Monday, December 4, 2017

USS Kitty Hawk Veterans Devastated The Aircraft Carrier Is Headed For The Scrapyard


Having served on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War in 1970-1971, I was saddened to hear that my old ship was to be scrapped by the U.S. Navy. 

A piece of American history, and my personal history, is headed to the scrapyard.  

Julianne Stanford at the Kitsap Sun offers a piece on the fate of the Kitty Hawk.

When the USS Kitty Hawk Veterans Association held a reunion in Nashville at the end of October, one thing was on everyone's mind: The ship was going to scrapped despite years of efforts and fundraising to turn the aircraft carrier into a museum.

Naval Sea Systems Command spokeswoman Colleen O'Rourke told the Kitsap Sun in October the Kitty Hawk was headed for the scrapyard after years of being held in reserve status at the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Bremerton. This was the Navy's plan all along, ever since the ship was decommissioned in 2009, although it had not yet been officially announced until that point.

The former Kitty Hawk sailors felt blindsided by the news.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

You can also read my piece on the Kitty Hawk on ‘Yankee Station’ off the coast of Vietnam via the below link:

2 comments:

  1. Yes, there is sadness here too. However, we're all headed for the scrapyard, aren't we? Ships like people must all become memories. And so it goes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RT,

    True enough, but like a lot of Kitty Veterans, I was hoping the old girl would be turned into a museum.

    Paul

    ReplyDelete