Navy bids farewell to oldest warship in American fleet
US: After half a century on the high seas, the oldest warship in the
American fleet, the USS Enterprise, will return to port Sunday for the
last time.
From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the war in Afghanistan, the world’s
first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has played a part in every
conflict involving the United States since she was commissioned in 1961.
But when the massive vessel glides into the US naval base in Norfolk,
Virginia on Sunday morning, with sailors in white uniforms standing on
deck, it will mark the end of her 25th and final deployment after an
eight month tour in the Mediterranean and the Gulf, the Navy said.
“Homecoming will no doubt be a bittersweet day,” said Captain
WilliamHamilton, the ship’s commanding officer. “We are pleased to be
returning to our families after a very successful deployment, but to
know that it is the last time Enterprise will be underway through her
own power makes our return very sentimental.” The ship will be formally
retired at a ceremony on December 1 but the vessel known as the “Big E”
already relinquished its ammunition and ordnance last week at sea, with
helicopters ferrying more than 1,500 tonnes of missiles and bombs to
cargo ships nearby.
With a length of 342 meters (1,123 feet), the Enterprise is the
longest naval ship in the world, and has a displacement of nearly 95,000
tonnes. The floating base can accommodate 4,500 sailors and aviators, as
well as 72 planes and helicopters.
With its distinctive design and four rudders instead of two, the
supercarrier occupies a special place in American maritime history and
is the eighth ship that bears the name. The first Enterprise was a
British vessel captured during the American war of Independence.
The ship features in the 1986 hit film “Top Gun,” as well as in “The
Hunt for Red October,” and served as inspiration for Captain Kirk’s
spaceship in the Star Trek television series.
On 20 February 1962, the Enterprise operated as a tracking station
for the Project Mercury space capsule that saw astronaut John Glenn make
the first American orbital spaceflight.
Later that year, the ship was ordered on its first military mission,
taking part in a blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis that nearly
triggered a nuclear conflagration.
Two years later, the carrier took a global tour in a show of US naval
power and later saw action in the Vietnam war, culminating in the US
evacuation out of Saigon in 1975.
AFP |
