Sunday, February 1, 2009

Goodbye USS Kitty Hawk

The last fossil-fueled aircraft carrier of the United States Navy was given a fond farewell at a ceremony in Bremerton yesterday. There is an article in the Seattle Times about the ceremony.

The Kitty Hawk was frequently moored in Yokosuka whenever I visited between the late 90's and the time that I retired a few years ago. It was practically part of the scenery near the pier that we always used. I see in the article that the sailors aboard referred to their ship as Miss Kitty. That is not the nickname that we had for it on the boats, but I will admit that our submarine crews were not always the most polite people around. I suspect a few of the Kitty Hawk sailors had the same nick name for it that we had, but didn't use it around their bosses.

Something that I didn't know about was the riot that nearly broke out on board when they were visiting Brazil. It sounds like a pretty good sea story. It sure made me laugh:
They talked about watching the sky light up from the flight deck during a nuclear test off the coast of San Francisco, about going to Cuba during the missile crisis, about the time a near-riot broke out onboard while the ship was docked in Brazil.

That time, a Brazilian ship had broken loose from its moorings while the Kitty Hawk had 10,000 visitors aboard. As the vessel drifted toward the carrier, the crew was told to pull up the anchor and get underway.

The visitors onboard thought they were being kidnapped, said former machinist mate Jim Strahl, and it took members of the Brazilian army, who were also onboard, to restore order.


Well, the navy certainly got its use out of the Kitty Hawk. It has been around for a long time and she has earned a rest. I wonder if they will turn it into a museum?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Speaking about the NEAR riot, there was an actual race riot (near mutiny) onboard the ship on the night of October 11 - 12, 1972. Over 60 of the ships crewmen were injured, with at least 3 needing medevac because of it.