USS Enterprise Finally Decommissioned

Not me, but an online Navy friend (now retired). The Enterprise was his first duty station. I asked him what it was like going aboard for the first time. "Solid goosebumps," he said. "It was in-f.....g-credible."

I had a friend who was an air boss on the USS Ranger (CV61). Once, in 1985, when they were in San Diego, I got the VIP tour. I got to see everything except the war room. The anchor chain links were as big as a small truck and the arresting cables are changed after so many captures.

But, what impressed me most was that once, the captain came on the intercom, and everybody on board froze in their tracks and listened to every word he spoke. We were tied up at the dock but it didn't matter. He spoke, you stopped what you were doing and listened!

I was in awe during the entire tour.

I've been in the CIC "war room" and it's not much different than any other...

Sounds sorta akin to "...throwing out the car when the tyres go bald...", ie: a HUGE waste of already designed-for-purpose steel (and paint)!

I know, right? Maybe they should just name it after a person instead. The way they built and maintained that ship, they're sure to get 50 more years out of it that way.

I dunno, are carriers now supposedly obsolete?

Maybe Carnival Cruise could convert it into a cruise ship that people actually want to ride.

That would be such an insult to such a magnificent ship! Carnival Cruise? Oh hell no! Perish the thought!

You're right.. sorry to put it out there.. let's hope they don't get any ideas

Perfect place for the new Chinese aircraft carrier, though. On the rocks in Italy.

No reason it cannot be recycled for cars and more war equipment. The steel price is so low, it is only worth a few dollars. And keeping these behemoths redundantly floating about just costs tax payer dollars.

Wonderful Ship. It will be back though, at least in name.....

I was onboard in the early 70's (don't remember exactly which year, but probably 72 or 73....), while visiting the Philippines, had a couple of good buddies onboard.....great ship, sadly no funnels (joke!).....

We (a RN ship) had a small fire onboard while alongside, nobody hurt, little damage.....it was funny to see the RN sailors running towards the ship, but the US sailors kept a LONG way away. But I don't blame them, we had 20 odd BIG missiles onboard!!

Theoretically, it could possibly have turned into Pearl Harbour again, sort of.....but we had already flooded the "between space".....

Great memories!!

I was with NAVSEA 08 working for Rickover during the overhaul of Enterprise during the late '70s. It was a tight schedule and Rickover was calling the PSNS shipyard commander at least once a day asking him how many valves had been finished and how many welds had been completed. After a few weeks the shipyard commander accused Rickover of being a "bean counter", which Rickover denied. Shortly after that call, a courier arrived at NAVSEA 08 with a pouch containing navy beans with valve numbers and weld numbers written on the beans.

The shipyard commander had taken a bag of navy beans and had his clerical staff write one valve number or weld number on each bean. When the valve or weld was complete, the bean was placed in the courier pouch and was flown to DC for delivery to Rickover on a daily basis.

The overhaul actually got done ahead of schedule and under budget.

How much JP-7 did the Navy waste on hauling those beans back to Rickover? I want my money back, LOL.

I do salute Adm. Hyman Rickover for his many accomplishments in service of the United States of America!

"It is said that a wise man who stands firm is a statesman, and a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe"

Another quote: "Attempts to limit war have always failed. The lesson of history is when a war starts every nation will ultimately use whatever weapon it has available."

On nuclear reactors (besides the famous quote about necessary evil):

An academic reactor or reactor plant almost always has the following basic characteristics: (1) It is simple. (2) It is small. (3) It is cheap. (4) It is light. (5) It can be built very quickly. (6) It is very flexible in purpose. (7) Very little development will be required. It will use off-the-shelf components. (8) The reactor is in the study phase. It is not being built now.

On the other hand a practical reactor can be distinguished by the following characteristics: (1) It is being built now. (2) It is behind schedule. (3) It requires an immense amount of development on apparently trivial items. (4) It is very expensive. (5) It takes a long time to build because of its engineering development problems. (6) It is large. (7) It is heavy. (8) It is complicated.

I worked a a naval architect for 50 years and had the "run-of-the-ship" on just about every type and class of ship in the U.S. Navy. That included aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, nuclear submarines and all form of auxiliary. My security clearance allowed me to explore every inch of any ship including restricted spaces and nuclear reactor spaces. I even had access to nuclear weapons magazines (accompanied by armed guards). I am now retired from the shipbuilding business. I accidentally got into shipbuilding on my first job, but I was never sorry I did. It has been a great 50 year experience; and yes, I worked on the USS Enterprise. I estimate I have worked on about 80 different ships and rode some of the aircraft carriers in many parts of the world. Travel was a big plus in this business. The Enterprise was unlike any other ship in the Navy. Sailors didn't like serving aboard because it was the "showboat" of the U.S. Navy and everything had to be spit and polish perfect.

Sure it hasn't worked nearly as much as Betty White in it's illustrious career

Ah yes the USS Betty White. Surprisingly she got better with age and still shows no signs of her age or reaching the end of her working career. If only the rest of the fleet were like her.

CVN-80 will be the USS Enterprise...

That's awesome news!!

But it's sure gonna screw up the intro to Star Trek: Enterprise.

Hooker

Steel from CVN-65 will be recycled and used to construct CVN-80. Big-E lives on. Newport News has already got some initial funding.

Kewl pic.

In fact, that drydock was built when I lived nearby in the 70's IIRC. If the frame was just a little higher, you'd see Langley AFB and the Lunar Landing Facility gantry at Langley Research Center in the background. That would be fitting as the NASA's space program was born there.

Hooker

So is there any word on when she is scheduled to launch? Probably we will have impulse power and WARP drive before we get thermal fusion plants to generate online consistently.