The USS Nimitz CVN 68 arrives at a naval base in the South Korean port city of Busan, some 450 kms southeast of Seoul on February 28, 2008. (Photo credit: KIM JAE-HWAN/AFP via Getty Images)
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The final deployment of the United States Navy’s oldest active nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will come to an end next week. USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is expected to arrive at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., on Tuesday, December 16. The warship made a port call to San Diego earlier this month, the supercarrier’s homeport for 11 years from November 2001 to March 2012.
It was from Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, that CVN-68 supported combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Global War on Terror. USS Nimitz also departed from America’s Friendliest City this past March, when her final deployment began. This year marked the 50th anniversary of service for the aircraft named for World War II U.S. Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz.
Five Decades Of Service
The lead vessel of a new class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers developed to supplement the U.S. Navy’s conventionally-powered Kitty Hawk-class, USS Nimitz, was commissioned into service by then-President Gerald R. Ford.
“Wherever the United States Ship Nimitz shows her flag, she will be seen as we see her now—a solid symbol of United States strength, United States resolve—made in America and manned by Americans,” Ford said during the ceremony.
That resolve was first put on full display in April 1980’s Operation Evening Light, also known as Operation Eagle Claw, the failed mission to rescue the American hostages from Iran. Just over a year later, USS Nimitz was involved in the Gulf of Sidra incident. On August 19, 1981, two U.S. Grumman F-14A Tomcats shot down a pair of Libyan Sukhoi Su-22M3 Fitter-G aircraft after the warship crossed into the waters that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi asserted were the North African nation’s territorial waters. That incident also marked the first combat operations involving the famed F-14.
Throughout the 1980s, CVN-68 was regularly deployed worldwide. In 1988, USS Nimitz provided security off the coast of South Korea during the Olympic Games in Seoul. In 1995, she was deployed off the coast of Taiwan during a tense standoff with China.
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (top), guided missile cruiser USS Princeton and fast combat support ship USS Bridge sail April 10, 2003 in the Arabian Gulf. (Photo by Kristi Earl/U.S. Navy/Getty Images)
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Following her refueling and complex overhaul from 1998 to 2001, the supercarrier took part in an around-the-world deployment departing from Naval Station Norfolk, Va. In 2003, during her 11th operational deployment, the carrier took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom, launching Carrier Air Wing 11 aircraft over Iraq and Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Its final deployment wasn’t without incident.
During operations in the South China Sea in October, two of its aircraft suffered catastrophic mishaps just 30 minutes apart. A Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet multirole fighter and a Sikorsky MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter crashed while conducting “routine operations.” Both the pilot and the weapons system officer from the two-seat Super Hornet ejected safely, and all five personnel on the rotary aircraft were recovered safely.
The aircraft were recovered earlier this month.
A Media Star Of Sorts
USS Nimitz was even given its media close-up on three occasions.
The first was in the 1980 science-fiction historical drama The Final Countdown, in which the warship traveled back in time to December 6, 1941. The film was produced with the cooperation of the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense. Although it received mixed reviews, it saw moderate success at the box office. The film is also notable in that the F-14 Tomcat made its big screen debut, and arguably scored a “kill” a year before the Gulf of Sidra incident.
In 2005, when CVN-68 commemorated its 30 years of active service, film crews spent an entire deployment on board for the PBS documentary Carrier, providing an intimate look at life aboard the warship.
CVN-68 was also the focus of an episode of Little Mammoth Media’s children’s education series Big Adventure Series. “The Big Aircraft Carrier” provided insight into the workings of the carrier.
End Of The Line Coming
USS Nimitz will depart from Bremerton one final time, making a journey to Naval Station Norfolk, where the supercarrier will be officially decommissioned, with the recycling efforts to continue.
Because of her nuclear reactors, it is impossible for the USS Nimitz, or any Nimitz-class carrier, to be preserved as a museum ship. Another likely factor is concern about any secrets that might be revealed by opening the warship to the public.
Instead, over the coming decade, USS Nimitz will be broken up, marking the end of the line for the supercarrier.
“Fleet Admiral Nimitz and this fine ship both tell us that controlled strength is the sure guarantor of peace,” President Ford said five decades ago. “Let us all – and particularly those who serve on the United States Ship Nimitz now and hereafter – rededicate ourselves to this principle, and to unstinting service to our country and to its people.”