A Tale of Two Ships

[hink441]

Woke up this morning and read a great story about the USS Enterprise. I thought it would be of some interest here on the forum. I hope you enjoy this article as much as I did. The contrasts between the two ships and the skippers is remarkable.

 

Chris

 

 

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/07/tale-two-ships-passing

[Bearmon]

well written and a good read! Thanks for the link.

[sigsaye]

Sad. Enterprise has been around all my life. I remember growing up in San Diego in the early '60s she was new and sexy. Everything was "Enterprise". That really cool pic of Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge (I think, maybe Truxtun), was just out and just the most glorious picture around. Every Navy kid wanted to fly jets off the "Big E". When she had her fire, we all stopped and read everything we could about it, because, she was "The Enterprise"! Time went by and I went to sea. Never served in Enterprise, operated with her several times, and of course, tried to act NOT impressed, after all, my ship was better, my Sailors were better, and I had been on a carrier, so, no big deal, yeah, another "Bird Farm". But, you could not help but be impressed with her, she was First! She was Enterprise. Now, I just hope the next Enterprise is something special, I love the Gators, but it just doesn't seem right to give them the names of old Carriers.

[hink441]

I had the privilege of going to sea onboard the Enterprise (CVN-65). She was a truly remarkable ship, and I do remember her as being extremely fast. She never had any trouble getting enough wind across her bow in order to launch aircraft.

 

She also had grated aircraft elevator decks. It was always refreshing to stand on-top of the elevators while steaming underway!! There would be a huge upswell of wind from under the elevator. Great way to cool off in the heat!!

 

Chris

[vostoktrading]

Thanks Chris & Steve for your recollections of times from your careers. This stuff is priceless.

The Enterprise will be missed. It's so sad to see them all go, the old familiar names, especially this one.

Jon.

[Salvage Sailor]

Somewhere around here I have a series of photos I shot of the Big E entering Pearl Harbor in late 1978 as she passed Alpha Docks returning from her ninth Westpac deployment. She was on her way to the Washington shipyards to have her distinctive radar island removed and I wanted to memorialize the change from her Vietnam configuration to her Cold War configuration.

 

I'll post them when I come across them.