The flight deck of the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy now looks like a modern sculpture park, as 38-feet of its mast and golden bow anchor are now welded to her deck. JFK leaves Mayport, Fla., on July 24 and will be towed to Philadelphia.
NAVAL STATION MAYPORT, Fla. — After nearly three years of uncertainty, the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy will be towed at first light July 24 away from this base that has been its home port since the mid-1990s.
Right now, its destination is Philadelphia, where the ship is expected to arrive at the old Philadelphia Naval Shipyard no later than Aug. 1 for a two-year congressionally mandated "ready" period. Beyond that, there's only speculation: The ship could eventually become a museum at best, or a test target or artificial reef — the fates of other aged flattops.
On paper, JFK is still a commissioned ship in the Navy, a technicality that will most likely end Sept. 30, when the fiscal calendar rolls into 2008.
"That's most likely when that will happen," said Capt. Brad Robinson, the ship's last executive officer, who has been the officer in charge of Kennedy's crew and decommissioning efforts since the flag was hauled down for the last time March 24.
"We've accomplished a lot in a short period of time, closing out thousands of spaces, and now we're down to just a handful, somewhere around 20 or so, to get done before the 24th."
"She's like a ghost town now — and about the only thing left running right now are the lights in the passageways," said Cmdr. Conrad Alejo, the ship's chief engineer. "It's kind of a strange period right now because, walking around, it feels like a new ship to me sometimes, awaiting her crew for the first time, though we know that's not the case. It will be a sad day for me once this is all over, very sad."
It's like the abandoned main street of a ghost town as not a soul remains on the port side 03 level passageway that runs nearly the length of the entire carrier.
Alejo was overseeing the final closing of two of the ship's three massive hanger bay doors and the raising of the final aircraft elevator up to flight deck level, where it was then bolted into place — but not without some difficulty, as the massive bolts built to secure it have rusted with age and a lack of regular overhauls.
The JFK's crew, once around 5,000 with an aircrew, has now dropped to around 500. That number is dwindling each day, as droves of sailors collect their personnel pay and medical records and transfer to their next commands — or get out of the Navy altogether.
"We'll have about 120 sailors left on the last day," Robinson said. "Those sailors will get the final job done, handling the lines for the last time."
But it will be a line-handling detail unlike any these sailors have ever seen, or are likely to see again.
At 2 a.m. July 24, harbor tugs are scheduled to come alongside the ship and press it to the pier while the sailors go onboard the ship for the last time.
"They'll handle taking in the lines for the final time," Robinson said. "Once all the lines are off, we'll cut the shore power and drop the cables onto the pier — and the ship will go totally dark."
It will be the first time since before the Kennedy was commissioned in 1968 that there will be no lights or other signs of life on the ship.
Instead of heading to their watch stations for the trip to sea, the Kennedy's last line handlers will use flashlights to navigate back to the hangar bay and off the brow to the pier.
"No one will be onboard the ship during the tow — that's part of the contract," Robinson said. "The ship will be monitored remotely by sensors that will send a wireless signal to the towing ship if any problems arise — at that point, people can come back onboard to investigate and fix any problems."
Once free from the pier, the ship will be turned in the basin by the local tug boats for the final time while it's taken under tow by the fleet tug Powhatan, which will use the chain from the ship's bow anchor to pull the ship out of the channel an into open sea.
"I'm sure that we'll all have a bit of sadness, but that's hard to feel now, as we're still in the mode of getting the ship ready to go," Robinson said. "But I think it will hit us a lot harder as we watch her head off into the sunrise."
Garbage awaits a final cleanup on the hanger bay of the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy as last minute preparations are underway to get the ship ready for its trip to mothballs in Philadelphia.
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