Gunsight1
Potato Salad
So, later today the Inactivation ceremony for the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise CVN-65 will take place, after which she will be formally decommissioned, stripped of useful components and defueled before being towed to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where she will ultimately be scrapped. Due to the costs of removing Enterprise's 8 nuclear reactors and fuel the US Navy will not be donating the ship as a museum, so today is her first step towards her grave.
I have to say this day makes me really sad. I've known it was coming for some time, but I do not feel any better about it. To see such an important ship start her journey to the grave with the sure knowledge she has no chance of preservation as a museum like USS Hornet (where I volunteer as a tour guide). The Enterprise was the first true super carrier, even more so (in my opinion), than the Forrestal and Kitty Hawk classes. She was the first nuclear powered warship, she was the biggest and most powerful warship for over half a century. I know some might find it silly, getting upset over an old inanimate object getting sent to recycle, but ships are special, especially ships named Enterprise and its sad that once again, as with her predecessor, CV-6, she will not be saved for future generations to learn from and experience.
Right now the Navy has no plans to name any of the forthcoming Gerald R. Ford class carriers Enterprise. CVN-80 is as yet un named, so there is hope. There are petitions to have CVN-80 named Enterprise, which I hope she is. But with the Navy's recent theme of naming everything after Admirals and Presidents, I would not be surprised if we don't see another USS Enterprise for a long time.
I have to say this day makes me really sad. I've known it was coming for some time, but I do not feel any better about it. To see such an important ship start her journey to the grave with the sure knowledge she has no chance of preservation as a museum like USS Hornet (where I volunteer as a tour guide). The Enterprise was the first true super carrier, even more so (in my opinion), than the Forrestal and Kitty Hawk classes. She was the first nuclear powered warship, she was the biggest and most powerful warship for over half a century. I know some might find it silly, getting upset over an old inanimate object getting sent to recycle, but ships are special, especially ships named Enterprise and its sad that once again, as with her predecessor, CV-6, she will not be saved for future generations to learn from and experience.
Right now the Navy has no plans to name any of the forthcoming Gerald R. Ford class carriers Enterprise. CVN-80 is as yet un named, so there is hope. There are petitions to have CVN-80 named Enterprise, which I hope she is. But with the Navy's recent theme of naming everything after Admirals and Presidents, I would not be surprised if we don't see another USS Enterprise for a long time.
