Posted on 07/01/2006 1:48:00 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Yes. She flunked her engineering ORI's in February, 2003, just before the Iraq War, when she failed to get boiler pressure from a cold light-off within the allotted time. Her skipper and engineering officer were relieved immediately. (Not that other people didn't deserve a reprimand as well, up and down the chain of command -- and get one.)
Sometimes it takes people getting their careers dinged pretty badly, before an old ship can get what she needs.
Elsewhere on FR, it was discussed in another thread that the John F. Kennedy is in tough shape, unable to use two of her catapults and therefore effectively reduced to flying a few Harriers and helos off her decks. She's pulling some kind of scrub duty from an East Coast port -- training duty or something -- and is in very bad physical condition.
I went there in 97 and we were warned that there would be protestors. About 500 showed up, but you couldn't see them behind the 40,000 that showed up to see and tour the ship.
Sapporo is a 45 min train ride from the port and summer there is awesome. Great weather, outdoor beer gardens, very nice.
As it has always been...a lot of blue in that AOR...
It might have been the same thread, but the JFK has had her arresting gear de-certified, too. So she is effectively a very big LHA/LHD, unable to launch or recover fixed wing aircraft.
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