Retiring U.S.S. Enterprise

[LeoinMI]

Any Navy guys out there. The "Big E" (CVAN-65) is having retiring ceremonies this Saturday at Norfolk VA. She was quite the ship in her day. Sorry to hear go by way of de-commissioning,..but I believe they will make her a museum of some sorts and not send her to the scrap yard.
I never served on the Enterprise,but went aboard her when she was stationed out of Alameda California. My Carrier,the USS Coral Sea CVA-43, was moored one pier over and I got the chance to take a tour of the Big E while she was in cold iron. Pretty Impressive then and now.
 

[john deere haverstor guy]

After they decommsion the Enterprise they have to remove all the nuclear compents. To do that they have to remove the entire second deck. I doubt they will make a museum out of the ship after cutting it up that bad. I would love to see the Enterprise turned in to a Museum but with the state of the economy and how much it will cost i dont see it happening.
 

[Dalet]

I doubt she will be a museum.
From the Navy's website FAQ:
Q. Can the ship be turned into a museum?

A. The inactivation and defueling process will have major impacts on the structure of the ship. It is not cost-effective to return the ship to a condition that would support it becoming a museum. Additionally, the cost to maintain a ship as a museum is generally cost prohibitive.

As the ship is inactivated, equipment that may be of historic interest will be reclaimed and passed on to museums or appropriate Navy commands so ENTERPRISE’s many contributions to the nation’s defense over the past half-century are remembered.
 

[rabbit]

The retired the Lake Champlain a while back. My dad was on that ship during building toward the end of WWII. They used it to pick up some of the early space shots that landed at sea.... What a splendid career.
 

[Royse]

Sad to see her go, but they all do eventually.
The only time I was on a carrier was to help put out a fire aboard the
USS Forestal in port, Mayport FL. No joke.
It would be nice to see her made into a museum, but that's been covered.
 

[Fred 2!]

I went on a tiger cruise on that ship about two years ago with my son, was a lifetime experience for me.
 

[Cooter143]

I got my Carrier Qual on the "E". Was also re-qualled on her several times over the years.
 

[old]

I cannot remember if the Big E ever got to Norfolk VA but I did see my share of carriers since I did a couple med trips on the CV67 the JFK and that was the last command I did before I got out
 

[Janicholson]

Sorry to inform you but the multiple Nuclear reactors on board will not allow reasonable static display. The removal of the cores cuts radical holes in the deck, and the remains are not interesting with major destruction of major components.
It will have fitments removed in New England, Towed around the Straights of Magellan, (it noes not fit through the canal) and have the reactors stripped in Washington (IIRC). the reactor hot parts will be buried near Hanford reserve in WA.
 

[Ultradog MN]

Thank you Leo.
It's sad to see em go.
The one we should have saved was USS Enterprise CV6.
She was the fightingest carrier we had in WWII and at one time was the ONLY carrier we had left in the Pacific to fight the Japanese.
But even Admiral Halsey couldn't save her after the war so she went the way of Enterprise II and is Ten Thousand Hondas today.
If you want to get involved with saving a classic maybe consider the USS Texas which is the only Dreadnought era Battleship left in existence.
She languishes near Houston - underfunded, mostly relying on donations, moldering and rusting away.
She was launched a Century ago this year.
BB 35 USS Texas

 

[CenTex Farmall]

Good to bring up the Texas as the only one of it's type anywhere.

Latest plans are to go to a permanent dry dock setup and build it around the ship; deemed to risky to even tow a little ways in the channel. Lot of problems this summer with flooding.
 

[NCWayne]

Sad to see another great ship go to the scrapper. I spent 2 years aboard the USS America (CV-66). many people don't know it but the America was, technically, an Enterprise class ship even though she wasn't nuclear powered. I heard rumors while aboard her that she was supposed to have been nuclear powered and that was why many spaces were as tight for room as they were. Basically the conventional equipment took up more room than the nuke equipment did. Anyway, in my last few months aboard as I was assigned as the Shipboard Damage Control LPO for the Engineering Department. I was responsible for spaces from the front end to the aft end, port to starboard side, and just under the flight deck down to the lowest levels. As such I had access to old blueprints, parts lists, etc that had never been changed since inception and still had her listed as a CVN.

I got several emails some years back where groups were petitioning to have the old girl turned into a floating museum since it was the only surviving ship named America. Unfortunately things didn't work out like everyone wanted. It still bothers me to know that the regal warship I've got pics of hanging on my wall is now sitting several miles under the ocean after being used for target practice. Of course the first ship I was on, the William V Pratt (DDG 44) is probably now part of some new building in China...........that's even worse............
 

[Old Roy]

General walker.... I rode to Viet Nam was decommissioned
Interesting though that they saved some of the artifacts.

These bunks they show we had to "hot bunk" in someone would get up, and you would get in. 16 hours on, and 8 hours off duty.
Biggest boat I was ever on

 

[Used-to-be-iowa-dave]

I was on the USS Sacramento AOE-1 (the "Sac"), the underway replenishment ship for the E and her carrier group, for four years and two Westpac cruises in the 80s. We were a pretty good sized ship, made most of the ships in the group seem small by comparison when they pulled alongside for fuel, food, parts, mail, etc. But when the E pulled up to us, I"d walk up from my engine room, step outside the superstrucher to see her and find myself staring at a wall of grey steel. She was massive and all business.
 

[hermit]

I agree with you'll on the Texas. I went on a hard hat tour of her about a year ago, and she is in sad shape indeed. They said at the time that the future didn't look good. I heard about the flooding earlier this year, but haven't heard any more lately. And the last time I looked on the website, there weren't any updates on the situation. Sad to see a piece of history like that go to the devil.
On the subject of carriers, have any of you'll been to the Lexington in Corpus? I have been wanting to go for a while, just need to get off my rear and do it.
As to the demise of Navy ships, I would have liked to have had a hand in cutting up that miserable POS tin can I was on last!!!