live
Error, error, error - oldest US Navy ship is STILL the USS Constitution.
Have seen her in Norfolk. She’s amazing! Nothing like seeing the carriers lined up in port. Son is leaving the Navy so will probably never again have the opportunity to get on base and see these awesome floating cities up close.
Job well done, Big E.
“The question is not a game of Battleship, where we’re counting ships, it’s what are our capabilities,” Obama concluded. Barack Obama
Now I have another basketball court to play on. Barack Obama.
Obama opens college hoops game on aircraft carrier
The next Enterprise will be Captained by Jonathan Archer
There needs to be another Enterprise. And we need to get back to naming carriers after revolutionary war battles, and quit with this presidential naming BS. There has almost always been an Enterprise, that name should not die
The government does not want people thinking of the revolution, the constitution, independence, etc.
Big E Ping
at NISMF, Bremerton, WAShip’s motto, “Ready on Arrival!”
My late wife’s cousin was married to a Chief Warrant Officer who was assigned to the Big E in the 90’s. He took us on a VIP tour of the ship. I have pictures of her sitting in the Captain’s chair. Magnificent ship, job well done.
Bravo Zulu CVN 65!
He is relatively recently retired from the Navy, and worked in the Bremerton, WA, navy yards (which decommissions nuke ships....why....close proximity to Hanford, where the old reactor carcases are "permanently" buried after removal of fissionables).
He told me that ships of the Enterprise class had EIGHT separate nuclear reactors aboard. Modern nuclear flat-tops only have two. I can't help but wonder if someday the loss of the extra redundancy may cause problems in combat.
We have found the nuclear vessel...And Captain, it is the ENTERPRISE!
I built the plastic model when I was a kid. Came in the biggest box! Took forever to paint everything. Just the model was impressive!
This old Army guy says “well done” to the USS Enterprise and all who sailed on her!
They really need to re-name the next flattop in line to
Enterprise. Were he still with us, Jerry Ford would agree
I think. And its not like it hasn’t been done before.
USS Lexington CV-16 for example.
Mike
The Big E was truly big.
I lived in Manila and for a while till I moved to Subic, flew in and out of Cubi Point NAS every day. The plane would fly down wind over the carrier pier. One day I was flabbergasted at the size of the ship tied to the pier. It was enormous, fantastically larger then those usually berthed there.... it was the Big E
The shore party of the Big E and entourage was 10,000. So many sailors at once overwhelmed the hospitality capacity of Olongapo. Liberty parties had to be carefully limited to assure peace and order in the Olongopo strip.
That was 45 years ago. After that many years, we all need a little rest
It will be a very sad moment, as it is for any ship, when the CO orders the final “Done with engines” command. As a preceding post puts it, “Bravo Zulu” (a naval signal, conveyed by flaghoist or voice radio, meaning “Well Done”) to all of the crews who manned the BigE!
FYI: In a followup to my #2 post about the USS Constitution being the oldest USN ship still “In Commission”, I have to wonder; was there an equivalent command for those sailing ships when the docked?
Proudly served on the “Big E” in the late 60’s on Yankee Station, South China Sea... COMCARDIV 3.
If she was commissioned in 1961, What Enterprise was I on in about 1957/1958 in Bremerton WA during an open house aboard ship after a major retrofit in that shipyard? My stepfather worked on her during that time.
Don’t worry she be recycle as USS Enterprise with cowboy like Capt Kirk and logical Vulcan/Human Hybrid Mr Spock and very annoyed Dr McCoy in 23th century