality and men would cry when they were sunk in battle and they watched them go down.
I didn’t fully understand it. But after being on one, there is something else.
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