USS ENTERPRISE,THE END OF AN ERA

 Marion Pellicano Ambrose

The USS Enterprise was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. She is the 8^th Enterprise and is nicknamed “The Big E”. She’s the eleventh heaviest super carrier. The only ship of her class, Enterprise is the second-oldest vessel in commission in the United States Navy, after the wooden-hulled, three-masted frigate USS Constitution. She was originally scheduled for decommissioning in 2014 or 2015, depending on the life of her reactors and completion of her replacement, USS Gerald R. Ford. But the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 slated the ship's retirement for 2013, when she will have served for 51 consecutive years, the longest of any U.S. aircraft carrier.

As of September 2010, Enterprise's home port is at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Her final deployment began on 11 March, 2012 and will be the last before her decommissioning. The Enterprise is scheduled to be deactivated on 1 December 2012.

Enterprise served this country as the tracking station for the flight of Friendship 7, John Glenn’s first American orbital spaceflight, through the Cuban Missile Crisis,Vietnam, in the Bay of Bengal, as home to the F14 Tomcats, took part in the US bombing of Libya, escorted oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, participated in Operation Classic Resolve, President George H.W. Bush's response to Philippine President Corazon Aquino's request for air support during the rebel coup attempt. The carrier enforced no-fly zones in Bosnia as part of Operation Joint Endeavor and over Iraq as part of Operation Southern Watch,   Enterprise battlegroup spearheaded Operation Desert Fox, destroying Iraqi military targets with more than 300 and 691,000 lb (346 ST; 313 t) of ordnance. Enterprise took us through 9-11 and Operation Iraqi Freedom and even through dealing with Somali pirates.

The All Nuclear Task Force starring Emterprise

After her long and remarkable career of service, USS Enterprise will be decommissioned and dismantled and what’s left of her will be scrapped, but the memories of her great deeds and the great sailors who served aboard her, will live forever. Farewell USS Enterprise, God’s Speed.