Navy clarifies Kitty Hawk departure plans

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Navy clarifies Kitty Hawk departure plans
By Allison Batdorff, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Tuesday, April 29, 2008

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Moving forward the date that the USS Kitty Hawk officially leaves Japan was not a change, but a “clarification,” the Navy said last week.

Stopping short of calling it a mistake, Navy officials admitted that two different messages came out from the Chief of Naval Operations office, one month apart, with two different dates regarding the day when the aircraft carrier would switch ports from Yokosuka, Japan, to Bremerton, Wash., for decommissioning.

Many sailors and families used the March message that kept Kitty Hawk in Yokosuka (on paper) through Jan. 31 to plan their next move. Even though the ship leaves Yokosuka for good this May, the homeport extension was publicized by officials as a way to keep overseas benefits and offset the inconvenience of potential delays in Bremerton or moving twice.

But Jan. 31 was actually the date set for the ship’s decommissioning, said Pacific Fleet spokesman Jon Yoshishige on Friday. Consequently, a new message dated April 8 specified the decommissioning date as Jan. 31 and moved the homeport change forward to July 15, he said.

“We wanted to ensure everyone knew the difference between the homeport and the decommissioning date,” Yoshishige said, adding his apologies for “any confusion this may have caused.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54395