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USS Enterprise Takes Its Final Voyage

Posted by Soulskill on from the looking-for-nuclear-wessels dept.

westlake writes "The AP is reporting that the world's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Enterprise, is to be retired after fifty years of active service — the longest of any warship in U.S. naval history. Its final deployment will take it to the Middle East and last for seven months. The big ship has become notoriously difficult to keep in repair. As an old ship and the only one in its class, breakdowns have become frequent and replacement parts often have to be custom made. Despite its place in naval history and popular culture, Enterprise will meet its end at the scrap yard rather than being preserved at a museum. This is expected to happen in 2015, after the nuclear fuel has been removed."

15 of 455 comments (clear)

  1. That's odd by koan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Final voyage to the Middle East for an old hard to maintain ship, one wonders if something will befall the ship while there since it is apparently "expendable".

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    1. Re:That's odd by koan · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wait... there's already a ""Enterprise false flag"" conspiracy theory?

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    2. Re:That's odd by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you look at the current aircraft carrier deployment, you'll notice that 'hanging around the middle east' is a very popular activity among aircraft carriers, with 'maintenance' the runner up.

      Further, given that it was CNV-72, the very much not obsolete yet, Abraham Lincoln that had the dubious honor of passing through the Strait of Hormuz(ie. within range of practically anything not classified as a 'small arm', the Enterprise certainly hasn't been obviously singled out as the sitting duck.

    3. Re:That's odd by Y-Crate · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And sadly, the facts aren't even an issue for them. They define themselves based on their opposition to what's accepted. It's solely a case of being "special" enough to see the "truth", while the rest of us are "sheep".

      That's what it's about. They'll create, and continue to create vast conspiracy theories that don't even match the last theory they said was the absolute truth. Their theories clash with their own theories. It's just about being different, and elevating your own worth above that of other people who are seen as dumber than you and need to be saved from themselves.

      9/11 isn't even really the issue, it's merely a symptom of their own malignancy.

    4. Re:That's odd by DesScorp · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If the entire crew is wearing red shirts, I'd worry.

      I was in the ordinance section ("G" section) on Big E. Aviation ops staff... ordinance, flight deck ops, fuel, safety, etc... all wear color coded shirts. The fuel guys wear purple shirts. Safety guys white, flight deck guys blue, plane captains brown, etc. Ordinance wore red shirts. So yeah, I was a redshirt on the Enterprise, and lived to tell about it :P

      --
      Life is hard, and the world is cruel
    5. Re:That's odd by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Lemme just ask some retarded questions. I'm terribly stupid, naive, uninformed, ignorant, and whole bunch of other horse shit. Oh yeah, can't forget batshit crazy.

      With that out of the way - just how large an aircraft do you think would be required to destroy your home, if it were to crash into your home? Alright - how large a plane would be required to destroy your city hall? Your high school? Come on - THINK about it. Have you ever seen a mere 5-gallon can full of nothing but gasoline vapors explode? It's fucking DESTRUCTIVE, man! It will tear your goddamned HEAD OFF!

      Now, imagine the explosive power in an automobile's gas tank - 10, 14, maybe 20 gallons of gasoline. Put that in your house. Ignite. Add a bottle or two of pure oxygen - remember, those high altitude aircraft come equipped with an oxygen source, large enough to supply all the people aboard, just in case.

      Have you absorbed that yet? Fine - let's move on. How many gallons of aviation fuel did those jetliners carry? I don't even know - but I know damned well that even almost empty, they held more fuel than your family car - or an 18-wheeler.

      Pull our heads out of our asses? No - I suggest you study physics.

      Skyscrapers aren't exactly "stationary" to start with. They sway. They bend, They stretch. Just like Romper Room, "Bend, and stretch, reach for the stars!"

      Impact one side, at a predetermined elevation, in the process destroying some structural elements, and delivering an explosive charge along with some nice long lasting flammables. You don't NEED to bring the building down. All you need do is to destroy SOME structural members, weaken some more - and wait for the building to bring itself down.

