Lt. j.g Thomas Amano, Kitty Hawk's air bosun, talks to sailors reporting to the flight deck at sundown June 1 to conduct flight deck drills. The group rigged the barricade, used when aircraft can not be recovered using the arresting wires, and did firefighting training as well.After GW fire, Kitty Hawk alters courseBy Mark D. Faram - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jun 1, 2008 16:51:25 EDT
ABOARD THE CARRIER KITTY HAWK IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN — The carrier Kitty Hawk, which was on its way to Hawaii to swap crews with the carrier George Washington, now plans on visiting Guam while officials on the GW assess the extent of a fire that broke out several days ago.
“There’s no change to our long-term schedule and much is still contingent on what the assessors find on the George Washington,” Capt. Todd Zecchin, Kitty Hawk’s commanding officer said. “But in the meantime we are going to pull into Guam and hopefully by then we will know the rest of the way ahead.”
While Navy officials assess the damage on GW, the Kitty Hawk continues to operate in the Western Pacific and will make the Guam port visit in “mid-June,” he said.
The ship had been scheduled to arrive at Pearl Harbor June 8 to begin turnover with the George Washington, which is replacing Kitty Hawk as the Navy’s forward-deployed carrier in Japan. Kitty Hawk will then head for the United States to be decommissioned while GW sails to Japan.
But a major fire broke out aboard GW the morning of May 22 while the ship was off the west coast of South America. The carrier has since pulled into San Diego for repairs. Almost two-dozen sailors were treated for heat stress and one was treated for first-degree burns. Officials said they believe the fire mostly affected the ship’s communications equipment. Neither the propulsion plant nor the nuclear reactor were harmed by the fire, officials said.
Rest of article at:
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/06/navy_kittyhawk_060108/