USS Enterprise sails into final voyage

[Steelgrave]

The Enterprise has set sail on her final deployment before being decommissioned

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/31/uss-enterprise-on-the-front-lines-of-history-for-half-a-century/?hpt=hp_bn13

[Martok]

Godspeed Enterprise. 

[mirth]

Fifty years in service, amazing. Glad to see that they're already thinking about naming one of the new CVNs Enterprise.

[eyebiter]

Hope they decide to save this Enterprise as a museum ship.  CV-6 deserved a better fate than the scrapyard.

[mirth]

Hope they decide to save this Enterprise as a museum ship.  CV-6 deserved a better fate than the scrapyard.

Bad news on that (from the article linked above)

After its nuclear fuel and eight reactors are safely removed, CVN-65, The USS Enterprise, will be cut up and sold for scrap.

Doesn't seem right at all for a proud ship that served for 50 years.

[MetalDog]

Agreed.  Isn't there someone in the DoD that sees it's historical importance to the U.S. and want to preserve and promote that?

[GDS_Starfury]

while I emotionally get what your saying theres just no money for it.
look at how much the Intrepid costs.  now imagine a ship twice the size with reactors.

[Steelgrave]

Speaking of which....if any of you are ever in the Houston area, be sure and visit the USS Texas. Launched in 1912, she was briefly considered to be the most powerful warship afloat, modeled after the famous Dreadnaught class. She is visually unique with two turrets fore, two turrets aft and a middle turret. She was also the first US warship to be armed with AA guns, and if you look north of her waterline, she has a number of smaller (5inch?) guns sprouting out of the side. Somewhere I have a pic of my then teenage mom sitting out over the water on one of those guns (crazy kids!). She's a proud ship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(BB-35)

[Con]

The costs of maintaining a warship as a museum are astronomical

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/30/us-usa-ships-cost-idUSBRE88T08420120930

Its a poor choice but unless there is real historical significance (Iowa class as the last BB's etc) I just don't think there is cash available to preserve and maintain these ships.

Con

[GDS_Starfury]

most are maintaned under state and local groups.

[Airborne Rifles]

I think the USS Texas is the last remaining dreadnought in the world.

[Steelgrave]

^That's my understanding as well.

[besilarius]

Did they ever fix the leak in Texas?
The news reports made it seem she was in a really bad way.

[Steelgrave]

^Texas just passed a bond to fix her. The USS Texas is really special to Texans and it's not the first time that folks came together to keep her afloat. A bit of trivia, but when she was first decommissioned and destined for the scrapyard, Texas schoolkids led a fund drive to bring her home and make a museum out of her.

[Greybriar]

A cousin of mine was aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise on 14 January 1969 when a fire broke out, killing 27 and injuring 314. Here is a short video showing part of it.