This image provided by the US Navy shows USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) cruising through the Arabian Gulf during sunrise Nov.3, 2004. (AP Photo/US Navy - Michael Sandberg)
by Frank James
It's always sad to see a once proud naval vessel being placed in mothballs, especially if that ship is younger than you.
But that's the story of the ship formerly known as the John F. Kennedy. It is currently being towed from Norfolk to Philadelphia where it will wait until the Naval Secretary decides what to do with it.
Some of the ship's fans would like to see it become a floating museum like the USS Intrepid docked on New York City's west side. But there are presumably scrap metal dealers who would like to see it become a tidy profit.
The ship has much fascinating history. A nine-year old Caroline Kennedy christened it in 1964. Jacqueline Kennedy, reprising her efforts in the White House, designed the in-port cabin which had wood paneling, the only one in the fleet.
In 1975, in shades of PT-109, the Kennedy collided with a destroyer, although it was a U.S., not Japanese one. It tore open the destroyer, thus earning the sobriquet the "Can Opener." Its other nickname: "Big John."
Here's what appears to be an official history of the ship. Wikipedia also has a very good page on the ship.
The Kennedy was a fuel-powered carrier. So in that respect it was a anachronism in a modern, nuclear-powered Navy. It had to go.
Still, here's hoping those who want to make it a museum find the money to keep it afloat.
Here's the Navy's release.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Navy Tows JFK from Norfolk to Philadelphia for Storage
WASHINGTON - The decommissioned aircraft carrier ex-John F. Kennedy (CV 67) departed Norfolk Naval Station, Va., March 17 and is currently in tow to the Navy's Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. The ship is scheduled to arrive at the Navy's facility on March 20 for preservation and safe storage until a decision is made by the Secretary
of the Navy on the carrier's final disposition.
A contracted tug boat will tow the carrier up the East Coast to Philadelphia via the Delaware River. The Navy is working closely with the Coast Guard and maritime authorities to ensure that the carrier is towed in a safe manner that protects both the ship and other maritime
traffic.
The public may view the carrier's journey up the Delaware River from many locations along the river in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. These include Gov. Printz Park in Essington, Pa.; Fox Point State Park in Wilmington, Del.; Ft. DuPont State Park, Del.; New Castle Battery Park in New Castle, Del.; Delaware City State Park, Del.; Red Bank Battlefield, Red Bank, N.J.; other public parks between Cape May and National Park, N.J.
The ship was originally scheduled to be towed to Philadelphia in August 2007, but was instead towed to Norfolk while the Navy dredged in the vicinity of Pier 4 to further increase the safety of the ship mooring process and the surrounding waterway. Due to safety and security concerns, the carrier will not be open for tours while in storage in Philadelphia.
Ex-John F. Kennedy is currently in the Navy's inactive inventory, meaning the ship has been taken out of commission and laid up for safe storage pending a future SECNAV decision regarding the ultimate disposition of the ship. As required by the FY07 National Defense
Authorization Act, the Navy will maintain the ship in a state of preservation that would allow for reactivation in the event the carrier is needed in response to a national emergency. The ship's historical items have been removed and transferred to the Curator of the Navy for
preservation and storage.
Named in honor of the 35th President of the United States, ex-John F. Kennedy's keel was laid in 1964 at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Va. In 1967, nine-year-old Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late president, christened the ship. "Big John," as the ship would become known, was commissioned in September 1968.
A veteran of 18 deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East, ex-John F. Kennedy amassed more than 260,000 arrested landings on her flight deck while operating virtually every tactical aircraft in the Navy's arsenal. In 1989 two of the embarked air wing's F-14 Tomcats
shot down two Libyan MIG-23s that were approaching the battle group in a hostile manner. The carrier also participated in numerous other campaigns including Operations Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and was sortied following the 2001 terrorist attack on the
World Trade Center.
Homeported at Naval Station Mayport since 1995, ex-John F. Kennedy most recently served as a training platform for naval aviators to obtain their carrier landing qualifications. Her final port call was to Boston in March 2007.
