;-)
Posted on 03/10/2012 3:53:50 PM PST by DemforBush
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — When the makers of "Top Gun" were filming on board the USS Enterprise, they donated a set of black fuzzy dice to liven up the ship's otherwise drab interior.
A quarter-century later, the dice will still be dangling inside the tower of "the Big E" as the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier sets sail on its final voyage Sunday...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I was on a DD, Fletcher Class. Loved that old girl. The ole man was cool also and I was his staff driver when we hit ports. That ole ship only had guns on board, none of that missle crap. I was a sonarman also. Good times.
LOL! My wife, as a teen, got to tour her then, too; her dad was a retired Navy officer; and her cousin was stationed aboard her.
Anyway, she got lost looking for a ‘ladies room’, and ended up staring at armed guards near the main reactor area, who gave her directions.
Operation Frequent Wind
In April 1975, Enterprise, Midway, Coral Sea, Hancock, and Okinawa were deployed to waters off Vietnam for evacuation contingencies as North Vietnam, in violation of the Paris Peace Accords, launched a conventional invasion of South Vietnam. On 29 April, Operation Frequent Wind was carried out by US Navy and Marine Corps helicopters from the 7th Fleet. The Operation involved the evacuation of American citizens from Saigon.
President Ford ordered helicopter evacuation when PAVN shelling forced the cessation of fixed-wing evacuation from Tan Son Nhut airport. With fighter cover the helicopters landed at the US Embassy, Saigon and the DAO Compound to pick up evacuees. The last helicopter lifted off the roof of the US Embassy, Saigon at 07:53 on 30 April 1975 carrying the last 11 Marine Security Guards. During Operation Frequent Wind, aircraft from Enterprise flew 95 sorties.
SHHHH! Don’t give him any ideas! His people troll around on FR!
My guess is that China has outbid them based on the scrap value. Frankly I'm surprised Baraq doesn't send it to Iran for them to pull out the reactor first.
Don’t give the bastard any ideas.
;-)
It is a shame it is going to be hung out for the Iranians to take a poke at.
Prayers up for those aboard.
That is a VRC-50 S-3. Used to fly C-1A Traders for them. Trapped many times on the big E. Best crew in all WESTPAC!
Many stories of her rooster tail ing high speed runs at night to avoid soviet satellite recon. “Clear the bridge”
Reading these posts got me to thinking—that someday, some Navy ship, maybe even a carrier, will be named the USS Barack Obama. Dear God, that makes me want to cry.
Good story,
I was on the Connie CV64. It was wider than the Enterprise, so we had some extra beam to shove through. Top speed on those girls is supposed to be classified, they admit to mid 30 knot range. I know CV65 is faster.
How about the worlds larges cruise ship?
I posted my Enterprise story some years ago here on Free Republic,so allow me to hit the highlights one more time.
In the spring of '67 I was on board with RVAH-7,an RA5C Vigilante squadron.We were leaving Yankee Station in company with USS Bainbridge,CGN-25 heading for R&R at Subic Bay...I can still smell Olongapo if I try...but I digress.The CO of Enterprise at that time was CAPT J.L.Holloway III,later to be CNO who had deferred promotion to RADM so he could take the Big E on a combat cruise,at least that was the scuttlebutt.
Evidently there was only room for one of us pierside at Cubi Point and CAPT Holloway was determined that it would be us...let the Bainbridge anchor out.The story was that he bet the Bainbridge skipper that we could beat him to the pier.
Anyway,Bainbridge took off and was over the horizon fairly quickly.It took us a little while to get up to high speed,but we eventually passed Bainbridge like she was standing still.A couple of us wondered how fast we were going to go,we had to rig for heavy weather and all,
Now the Vigilante aircraft had the ASB-12 Bomb/Nav system which I worked on and to align the A/C stable platform we would plug in to the ship's SINS system for present position,heading and speed info.So we went up and I climbed into one of our aircraft parked aft of the island and we plugged in.
The plane had 26 tie-down chains on it,the ship was up on a plane kicking up a rooster tail that had to be 40 to 50 feet high! The vibrations got pretty bad and I was afraid that we were going to break loose from the tie downs and roll over the side so I climbed out...at which time the ship's speed readout was at 43 knots and climbing!
I don't know how much faster we got to but I would say 50 was quite possible.
BTW we got there first!
The aircraft carrier “Enterprise’’ is perhaps the most storied ship in the US Navy. It saw 26 major engagements in the Pacific during WW2. It’s ability to survive all of this plus much battle damage earned it the name ‘’The Lucky E’’ by it WW2 crew. It was Admiral William F. “Bull’’ Halsey’s flagship. One of it’s WW2 pilots was one 1st. Lt. John ‘’ Jack’’ Taylor, president and founder of Enterprise car rental. He named the company after the ship he served on.
What's going to really piss off us old swabbies is when they name any ship after Barrack H Obama.
Great story!
50 knots is pretty mind blowing.
I met up with the Connie while she was at Bremerton finishing up a major overhaul. Seeing her from the bottom is absolutely amazing.
Anyway, once we got her out on the water, we broke her right away running her hard at sea trials. I have no idea how fast we were going, but it was pretty much all she had. And we were running bare, no air wing yet. The shaking was really something and eventually we broke a screw. We ended up getting shoehorned into a dry dock at Long Beach for another several months.
The only ship I'd tolerate for Obama would be a cargo ship ACTUALLY named USS Reluctant [ala "Mister Roberts"] with his name ONLY affixed to the commemorative plaque on the door to the Head ...
Click on pic for past Navair pings. Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist. The only requirement for inclusion in the Navair Pinglist is an interest in Naval Aviation. This is a medium to low volume pinglist.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.