The Big “E” is on her final deployment prior to decommissioning after 51 years on the Navy roles; and they started doing the final screen of documents and all the other things that go along with putting the final history together.
AND it seems they ‘missed’ a few deployments… Like THREE of them…
It appears that dropping of the WESTPAC tag (10 deployments) caused them to lose the first three deployments (which were LANT/MED deployments0…
Full article HERE.
The real total is 25 deployments, or over 15 years at sea, JUST on deployment! That doesn’t count work-ups, trials, transits, etc…
One hellva career for one hellva ship! The first nuclear carrier, she was originally designated as CVN-65 and set many records for speed, range, etc.
In other Navy news…
The Navy is currently struggling to fill at-sea billets…
They will have to ship hundreds of sailors to sea before their projected rotation dates (PRDs) in order to fill undermanned billets, while at the same time separating thousands of sailors to get down to the “required” end strength for the cuts that have been decreed!
Teh stoopid… It BURNS!!!
And there is NO plan to actually FIX any of this, at least not by this administration…
Granted that unmanned ships are a bigger issue than understaffed bases ashore … it’s pretty obvious what the gummint’s REAL agenda is.
Wasn’t the Enterprise the one with about a baker’s dozen reactors? Or was it hamster wheels powering the lights & coffee makers? What a nightmare. On a more serious note: the Naval Strategy has always been doomed over the decades because of the concentration of the big money in just a few Congressional districts. Shipbuilding is really boosted by only about 8 – 12 Senators & the rest could not give a crap. [oh, and boys have pee-pee’s & girls have whoo-whoo’s] Sorry to blurt out an eternal truth, just like that.
I guess there aren’t any math majors coming from the trade school on the bay.
Gerry
Isn’t it tradition?
Had a coworker who was an Enterprise plank owner and a deck officer. He had several “issues” with the way she was operated.
Must be close to a record for operational service life for a warship.
Rev- Yep
Russell- Point… sigh.
Gerry- Nope, not a one…
WSF- It is, and at 51 years, she ‘has’ to retire, the plant is EOL this year. But we don’t really ‘count’ Old Ironsides… 🙂
I served on the “Starship” Enterprise. She is a fine “Steaming” Lady. Trust me…She could get “Up On The Step” with “Four Turning & Eight Glowing.” Scotty beamed me down off of her into “Fair Winds & Following Seas.”
Alas, that was a different Navy. It was a time when the Navy did not fire Skippers at the rate of two dozen per year. Boys were boys, Girls were girls, and the twain only met on Liberty.
She was fully manned with 6,000+ when she was loaded for hunting Russian Bears.
Sad to see her go. I wonder how they decommission those top secret reactors.
Joe- Good point!
Andy- They will be dis-assembled by the Navy and probably melted down.
Watched the Air Force doing the same thing before I retired.
“We’re doing 3-month deployments”
“Now we’re doing 4-month deployments”
“Now we’re doing 6-month deployments”
“Now we’re doing 6-month deployments, with one-year tours for senior NCOs”
Buh Bye…
Turns out all the old Reactors get sent up to Hanford, Washington and get “Added” to the “Mass Grave”. There’s some Aerial Shots of row upon row of Reactor Vessels waiting to be covered with dirt.
As for the “Big E”, once they pull the Reactors, she has to be turned into Scrap Steel, because they have too many Holes in her to be patched before to let her become a Museum. Which doesn’t bode well for all the Nimitz Class Carriers……
Of course, the Scrap Steel will probably be bought by some ChiCom Outfit, who’ll melt it down and sell it back to the U.S. as Girders.
But Hey! Just think how CLEAN the Environment is with all those American Steel Plants that are shut down!
Just ignore the fact that the Chinese have just shifted the Pollution to their side of the Planet, and are paying a whopping $1.00 an hour to their Mill Workers….
“The Navy is currently struggling to fill at-sea billets…
They will have to ship hundreds of sailors to sea before their projected rotation dates (PRDs) in order to fill undermanned billets…
Looks like we have come full-circle since the Presidency of James Earl Carter and “Vote with their feet” SecDef Harold Brown.
MSgt- Good point, I didn’t know the AF was in the same boat…
Les- Thanks, and you’re right!
Rick- Yep, dammit…
Why would they fix it, it’s going exactly the way they want it to.