Sayonara USS Kitty Hawk

Today was an important day for everyone on the Yokosuka Naval Base. For 10 years, Yokosuka has been home to the aircraft carrier Uss Kitty Hawk. Today the Kitty left Japan for the final time as she makes her way to Bremerton, Washingon to be decomisioned early next year.

Ever since getting here last year, the Kitty Hawk has been a major focal point of this base. You can tell when she is in because the commissary is out of everything, there are no parking spaces on base, and the wait to eat at Chillis is over an hour and a half. The Kitty Hawk's crew consists of about 3000 sailors! You can imagine the impact it makes on this base when she is in port. You can also tell when she is gone, mostly due to the huge spot on the pier that sits empty! You drive past it and think, Wow- something is missing!

I thought I would share some interesting facts about this mammoth warship that appeared in our paper this week:

-The Kitty Hawk crews fought enemies in three wars.

-It was the first aircraft carrier ever to be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, which was presented by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968

-In June of 1963, President John F. Kennedy spent the night aboard the ship near southern California, and it was called the "floating White House".

-She is the second -oldest active ship in the Navy. The first is the USS Constitution "Old Ironsides", which is used for ceremonial , recruiting, and tourism purposes
-The second "K" on the USS Kitty Hawk's nameplate is upside down. The letter was skewed when welders transferred the small steel letter plates from the fantail to below the flight deck in the 1960's.

- A portion of "Clear and Present Danger" was shot aboard the Kitty Hawk.

Today was pretty impressive. I watched several classes of students being escorted by a police escort as they walked toward the pier to say Sayonara. Many students also lined the seawall and watched as the Kitty Hawk departed Yokosuka on her final cruise. It is amazing how everyone wanted to watch and be a part of this huge day. I walked with Matthew and two other little boys to watch it depart. It will always be a part of history, and when you live in Yokosuka, you can't help but be attached to this ship somehow. With 3000 crew members, many people we live near and spend time with are Kitty Hawk families.

Although I couldn't see it from where I was, the entire crew "manned the rails" and stood on the deck of the carrier in a formation that spelled out "sayonara" in Kanji (Japanese writing) characters.

And so we will wait until August and then welcome the USS George Washington. It will be the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier to ever be stationed here in Japan. It hasn't gone without controversy though as their arrival gets closer. For now though, we will enjoy getting a parking spot at the exchange, having our pick at the commissary, and having it be a little quieter around base.