USS Kitty Hawk hailed
America’s last fossil-fuel-powered carrier is scheduled to be decommissioned in spring
BREMERTON – More than 2,000 past and present crew members of the USS Kitty Hawk gathered to celebrate the nation’s oldest active warship, many saying they’d take up battle stations once again if called.
Not that anyone is likely to see action again on the more than 47-year-old aircraft carrier, the last in the nation’s fleet to run on fossil fuel rather than nuclear power.
The celebration was held Saturday at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where the Kitty Hawk is scheduled for decommissioning in the spring.
Built by New York Shipbuilding Corp. in Camden, N.J., the Kitty Hawk, was used in more combat missions in the Vietnam War than any other carrier.
Based mostly at San Diego but for the last decade operating out of Yokosuka, Japan, the 1,069-foot ship also participated in missions off Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
“You should be immensely proud,” Adm. Timothy J. Keating, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, told past and present Navy personnel at the gathering.
“You understand how powerful a symbol of national sovereignty this is: 75,000 tons of sacred American influence going where we need,” Keating told the current and former crew members.
“Your names will be written in gold in the pages of history for your sacrifice and your service.”
Those who served on Miss Kitty, as the carrier was widely known in the Navy, came from around the country to celebrate the legacy.
“If they needed me, I’d be there in a second,” said Dan Hemrich, of Everett.
“Hell, yeah, be there,” said fellow crew member Danny King, of Austin, Texas.
Sitting in a wheelchair was William Dobbins, of Grass Valley, Calif., one of the original crew that sailed the ship to San Diego after it was commissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on April 29, 1961. He was in the Navy from 1940 through 1970.
“I was just a farm kid from Kansas and this is where I saw the world and learned to be a man,” Dobbins said. “To me, she still looks like she’s ready to go to sea.”
Aviation boatswain’s mate Brandon Reyes said it was an honor and an education to be on the ship’s final crew.
“It’s been awe-inspiring to see how many people showed up” at the ceremony, Reyes said, “but she’s an old ship. When the seas are rough, she takes a beating.
“She’s paid her dues and it’s time to let her rest.”