The ship measures over 1,050 feet long, displaces 82,000 tons and could carry 70 combat aircraft - the full complement of today's carrier air wing. The crew consisted of more than 4,600 personnel when including the air wing. Ex-John F. Kennedy was one of the two remaining fossil-fueled aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy.
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Comments
are those floating communities not incredible??? I'd love to get a tour of one someday.
Posted by: Steve Hussein S | March 18, 2008 1:12 PM
All nice sounding and all but totally unlinked from the real issues with the Big John.
To start off with the Kennedy was born out of a memorial to JFK. The family insisted it could not be a nuclear carrier. So the Navy had to drag out and dust off old plans for another class and build a carrier and modify it on the fly because most of the stuff in the plans was no longer manufactured and substitutes had to be designed in.
Even early in life as oil prices went up the ship was reduced in tempo of operations because of the bucks it was causing the Navy to shell out.
Then she went in for a major overhaul in Philly just at the time the Navy shut down that shipyard half way through. She came out of the yard just patched back together with pallet upon pallet of stuff filling the hanger bay that had to be reassembled after she got home just to make her run again.
Because of the fuel costs she was limited in use and then stretched between upkeeps necessary to keep her in shape.
I have worked upkeeps on that rust bucket for 15 or more years and she isn't worth the money the threw at her. There were places you didn't want to lean up against the steel for fear you may fall through into the water.
The last major upkeep cost a ton of money and just barely got her together enough to run.
I could show you places on that ship where it is totally rusted away to the point I would hate to take it out in a storm. Whole frames that the hull is welded to just rusted away etc. A ventilation system that is totally shot and would really need to be totally replaced instead of patched.
They would have been better off retiring her years ago and kept the Saratoga instead or the America.
She only was kept around for the Kennedy name and Ted would have gone on a warpath against Navy funding if they had done the right thing and gotten rid of her long ago.
They spent about 1/4 the cost of a new carrier last time around just to patch here up enough to last for one final deployment before the Navy finally admitted the money pit just had so many problems they couldn't afford her any more.
To totally fix her would have cost 3 to 4 times what building a new carrier would and you still would have an old carrier burning much more costly oil today.
Posted by: YardBird | March 18, 2008 1:23 PM
Where are you getting your
information? There is nothing official mentioning
USS JEK being towed from Norfolk to Philadelphia on March 17, 2008.
Request advise. Require official correspondence
indicating this to be factual?
Posted by: YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret) | March 18, 2008 3:17 PM
'A nine year old Caroline Kennedy christened it in 1964'
And in 2008 she christened Barack "Hussein" Obama.
I wonder if J.F.K's priest was an American hater and racist?
Oh, and Caroline, before you back someone running for President of The United States....do a little research first...
Just because he give speech like daddy, don't mean he be like daddy.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | March 18, 2008 3:30 PM
"Yardbird" is correct the ship had a mini-SLEP not the complete package-the Pentagon cancelled the rest of the overhaul, and no blame should be pointed at the shipyard. I worked on the vent systems, and all were signed off as satisfactory, at the time. I also worked on the forward galley, and the wardroom. The neglect comes from the crew after the overhaul, being lazy and so on poorly led, and maintenance 3M was not done properly ! CASREPS not instigated, etc. I am a retired HTC, and spent 25 years at the 'yard before she closed up. Anyone that badmouths Philadelphia Naval Shipyard better have thier facts straight before pointing fingers. it is the fault of the POT&I people that not document the problem areas for replacement of wasted steel & systems, and lean more towards the electronic replacements more than the structural ones. I have been on many of these and they are called in civillian jargon Pre Overhaul Test & Inspection. Pentagon never funded the ship right in the first place, and you cannot get major jobs done by 'cumshaw' anymore ! So bottom line no funds, no work......
Posted by: Ron Reeves | March 18, 2008 4:57 PM
Tow her out deep and use her for target practice.
If she is scrapped, the steel will end up in China. Unlike disbarred attorney Bill Clinton, Pres. Kennedy really hated communists. Of course JFK wasn't on the PRC payroll like the Clinton's are alleged to be.
