Navy sets decommissioning date for USS John F. Kennedy (Boston Globe)

[Eugene]

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Navy sets decommissioning date for USS John F. Kennedy

By Globe Staff

The 1,050-foot-long aircraft carrier named for President John F. Kennedy will be
decommissioned on March 23 after nearly 40 years of patrols and battles, from scrapes
with Libyan fighter jets in the Mediterranean Sea to the current war in Iraq.

The ship -- christened the USS John F. Kennedy by the late president's then 9-year-old
daughter Caroline in May 1967 -- will make Boston its last port of call. The aircraft
carrier will be at the North Jetty in South Boston's Marine Industrial Park from March
1 to 5 for a host of ceremonies which will include a public visiting that Saturday and
Sunday, according to Lieutenant Paul Brawley, a Boston-based spokesman for the Navy.

After it is decommissioned, the USS John F. Kennedy will join other mothballed vessels
at the Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, Penn. That will leave the
USS Kitty Hawk as the last fossil-fuel burning aircraft carrier in active use by the
Navy.

The USS John F. Kennedy could someday be turned into a museum, Brawley said.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/02/navy_sets_decom_1.html

[slackmaster]

1. That makes me feel old

I remember the christening of that ship very well, also the first time it sailed into San Diego.

[A Simple Game]

3. I visited my Brother in Newport News when it was being built.

It sure was an impressive sight for a teenager.

[madville]

2. It was time, old girl was falling apart

That thing had turned into a career killer for CO's because nobody could keep it working correctly the last 6 or 7 years. I've been on it before, used to work on the navy base in Mayport from time to time. They sunk 200 million into it in 2002 and I don't know if it even was deployed for a full patrol after that. One of the last oil fueled carriers in the fleet, Bill Nelson had been lobbying for a nuke carrier to take it's place down here, hadn't heard anything new on that though. I was stationed on a ship that got decommissioned years ago, it isn't anything bad, machines just wear out.

Sounds like a good name for the next Nuke carrier that comes out of the yards.

[saigon68]

4. You mean not the USS Dickless Cheney ?