USS Enterprise, Navy’s Legendary Aircraft Carrier, Begins Final Voyage [Video]


The USS Enterprise, the Navy’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, has set sail on its final voyage. It will be deployed in the Navy’s Sixth Fleet and Fifth Fleet areas of operations, which cover Europe, Africa and the Middle East, including current hot spots Iran and Syria, according to CNN.

The carrier – America’s oldest active-duty warship – and its crew of 3,100 left Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia on Sunday in the ship’s 22nd deployment. The ship’s air wing and other naval staff aboard add another 1,500 personnel.

“To serve on this ship, certainly in this capacity, you certainly have to be a student of the ship’s history,” said Rear Adm. Walter Carter, commander of the Enterprise strike group. “Fifty years of service, in our nation’s history, we’ve never had a warship in service that long.”

Known as the “Big E”, the Enterprise was among the vessels dispatched to the waters off Cuba during the October 1962 missile crisis with orders from President Kennedy to enforce an air and sea blockade of the island nation.

Subsequently, Enterprise served in support of the war in Vietnam and played a key role in the evacuation of Saigon in 1975. She was also made famous by the 1986 film Top Gun starring Tom Cruise.

“The crew is very mindful that we are following the legacy of the more than 200,000 sailors who have come before us during the last 50 years,” the ship’s commanding officer, Capt. William C. Hamilton, said in a statement to CNN. “It’s the sailors of this great warship, and the sailors that have served aboard Big E over the past half-century that have established the legacy she enjoys.”

What will become of the USS Enterprise?

According to CNN, the 95,000-ton ship is to be deactivated in Norfolk on December 1 – following its 7-month deployment – and decommissioned once all reusable items are removed. Tens of thousands are expected to be on hand for a deactivation ceremony that President Barack Obama has been invited to attend.

The ship will then be towed to Washington state for scrapping.

For more on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier’s final voyage, watch the video below:
via CNN

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