USS Constitution
Interesting. The Navy dumps a ship only 50 years old but yet the Air Force is still flying B-52’s that some grand son of the first pilot is flying it.
One of my boys was Sailor of the Year on the Big E.
There was an old, old interservice rivalry joke about a sailor bragging about the Navy building a ship so big they were going to have to widen the ocean to sail it. An airman topped it by bragging about a new bomber so big they were going to have to import atmosphere from Mars to fly it.
I don’t know what the whole story is, but I will admit to having thoughts somewhat similar to yours.
Is this truly a ship that was overdue to be retired, or was this simply a convenient excuse to get the ball rolling toward what Obama would love to do, leave us with perhaps one carrier group, if that.
An airplane is not a ship in seawater.
After 50 years at sea....she’s done well. Time for her to be retired.
I was born well before the B-52 ever got airborne and I’ll be long gone before the last of those BUFF birds are finally grounded.
USS Constitution
The practice of naming ships after presidents needs to end. The next flattop should be another Enterprise. Then every carrier after that should rturn to being named after revolutionary war battles.
Enough of the memorials to fat farting potentates that everyone wants to forget anyway.
The destroyer my Dad sailed on circa 1946, The Leonard F. Mason, was sold to the Taiwan navy after Vietnam and then sunk to make a reef.
I’ve read of a Zen-like joke regarding the B-52 — that when the last one is flown off to be mothballed, the flight crew will return to base...
...aboard a B-52.
The 100 or so remaining in service could really use an engine upgrade, but they were built to last.
http://www.thepepper.com/tucson_airplane_graveyard.html
Most of the parts on which have been replaced a number of times since 1962.