      And THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE SAW ON 9/11/01 ! ! ! ! !

      Those buildings stood for quite a long while after the impacts. It took TIME for them to finish destroying themselves. But, once those impacts, explosions, and fires were started, it was only a matter of time until they fell.

      Pull our heads out of our asses, indeed.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  2. Not to take anything away from the Big E... by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...but the USS Constitution is the "world's oldest commissioned warship afloat", having been launched 21 October 1797.

    As for the USS Enterprise (CVN 65), some video memories:

    USS Enterprise at Sea
    USS Enterprise Flight Operations

    "Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise."

    Fair winds and following seas.

  3. Re:Causality Failure... by hawguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    But how will Kirk and the crew save the Whales and get back to the 23rd Century without that "nuclear wessel"? (evil grin)

    They went back in time to 1986, so retiring the ship now won't affect the whale recovery. Geeze, what are they teaching kids in school today? Apparently not Starfleet future history.

  4. Story is wrong: by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...to be retired after fifty years of active service — the longest of any warship in U.S. naval history.

    The USS Constitution, launched in 1798, retired from active service in 1856, after 58 years of active service. And after that, she was turned into a school ship, then a whole bunch of that kind of service, and she's still afloat today, the official "symbolic flagship" of the US fleet.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Story is wrong: by vikingpower · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I was a junior Navy officer for some time, in a NATO-member Navy. One of the few things I learned quite thoroughly in that time was: "Never trust what an admiral says. Never. Ever. Find your own facts".

      --
      Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    2. Re:Story is wrong: by gman003 · · Score: 5, Informative

      China's Army and Air Force are doing fine, but their Navy is in relatively poor shape. They're good enough to be a threat to anyone invading them, maybe even a threat to the locals, but even the Royal Navy could take them at this point.

      They've got one aircraft carrier. One. Not even a full one. They bought an incomplete and stripped Soviet "carrier-cruiser", and are currently finishing and refurbishing it. It's designed to carry a mere 40 aircraft, mostly helicopters. Compare that to the 90 or so carried on the Enterprise or a Nimitz-class. Now, they somewhat compensate by having quite a few more missiles, including some pretty hefty AA, but they're as outclassed as a PDP11 on the TOP500.

    3. Re:Story is wrong: by petsounds · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe, but when Chinese subs can surface within a US carrier group without the US knowing about it, the number of planes the Chinese carrier has becomes less of an issue.

    4. Re:Story is wrong: by koan · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or an Italian Captain.

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  5. It was a beater in the 90's. by dcherryholmes · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember finishing Nuke School in the early nineties, and one of my buddies went surface and got assigned to the Enterprise. It was kind of a good deal for him since he went straight to the shipyard instead of going out to see on a non-hoopty vessel. But we stayed in touch for a while after our assignments and I remember him telling me "dude, I will *never* go out to sea on this thing, I'll jump ship first." Obviously a bit of hyperbole involved, but the ship was showing its age even back then.

  6. Re:Custom made parts by DesScorp · · Score: 5, Informative

    Aren't most parts for US Navy vessels custom made regardless? I don't recall seeing a section at WalMart for warship parts.

    Most modern US warships of a class are constructed with modern modular techniques, with tooling at the ready to reproduce standard, common parts. The Nimitz class... like all of our other modern warship classes... was basically built in modular parts in an indoor factory, and then put together piece by piece at the yards. You can look up pics of modern carrier construction where they're using cranes to lift factory made sections into the ship, where they're welded and secured into the vessel. The Enterprise... a unique design... was built the old fashioned way, completely (and uniquely) built in the drydock itself from the keel up. So when a major part on a Nimitz needs replacing, they simply tell Newport News Shipbuilding, where machinists simply make one quickly and economically from an existing productions template. The Enterprise's parts have to very much be custom made.

    --
    Life is hard, and the world is cruel