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The Enterprise is Dead….Long live the Enterprise

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Ray Mabus, a fellow Mississippian of mine, inactivated the USS Enterprise CVN-65 after 51 years of service today.

She will be hacked apart, her reactors recycled, and her steel turned into scrap iron.

However…a new USS Enterprise (CVN-80) will join the fleet in 2025 according to Mabus

 

enterprise decomissioned inactive

The video:

http://www.navy.mil/viewVideo.asp?id=17852

 

More:

NORFOLK (NNS) — Nearly 12,000 past and current crewmembers, family and friends attended the inactivation of aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) Dec. 1, 2012, at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.

Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, recently completed its 25th and final deployment and returned to its homeport of Naval Station Norfolk for a scheduled inactivation, held prior to the ship’s terminal offload program and subsequent decommissioning.

The inactivation ceremony was the last official public event for the ship, and served as a celebration of life for the ship and the more than 100,000 Sailors who served aboard.

The Chief of Naval Operations, the Commander of United States Fleet Forces, nine of twenty-three prior commanding officers, many decorated war heroes, and thousands of Enterprise veterans attended the event.

“Enterprise is a special ship and crew, and it was special long before I got here” said Captain William C. Hamilton, Jr., the twenty-third and final commanding officer, during the ceremony.

“Before I took command of this ship, I learned the definition of ‘enterprise’, which is ‘an especially daring and courageous undertaking driven by a bold and adventurous spirit.’ Fifty-one years ago, this ship was every bit of that definition.”

“Here we are 51 years later,” he continued, “celebrating the astonishing successes and accomplishments of this engineering marvel that has roamed the seas for more than half the history of Naval Aviation. Daring, courageous, bold, and adventurous indeed.”

In honor of that spirit, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, in a video message played at the ceremony, announced that the name Enterprise will live on as the officially passed the name to CVN-80, the third Ford class carrier and the ninth ship in the U.S. Navy to bear the name.

Commissioned on November 25, 1961, the eighth ship to bear the illustrious name Enterprise, the “Big E” was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

A veteran of 25 deployments to the Mediterranean Sea, Pacific Ocean, and the Middle East, Enterprise has served in nearly every major conflict to take place during her history. From the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 to six deployments in support of the Vietnam conflict through the Cold War and the Gulf Wars, Enterprise was there. On September 11, 2001, Enterprise aborted her transit home from a long deployment after the terrorist attacks, and steamed overnight to the North Arabian Sea. Big ‘E’ once again took her place in history when she launched the first strikes in direct support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

More than 100,000 Sailors and Marines have served aboard Enterprise during its lifetime, which has included every major conflict since the Cuban Missile Crisis. It has been home ported in both Alameda, Calif., and Norfolk, Va., and has conducted operations in every region of the world.

For more information on USS Enterprise, her legendary history, and Inactivation Week, please visit Welcome to Navy Forces Online Public Sites.

For news from Enterprise’s final deployment, pictures of the Inactivation Ceremony, and video footage of the event, log onto Command Home Page.

Visit the ship’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/USS.Enterprise.CVN.65.

Sad end to a heroic ship

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U.S. 5TH FLEET AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Oct. 2, 2012) The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) transits back to its homeport of Norfolk, Va. Enterprise is returning from a deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility, where the ship conducting maritime security operations, theater security cooperation efforts and support missions for Operation Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Navy photos by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Scott Pittman & Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jeff Atherton/Released)

Headed back home for decommissioning. At 51-years young, the Big E is the oldest nuclear powered ship afloat, the oldest commissioned warship in the fleet (the Constitution is the oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat, but is no longer an active warship capable of undertaking missions), and the second oldest aircraft carrier in operation anywhere in the world (the Indian Navy’s INS Viraat is two years older and the Brazilian São Paulo is two years younger).

The 95,000-ton ship is to be deactivated in Norfolk on December 1 and decommissioned once all reusable items are removed, Ensign Brynn Olson, the ship’s deputy public affairs officer, said Monday.
The ship will then be towed to Washington state for scrapping, Olson said. What the Enterprise will not become is a museum, she said, because removing its eight nuclear reactors will involve so much destruction that the ship could not be repaired to museum quality. “It would just be too expensive to put her back together,” Olson said.  Newport News Shipbuilding will deactivate and de-fuel the ship after her decommissioning. The process is scheduled to begin in mid-2013 and be completed in 2015. Once the Navy dismantles and recycles the ship’s reactors, there will be very little left to turn into a museum; virtually everything two decks below the hangar bay would have to be cut apart. What remains of ex- Enterprise following 2015 is currently scheduled to be taken to Washington state for scrapping. It remains possible the ship’s island could be removed and used as a memorial.

Whether there will be a ninth USS Enterprise remains to be seen.

The Big E still on watch after 50 years

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The USS Enterprise, commissioned in 1961 and for two decades after she hit the waves was the largest warship ever built, is still on active duty at full combat readiness. Odds are she is older than most of the 6,000 sailors on board. She is older than every potential escort ship for her in the US Navy (USS Boone FFg-28 was commissioned in 1982 and is the oldest Navy surface warfare escort ship) and the US Coast Guard (The USCGC Reliance was commissioned in 1964)

Talk about an excellent return on investment.

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Feb. 17, 2011) Sailors spell out “E=MC2” on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ship’s commissioning. Enterprise is the first and oldest nuclear powered aircraft carrier still in service and is celebrating its 50th birthday on Nov. 25, 2011. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd class Alex R. Forster/Released)

Keep a USS Enterprise in the Navy

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Name the next US Navy nuclear powered Aircraft Carrier, CVN-80, USS Enterprise

  

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To:  the Secretary of the US Navy and the US CongressA petition by the citizens of the United States of America, and particularly by US Navy veterans and their familes, to the Secretary of the Navy and to the US Congress to name the next nuclear powered aircraft carrier, CVN-80, the USS Enterprise.

The current aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, CVN-65, will be replaced by CVN-78, the USS Gerald R. Ford after more than fifty years of service. The name, USS Enterprise, has been utilized on ten occassions in service to our nation since 1775 when a vessel was first named USS Enterprise in the Continental Navy during the revolutionary war.

The 8th vessel, the Yorktown class carrier USS Enterprise, CV-6, was the most highly decorated military vessel of World War II and the most highly decorated combat vessel in the history of the United States Navy.

This name has served with distinction and honor throughout our nation’s history and with the upcoming decomissioning of the current USS Enterprise, CVN-65, which was the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the world, we will be left without this honorable and distinguished name serving on the high seas in the interests of our nation.

We petition the Secretary of the Navy and the US Congress to establish that name again with CVN-80, the 3rd nuclear powered Ford Class super carrier so the tradition of honor and service may continue.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

 

 

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