Decom Date:
NORFOLK - The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy will be decommissioned March 23 in a ceremony at the Mayport, Fla., Naval Station, the Navy's Air Force Atlantic command in Norfolk announced Wednesday.
After nearly 40 years of service, the carrier, named in honor of the 35th president, will be placed in an inactive status and kept at Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, the Navy said in a release.
It was built at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, now known as Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard, and commissioned in 1968.
It will make one more port call before retirement, visiting Boston March 1-5.
Details of the decommissioning ceremony are still being finalized, but dignitaries, including members of Congress, Navy officials and possibly members of the Kennedy family, are expected to attend, the release said.
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"I fly this plane for my country, when it stops flying it's not my fault, it's the countrys." CDR Fred "Bear" Vogt. The Last Skipper of VF-33's, F-4's.
A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America", for an amount of "up to and including my life." That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it. -- Author Unknown
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