Posted by: remus | March 18, 2008 5:06 PM
I think the US has deployed 11 carrier battle groups. This is one of the reasons we are spending ourselves into oblivion.
Oh yes, it's very exciting to see those carrier launches, but it's also an expensive thrill.
It would be nice to see several more escorted off to the retirement home.
Posted by: C.Morris | March 18, 2008 5:48 PM
The biggest problem with the JFK was that it wasn't nuke.
1. The America and the JFK were built after the Enterprise. The Big E was nuke; MacNamara and his whiz kids used their sharp pencils (but not sharp brains) and determined that nuke carriers were not cost effective.
2. However the Big E showed that nuke was the way to go. Specifically, because it didn't need to use & store Bunker C, there could be greater capacity for JP-5 (jet fuel) and thus less underway unreps.
3. Also, there were 3 large carrier fires during the Viet Nam war (Oriskany, Forrestal, and Enterprise). Because the Big E was nuke, when it had its fire, it could instantaneously accelerate to flank speed and keep the fire localized. The oil fired carriers had to increase speed slowly in order to prevent shutting down the boilers. As a CO, you need to get the ship up to speed in order to get a strong wind across the flight deck and keep the flames away from the rest of the ship.
4. Since the oil fired ships couldn't get up to speed fast enough, smoke from the fires came down the air intakes for the boilers. This in turn further mitigated the ability to quickly increase the speed of the ship.
5. If the ship would have been nuke, its CO's would have been required to meet the standards of Rickover and Naval Reactors. 'Yardbird' mentioned slackness with respect to PM's; that's not tolerated in nuke navy.
6. I gave a lot of in-side baseball stuff here. The bottom line is that JFK's SecDef -- MacNamara -- screwed up big time (once again) by not continuing with nukes.
Posted by: Perch Rapala | March 19, 2008 12:03 AM
In regards to this article may I respectfully emphasize that the geographical location referred to as the "arabian gulf", has been known to the entire civilized world for over 2 millenniums only as the "Persian Gulf" and any other reference to the contrary is inaccurate and under present international laws illegal.
The following are links to the United Nations Geographical maps of the world and the Persian Gulf region. Please take time to view them and notice that the UN refers to this body of water as the Persian Gulf.
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/iran.pdf
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/maplib/docs/escwa.pdf
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/qatar.pdf
Most importantly, the United Nations with 22 Arab member states has on two occasions officially declared the name of the waterway to the south of Iran as the Persian Gulf. The first announcement was made through the document UNAD, 311/Qen on March 5, 1971, and the second was UNLA 45.8.2 section C, on August 10, 1984. Persian Gulf is also the recognized name by the British Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN).
I've submitted the above links in order to support this position and clear any confusion as to what to call the Persian Gulf. I also hope this has been only an unfortunate oversight and that it will be corrected immediately. I look forward to your reply and thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Please contact me if you need more information with regards to this topic.
Sincere Regards
Saeed Tasbihsazan
Posted by: Saeed Tasbihsazan | March 19, 2008 1:55 AM
I am a plank owner of the uss jfk, I would like to know if there will any visitation on board the ship while in phila. I served on board from 1968 to 1972.
Posted by: william d wright | March 21, 2008 2:03 PM
Those 11 Carrier Battle Groups are one of the reasons you can sleep at night. Buy your first clue. I'm a retired AO (Aviation Ordnanceman) who's served. lived, bled aboard 4 of 'em. Yardbird is prob'ly right. I know he's right about the fuel costs and the Kennedy influence. Kennedy never served off Vietnam for that reason either. Anybody who thinks carrier duty is easy has never been to sea. Kennedy was a pig long past her prime. OK... make a museum out of her... but that's no cheap undertaking either as whoever does it will find out. Kennedy (CVA-67) should have been an Enterprise (CVAN-65) class nuke as should the America (CVA-66)... but Black Bob MacNamara (SECDEF) had other ideas... most of them bad. The Amerika-maru now rests at the bottom, having been expended as a target. Meanwhile... Enterprise sailors on. 'Served aboard her '62-'64 in the Air Group.
Posted by: Sonora Rebel | March 28, 2008 2:41 PM