Former USS JFK

Anybody know who is towing her to Texas?

An educated guess

It is indeed the Laney Chouest.

Thanks for that. She’s making a decent speed with that heavy girl.

The ship breakers only paid 1 cent for her, that’s a good deal.

They also take the responsibility of disposing of all the hazardous material in the ship. From what I’ve read the hull pays for that, while the fittings and specialty metals in the ship is where the scrappers make their money.

3 Likes

They could have probably made a pretty penny having a yard sale on her where ex-Navy folks could pull mementos.

One of the first Captains (Capt Fritz) I ever worked with served on the JFK & he was real proud of it. I was 18 yrs old on a pushboat on the Mississippi. It was my first or second month & I was mopping in the galley. I had fastfood experience when it came to mopping & I guessed it showed. He told me I was doing it wrong & took the mop from my hands. He spun the mop, causing the mop strings to flay out, plopped it down & started mopping away. He was real snappy & proud of it. Once he thoutht I had the gist of it he dutifully handed the mop back to me. I complimented him on his mopping & teaching skills & with as much pride as I ever seen anyone display he said he served on the Aircraft Carrier John F Kennedy. Being a young punk & jokester as always, I put on a sincere performance, acted shocked and like a goofball enthusiastically asked, “Wow, you used to be a janitor on the JFK?”. He deflated like a balloon, said no, started to explain something about rotations & moving up but gave up & told me to mop the deck & walked away. About 6 months later he asked me about it, if I was screwing with him or if I was impressed by his Navy experience. To this day I still mop the way he showed me.

3 Likes

In my line of work I board a lot of ships, most for repair, some going for scrap, but the day I boarded the USS JFK was sad. We were aboard removing an engine that had opposing pistons or something that was needed on another ship. It looked as if they came back from a tour one day and walked off of the ship not knowing whether they were coming back the next day or not. Beautiful murals on all the walls, sad.

2 Likes

To echo what @Bayrunner said, the USS JFK was built in the 60’s when the use of asbestos, lead paint, PCB’s and the like were prevalent.

Sidebar comment. Yes the JFK is old, so is the Enterprise, Pres Obama made certain most of the non-nuc carriers were scrapped. I am no former USN SWO and have few fond feelings for the navy but considering PRC’s hypersonic ship-killer missiles, it may be a good idea to keep a few of these very expensive flattops around, even as outdated as they may be and the JFK was nuclear, in the inactive reserve fleet just in case we lose two or three current carriers in a future conflict and considering how LONG it takes to build one. But what do I know or why do I even care actually.

Aircraft carriers are going down the same path Battleships were going in the late 30s, submarines and missiles will be the preeminent naval combatants in the next major war. (that hopefully never happens)

3 Likes

Sad but true. While CV’s can still project power abroad, in a modern naval battle there’s little chance a carrier could survive a concerted sub attack.

2 Likes

Or a hypersonic ship-killer missile attack.

Hard to hide an aircraft carrier from detection by modern surveillance methods.
Best protection is by not getting into war with anybody. Misunderstandings can best be solved by talking to each other, not by lobbing bombs at each other.(Lot cheaper too)

2 Likes

CVA, not CVN. It is (was) an oil burner.

3 Likes

I can’t believe they gave them to scrapyard companies for basically free…

They should have been sold to an allied country for tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Could have put it up for auction among allied countries that might need it. Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Philippines. etc…

Russia sold an outdated carrier to China IIRC.

She’s been retired for years. Anything of value, monetary or sentimental, is long gone.

As for keeping around the old gals, the JFK was in BAD shape when she retired. There was a plan floating around at one point to use her for a Weapons Effects Test/Sinkex, but she wasn’t in good enough shape to use. The ENTERPRISE had her own issues, and at 50, she was more than ready for retirement. There were many decades of CVN sailors whose wish list to the detailers was “Anywhere but the ENTERPRISE.”

For the longest time, aircraft carriers were said to “project power”. When a carrier showed up in your neighborhood, you knew you were going to have a bad day. But I also thought a carrier’s escorts could protect her from harm. Unreal how things have changed in the last 50 years.

Yeah, sell it to our good allies - I’ve heard the Canada, Panama and Denmark are for some strange reason looking to defend themselves. Maybe they’d be interested. Against an illegal invasion. Wonder why???

3 Likes

Unfortunately it is all too real. We have stepped back 92 years.

3 Likes