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Interesting article. Of the last four conventional carriers Kitty Hawk, Connie, America, and JFK the Kitty Hawk the oldest of the four seemed to have survived the wear and tear the best since it is the reserve carrier. I'm surprised the northeast DEMs haven't demanded the Navy make JFK a museum from it's operations budget. JFK from accounts I've read was in pretty rough shape and it was the newest.

The feel and sound of being on the second deck of a KH class carrier running all eight boilers and all four screws turning at flank was awesome. The ship had a totally different feel to it at flank. You'd feel the internal vibration and the deck rising and falling. The turbines would be screaming. You just knew she was going all out.

The fact that none of them suffered a real full blown catastrophic boiler room disaster that could have blown the ship in half is a testimony to the quality standards they were build under. They had some incidents like America upon return from the MED in 1994 when at NOB but nothing close like what was possible to happen under a worse case scenario. Those were 8 boiler 1200 PSI superheated steam propulsion plants. Very deadly with even a pin hole leak. A silent unseen killer.

Both times I went to the Med we came back running Flank speed most of the way.

I'm surprised the northeast DEMs haven't demanded the Navy make JFK a museum from it's operations budget. JFK from accounts I've read was in pretty rough shape and it was the newest.

They're way ahead of you: Link

If Ted Kennedy was still alive I guarantee the museum would have been federally funded.