I could go on at great length with a multitude of stories about that great ship,suffice it to say that of the seven carriers I've served aboard she was always my most memorable one.
Here's a true story for you about The Big E.
Back in the spring of 66 I was attending second class diving school in Subic. Big E was moored at Cubi Point. We got a work order for a diving job on Enterprise. The engineering dept needed to re-pack the #2 rudder post. Our job was to install a "dam" underwater around the post so ship's co could loosen the packing ring, insert new packing, re-tighten the packing gland.
We had the diving barge tied up to the stern of E during the op. We had a lot of standing around time waiting for the word for us to remove the dam.
It was at this point, one of the SRF divers took a chipping hammer and started chipping the paint on the stern about 6-8 ft above the waterline. In big 12" bold letters, he signed his name -"HUEY".
It may have read ENTERPRISE up near the main deck, but HUEY was etched in near the waterline.