For anybody interested, the ceremony will be livestreamed on WAVY-TV’s site, starting in about 40 minutes (1000 EST).
We all joked about feeling glad we weren’t assigned to her, but we in the nuke community had a lot of respect for the ship, and those who were assigned to her.
Goodnight, Big E.
http://wavy.com/2017/02/02/uss-enterprise-decommissioning-ceremony-feb-2017/
Are they going to use it for target practice too? That would be neat to see!
With as much radioactive contamination as there is throughout the ship, it’d never happen. Not to mention that to remove all eight reactor compartments week require tearing apart significant portions of the hull structure- they’ll be doing all that in drydock, then salvage the steel from the remaining pieces of hull.
Ah yes, it always is a bit of an effort with conventional ships as well. Should have figured that out.
Just finished reading “Wings on my Sleeve” by Capt Eric Brown, fantastic to read his experiences in designing and landing aircraft carrier ships! Although I would highly recommend that book to anyone that has a interest in flying.
…well that was strangely emotional for me. Maybe because of all that time parked at pier 14 next to her.
It was kind for emotional for me to. They cut her apart at the Newport News Shipyard. For a while there, as you dove by on I-664 (which I often do) you could watch The Big E being cut down while right next to her, the USS GERALD FORD was being built. Then one day you couldn’t see ENTERPRISE from the highway anymore.
Perhaps, to carry on the ENTERPRISE tradition, the FORD’s nickname should be, “The Big F”…no…wait…I think that is already taken. 