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Sayonara, USS Kitty Hawk


Thursday, May 29, 2008


Posted by Courtney E. Howard

The USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, the oldest active ship in the U.S. Navy, made its final departure from the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan this week. After 47 years of service, the Kitty Hawk will stop at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and then travel to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wa., to be decommissioned.

I live in Washington state and I am thrilled at the prospect of seeing the Kitty Hawk, the oldest active ship with the longest total period of active service in the Navy. Yet, my excitement is nonetheless tinged with some sorrow at seeing the carrier “retired” and replaced.

Kitty Hawk is the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier in the Navy, and it will be replaced by the USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered carrier, in the coming months.

"The Kitty Hawk has been a visible symbol of strength in a rapidly changing world," U.S. Ambassador to Tokyo Thomas Schieffer said during a ceremony last week. "Goodbye Kitty Hawk, hello George Washington."

The replacement of the Kitty Hawk by a nuclear-powered ship is not without some controversy. Earlier this month, a fire near the auxiliary boiler room and air conditioning and refrigeration space in the rear of the George Washington left one sailor with minor burns and 23 others with heat stress. Navy personnel say the fire spread through a passageway for cables. Regardless, the George Washington is scheduled to be based at Yokosuka, Japan, beginning in August.

Goodbye and Sayonara, Kitty Hawk.

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Welcome to the lighter side of Military & Aerospace Electronics. This is where our staff recount tales of the strange, the weird, and the otherwise offbeat. We could put news here, but we have the rest of our Website for that. Enjoy our scribblings, and feel free to add your own opinions. You might also get to know us in the process. Proceed at your own risk.

John Keller for MAE
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.


Courtney Howard for MAE Courtney E. Howard is senior editor of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine. She is responsible for writing news stories and feature articles for the print publication, as well as composing daily news for the magazine's Website and assembling the weekly electronic newsletter. Her features have appeared in such high-tech trade publications as Military & Aerospace Electronics, Computer Graphics World, Electronic Publishing, Small Times, and The Audio Amateur.


John McHale for MAE John McHale is executive editor of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, where he has been covering the defense Industry for more than dozen years. During that time he also led PennWell's launches of magazines and shows on homeland security and a defense publication and website in Europe. Mr. McHale has served as chairman of the Military & Aerospace Electronics Forum and its Advisory Council since 2004. He lives in Boston with his golf clubs.

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