Final Cruise

Yesterday, about 9 AM, the USS Kitty Hawk, CV-63, completed what may have been her final voyage. There are now five carriers docked at Bremerton, three of them are inactive and awaiting their fates, becoming a museum at some port city or going to the scrapyard. The Kitty Hawk will become the fourth sometime after January 2009 when she is scheduled to be decommissioned. It has been reported that there is interest in this grand ship going to North Carolina after the Navy has determined that her career is indeed over. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the birthplace of aviation!

The Kitty Hawk is the last non-nuclear carrier in the US Fleet. She was first commissioned in 1961 and has had a proud career spanning 47 years. Her last 10 years spent in Japan as the only US carrier to be forward deployed. One of the pleasures we had living here on the Kitsap Peninsula was watching the ships coming and going from the Puget Sound Shipyard. We are happy we were here in Bremerton when she arrived.