Post by Sailor on Dec 1, 2012 15:36:44 GMT -8
NORFOLK
The mammoth ship that projected U.S. force during the early stages of the Cold War and decades later launched some of the first air attacks in America’s war on terror is no longer in service.
But its remarkable legacy – and its iconic name – will live on. The Navy formally inactivated the aircraft carrier Enterprise on Saturday.
An estimated 12,000 people – among them hundreds of former crew members and dozens of original shipbuilders – crowded onto a pier at Norfolk Naval Station to say goodbye to the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
In a surprise video address toward the end of an emotional ceremony, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that the next aircraft carrier would be named Enterprise, continuing a long Navy tradition dating back to the Revolutionary War.
The Big E, the eighth U.S. ship named Enterprise, will be decommissioned next summer. It’ll be towed to the Newport News shipyard that built five decades earlier.
“I’m honored to tell this crowd of past and present crew that the work of the name Enterprise is not done,” Mabus said in pre-recorded remarks, which were received with cheers and a standing ovation on the pier.
hamptonroads.com/2012/12/navy-americas-next-carrier-will-be-named-enterprise
CVN 78 has already been named Gerald R Ford and earlier this year the name for CVN 79 was announced as John F Kennedy. I don't know if Mabus means that the name of CVN 79 will be changed or if Enterprise is being reserved for CVN 80.
The mammoth ship that projected U.S. force during the early stages of the Cold War and decades later launched some of the first air attacks in America’s war on terror is no longer in service.
But its remarkable legacy – and its iconic name – will live on. The Navy formally inactivated the aircraft carrier Enterprise on Saturday.
An estimated 12,000 people – among them hundreds of former crew members and dozens of original shipbuilders – crowded onto a pier at Norfolk Naval Station to say goodbye to the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
In a surprise video address toward the end of an emotional ceremony, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that the next aircraft carrier would be named Enterprise, continuing a long Navy tradition dating back to the Revolutionary War.
The Big E, the eighth U.S. ship named Enterprise, will be decommissioned next summer. It’ll be towed to the Newport News shipyard that built five decades earlier.
“I’m honored to tell this crowd of past and present crew that the work of the name Enterprise is not done,” Mabus said in pre-recorded remarks, which were received with cheers and a standing ovation on the pier.
hamptonroads.com/2012/12/navy-americas-next-carrier-will-be-named-enterprise
CVN 78 has already been named Gerald R Ford and earlier this year the name for CVN 79 was announced as John F Kennedy. I don't know if Mabus means that the name of CVN 79 will be changed or if Enterprise is being reserved for CVN 80.
