Advocates worried that there will never be another carrier preserved for posterity, as those of the nuclear-powered era must be mangled to remove all radioactive remnants. Though many sailors and others advocated for its preservation, the Navy declined to pursue that course. It was decommissioned a year later and has been in mothballs in Bremerton until this year.įive former aircraft carriers have been turned into museums, but the Kitty Hawk will not be one of them. The Kitty Hawk was also the fleet's only permanently forward-deployed carrier in Yokosuka, Japan, from 1998 to 2008. The Kitty Hawk participated in combat operations during the nation's wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. More: Former Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier leaves dry dock in Bremerton Under an agreement with the state, Suquamish Tribe and other groups, the ship's hull could not be cleaned in Sinclair Inlet after a previous carrier's scrubbing sparked environmental concerns.
The Kitty Hawk got a rare visit to one of the Navy's only two carrier dry docks in 2021 so that its marine growth could be scraped off. More: USS Kitty Hawk veterans devastated the aircraft carrier is headed for the scrapyard Kennedy, for the stately price of one cent. The company contracted for the warship, along with fellow carrier USS John F. The Kitty Hawk follows from Bremerton's mothball fleet the USS Constellation, USS Independence and USS Ranger, which were all dismantled at the same place: International Shipbreaking Ltd. “The were nothing but a pain,” Bratlee said.
At times too many people would propel the escalator forward, spilling those at the bottom into a pileup. Yet it never seemed to work well, sailors say.
The massive ship had two escalators to help move around thousands of sailors more easily. “I’ve come a long ways since being a kid on a farm.” “Quite a culture shock,” said Bratlee, who served from 1979-1983 and watched the ship depart Bremerton on Saturday. The 6,000 sailors of the Kitty Hawk were double the size of his hometown in Montana. “While most people were graduating from high school and college, I was 30 feet below the waterline, halfway around the world from home.”įor Rich Bratlee, an electrician from Spanaway, the Kitty Hawk was an eye-opening rite of passage. “As hard as life was on this ship, it’s part of my history,” said Urband, who served from 1992 to 1996 as a machinist’s mate.
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