NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WVEC) -- After 55 years of naval service, the USS Enterprise has been officially decommissioned.
During Friday's ceremony at Newport News Shipbuilding, the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) was described as a "legendary" vessel that helped shape history. It served more than 50 years, playing a role in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the Navy's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Navy officials say the Enterprise also helped pioneer modern-day carrier operations by launching the first nose-wheel launch bar designed catapult system, recovering Astronaut John Glenn when he returned to Earth after making America's first orbital space flight and launching the first strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban targets following the attack on America on Sept. 11, 2001.
Affectionately called the "Big E," the ship retired from service in 2012. The Navy has spent the past few years defueling its reactors. The ship will eventually be taken apart and its metal recycled.
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The Enterprise has relevance in Toobworld... by way of a movie.
From Memory Alpha:
In 1986, Enterprise was docked at the Alameda Naval Base in Alameda, California when it was breached by an apparent Soviet spy. The "spy" was Starfleet Commander Pavel Chekov, who had been collecting high energy photons from one of the ship's nuclear fission reactors to recrystallize dilithium for a captured Klingon Bird-of-Prey that had traveled back in time. ("Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home")
In 2364, a model of this carrier appeared in Admiral Gregory Quinn's guest quarters on the USS Enterprise-D. ('TNG': "Coming of Age")
BCnU!
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