Final deployment for Enterprise (CVN-65)

[drivinfool]

Drivenfool, are you schedule to tour her before the 12/1/12 ceremony? I plan to tour her on 11/28/12.

P.S. nice photo's.

I wish I could, but I am neither a former crew member nor one of the builders. I'd love to go aboard though just to say I did. Are you former crew?

Thanks for the compliment about the pix. I am a novice photog, and still learning.

[surfgun]

The Big E website also invited fans of the Big E, of which I'm sure you are. The last notice from the Big E however, mentioned that they are overwhelmed with requests, but I put mine in early and I was approved early on. They may be making accommodations for others, so please check. Go to their inactivation section.
Welcome to Navy Forces Online Public Sites

[drivinfool]

The Big E website also invited fans of the Big E, of which I'm sure you are. The last notice from the Big E however, mentioned that they are overwhelmed with requests, but I put mine in early and I was approved early on. They may be making accommodations for others, so please check. Go to their inactivation section.
Welcome to Navy Forces Online Public Sites

I took your advice and I too was able to get a Thursday tour. I will be there around 9:30 or so with camera on hand. Thank you for the info.

[tbm3fan]

I took your advice and I too was able to get a Thursday tour. I will be there around 9:30 or so with camera on hand. Thank you for the info.

Do so as you have no idea how much I envy you right now...!

[ChrisV71]

I also responded early and have a Thursday afternoon tour and tickets to the inactivation. The tour confirmation email said we can take self-guided or guided tours and implied everything non-reactor related was open, and to bring cameras. If this is the case, what are "must see" places? I have a small list going.

[tbm3fan]

I also responded early and have a Thursday afternoon tour and tickets to the inactivation. The tour confirmation email said we can take self-guided or guided tours and implied everything non-reactor related was open, and to bring cameras. If this is the case, what are "must see" places? I have a small list going.

I hate you too!!!

[JRT]

The tour confirmation email said we can take self-guided or guided tours and implied everything non-reactor related was open, and to bring cameras.

.

I suspect that China will find that open access very useful in correcting some of the incorrect guesswork in their as-built CAD models of Big-E.

[USSWisconsin]

I'd love to see the ceiling of the hanger and the elevator foundations in detail - I'm especially interested in the the way they attach the flight deck to the hull. The hold is another space I'd love to see pictures of - with views of the hull framing if possible. Some details of the structure of these beasts has been secret since the the Forestals. I suspect that these will be covered up or behind bulkheads - but any heavy structural details would be facinating.

Other wish list pictures would be steering gear, shafting, and machinery.

[qaz14595]

Might just be me..But in my opinion an intresting picture to get might be of the Keel (Might think of a few other things possibly if you're taking request's for picutres of certain things )

[surfgun]

Here are some shots from today 11/28/12.

[Chogy]

Great pictures everybody!

Can someone identify this ordnance for me?

[drivinfool]

Here are the pictures I took yesterday on board the BIG E...


BIG E Photos by drivin-fool | Photobucket

[Stitch]

Great pictures everybody!

Can someone identify this ordnance for me?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]31029[/ATTACH]

That looks like the fusing/warhead section of a BLU-109 to me; the casing is straight behind the nosecap compared to a regular Mk 80 series bomb which is tapered. They leave the fin section off of the casing for shipping and storage until the bomb is about to be uploaded to the deck.

[blidgepump]

Does the ordinance get shipped in the metal frames from the manufacturer, too?

[surfgun]

Next steps for the Enterprise
By Sam Fellman - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 30, 2012 13:07:57 EST
Enterprise is scheduled to be inactivated in a Dec. 1 ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., where it is expected to berth for about six months while crew members remove gear and prepare for the teardown at the Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipyard. Workers there will remove spare parts and recover hazardous materials from the ship’s systems.

During this four-year process, most of the crew will transfer to other commands. A skeleton crew of nukes will stay with the ship until its eight reactors are extracted. Enterprise’s spent fuel will be removed in Newport News.

Officials expect to tow the ship in 2017 to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., where the workers will cut out the reactors. They will be buried in a trench at the Hanford nuclear reservation, where radioactive submarine reactors are stored. Spent nuclear fuel will be sent to the Naval Reactors Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory.

Enterprise’s hull, meanwhile, will be scrapped, despite some veterans wanting to turn the historical ship into a museum.