News Story: (USA) Venerable Carrier (Enterprise) Leaves for Final Deployment

USS Enterprise (Wiki Info)

By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS

ABOARD THE ENTERPRISE — Accompanied by three blasts of the ship’s horn, the oldest active warship in the U.S. Navy shoved off from Norfolk Naval Base’s Pier 12 at 11:50 a.m. on a bright, mild March 11. As big ships will, the carrier Enterprise moved almost imperceptibly at first, gradually gaining momentum as she moved silently away from the pier and backward out of her berth.

A surprisingly small crowd of well-wishers, kept off the pier by security, watched with little fanfare as the ship’s crew lined the flight deck and looked back. A group of U.S. Marines, on board as part of a Marine strike fighter squadron, stood front and center at the foremost end of the deck. It was a minor blast from the past and harkened back to the days of the Enterprise’s youth when Marines formed a portion of every major Navy ship’s company.

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