Aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk departs Bremerton for Texas dismantling

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

BREMERTON — The USS Kitty Hawk, the nation's last oil-fired aircraft carrier, departed Bremerton on Saturday for a 16,000-mile journey around South America for its ultimate fate: scrapping at a Texas shipyard.

Onlookers, many of them former sailors aboard the "Battle Cat," watched as tugs pulled the rugged warship into Sinclair Inlet on a foggy Saturday morning. At more than 1,000 feet long, the Kitty Hawk won't fit in the Panama Canal, so the warship will be tugged through the Strait of Magellan en route to Brownsville, Texas.

Corey Urband, a Navy veteran who became a machinist at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, was among those old sailors gathered to see it go. Many swapped stories of being thrust onto a Navy ship, put in charge of millions in equipment and the care of thousands of lives.

“As hard as life was on this ship, it’s part of my history,” said Urband, who served from 1992 to 1996 as a machinist’s mate. “While most people were graduating from high school and college, I was 30 feet below the waterline, halfway around the world from home.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/aircraft-carrier-uss-kitty-hawk-152332226.html

[ret5hd]

1. The absolute best machinists I knew...

were former Navy Machinist Mates.

[EYESORE 9001]

3. I always thought the names of those ratings should be reversed

Machinist’s Mates did machinery repair, and Machinery Repairmen did machinist work.

[ret5hd]

4. Well, I COULD be mistaken...

though it would be a once in a lifetime event!

Whichever ones were the actual machinists…that’s the ones I meant.

[EYESORE 9001]

5. I agree

The Navy-trained machinists I’ve known all did outstanding work.

[KT2000]

2. Tsunami advisory is in place

for the Strait and US Westcoast from the volcanic eruption near Tonga. Kitty Hawk should be OK but the tugs may have a rough ride.