With a famous 50-year career as the Navy’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN 65) will come full circle, returning to Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) shipyard that built her for the first inactivation of an aircraft carrier.
About 100 shipbuilders who helped construct and maintain the ship over her lifetime will ride aboard for her final voyage, and the whistles and horns of docked ships and NNS will blow to honor “Big E’s” return.
USS Enterprise is the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The only ship of her class, Enterprise is the second oldest commissioned vessel in the United States Navy, after the wooden-hulled, three-masted frigate USS Constitution.
In 1954, Congress authorized the construction of the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the eighth U.S. ship to bear the name Enterprise. In 1958, Enterprise’s keel was laid at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. On 24 September 1960, the ship was launched, sponsored by Mrs. W. B. Franke, wife of the former Secretary of the Navy. On 25 November 1961, Enterprise was commissioned, with Captain Vincent P. De Poix, formerly of Fighting Squadron 6 on her predecessor in command. On 12 January 1962, the ship made her maiden voyage conducting a three-month shakedown cruise and a lengthy series of tests and training exercises designed to determine the full capabilities of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
[mappress] Shipbuilding Tribune Staff, June 18, 2013