Farewell to a legend: USS John F. Kennedy heads to scrap yard
On Thursday, January 16, the American Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) began its final journey. The vessel, measuring 1,053 feet in length and with a displacement of 87,000 tons, is heading to the Shipbreaking Limited facility in Brownsville, Texas, which purchased it for just a penny. It is here that the USS John F. Kennedy will be cut into pieces and scrapped.
The USS John F. Kennedy, a modified Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier, is the first in the U.S. Navy named in honor of former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Less than a year after this tragic event, the keel for the future USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) was laid at the Newport News Shipbuilding yard. The vessel was launched in May 1967, with its sponsors being Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and his daughter, Caroline Kennedy.
USS John F. Kennedy goes "to the razors"
The aircraft carrier served the U.S. for nearly 40 years, participating in numerous missions. It supported the U.S. response to the terrorist attack by Hezbollah on the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in October 1983, which killed 241 American soldiers. It was also involved in operations during the First Gulf War in 1991 and supported air patrols after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Interestingly, the USS John F. Kennedy was the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier built for the U.S. Navy. Its propulsion system consisted of four steam turbines powered by eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers. Subsequent aircraft carriers were equipped with nuclear propulsion. The ship belonged to the Kitty Hawk class of carriers, which were an enlarged and modernized version of the Forrestal-class carriers. It measured 1,053 feet in length, 253 feet in width, and had a draft of 36 feet, with a total displacement of 87,000 tons. The USS John F. Kennedy could carry over 80 aircraft on its deck, and its crew numbered over 5,000 people.
The USS John F. Kennedy embarked on its last voyage in 2004, and three years later, on March 23, it was officially decommissioned. Initially considered for donation to a museum, the ship was anchored at the NAVSEA Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance facility in Philadelphia. However, this plan was not realized, and in 2017, a decision was made to dismantle it.
In 2021, the aircraft carriers USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) were sold for a symbolic penny to the Shipbreaking Limited facility in Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping. The high costs and challenges associated with the maintenance of the ships hindered efforts for their preservation as museum pieces.
However, it's worth noting that scrapping aircraft carriers is no simple task, particularly for those with nuclear propulsion. This process is not only more expensive, but also more dangerous than scrapping ships with conventional propulsion. The War Zone cites the dismantling of USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy, as an example. The cost of its scrapping could be as much as $1.55 billion.
