Correction: It was Kitty Hawk and JFK that after 9/11 had serious issues. Many seemed to stem from poor maintenance. Now the Navy knew as did congress POTUS and Sec Nav that the JFK had been an unofficial reserve ship for almost a decade not given due maintenance or funding. The Kitty Hawk had maintenance issues which likely was the cause of the so called improper watch procedures. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/743906/posts The bouy inncident was cause but the others were not when you had schmucks nickle and dimeing the maintenance to death. Many repairs should only be done in the yards and take the yards expertise and equipment. I’ve seen recent pictures of the carrier piers at NOB Norfolk and the flightdecks looked like Tent City. because yard maintenance was being done there instead of up at the yards.
I thought it was Connie (and JFK), by that time Kitty Hawk was in Japan and being pretty well tended to.
But she had big issues prior to going to Japan. Wasn’t there some bug scandal where a sailor videotaped filing cabinets filled with bad maintenance reports being dumped over the side while underway?