USS Enterprise (CVN 65) - Naval Cruise Book

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I • • 1 U tod ::v ,: ' mkU jirtl ' o SBlfcrlikt • 1j,W BR9H H -• jfc r-i — r-t ' . j iSi fttoi ' .V » Rk fa fiT--.. T:.j5 ' lft r l ' ; jB n IfVlX I IIS llHlii. ftp ■Ik duitn HRP j AC- ' --S|{iL di MS vMB Bib F - v iJk A kM 8? k V MfaP ■BL ' BBI it tons E CVANBS — c; ; ; «fcv r Unerealitu lyOl On November 25, the eighth U.S. ship was commissioned bearing the name Enterprise. During commissioning ceremonies held in Norfolk, Secretary of the Navy John B. Connally, Jr., called the ship a worthy successor to the highly decorated seventh Enterprise of World War II fame. In his remarks, Connally said Enterprise will reign a long, long time as ' queen of the seas. ' lyOZ, On January 12, Enterprise left Norfolk for a three-month shakedown cruise. When it finished in April, it returned with the highest score ever attained by a new aircraft carrier. Air Wing Six came aboard June 22. In August, Enterprise joined the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Soon after its return in October, Enterprise would be called upon for its first international crisis, the quarantine of Cuba to prevent the Soviet Union from basing ballistic missiles there. The blockade was put in place on October 24, and the first Soviet ship was stopped the next day. On October 28, Khrushchev finally agreed to remove the missiles and dismantle the missile bases in Cuba. lyCkJ During much of this time, Enterprise was with the Sixth Fleet on its second Mediterranean deployment. Iz Cy-t On February 8, Enterprise rei to the Mediterranean briefly for a third On May 1 3, the world ' s first nuclear-powi task force was formed when USS Long B and USS Bainbridge joined Enterprise. July 3 1, the three ships were designated T;l :taa« Force One and sent on Operation Sea Orf I ,. ; - a 30,565-mile voyage around the world. l| October, Enterprise returned to Newport News for its first refueling and overhaul. c bin ±y(X) Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge transferred to the Pacific Fleet] Carrier Air Wing Nine reported aboard in | September. The Big E joined the Seven Fleet on November 2 1 and became the fir Ad •Ti»; »!« JiLjeanwnue lyOl John F. Kennedy becomes Presi- dent; the Peace Corps was established; the invasion of the Bay of Pigs fails; the Berlin Wall is constructed; Civil war erupts in the Dominican Republic, Cmdr. Alan Shepard becomes the second man in space. 1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis evolves; Venus probe is launched; John Glenn orbits the earth; Book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo ' s Nest, Movies: Lawrence of Arabia, Cleopatra. lyCkJ Superpower hot line established; nuclear test-ban treaty signed; Freedom marchers trek from Selma, Ala.; M.L. King delivers dream speech; Kennedy is assassinated; Johnson assumes the presidency; a Buddhist-led coup topples the South Vietnam government, Over 16,000 Amer|) troops are in South Vietnam. iyu4 The Destroyers Maddox and ' Joy are attacked by North Vietnamese paffl boats; Tonkin resolution passed; Bombinal North Vietnam begins; Beatlemania sweet] North America; UN peace force takes ov Cyprus, Films: Zorba the Greek, Lor the Flies. -.:.. ih .,, :•:: ' ■

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' red it 1 1 St EtSOl The second Enterprise was an 8-gun, 25-ton schooner with a w of 60 men. It was commissioned into the Continental Navy 1776 from the state of Maryland. The schooner served chiefly in conveying transports in Chesa- -.. like Bay. However, it was also active in spying Oil enemy ships 1 preventing British tenders and barges from getting supplies m the shores of Maryland and Virginia. It is not known how this ship ' s career ended. - iik kHiild ta. then mlidre i Btfctpl v twtadi In 1799, the third Enterprise was commissioned. It was a 135-ton schooner with 12 6-pounders and 70 officers and men. Enterprise left the Delaware Capes Dec. 17, 1799 on its way to Guadaloupe, where it joined Commodore Thomas Truxtun ' s squadron. While attached to Truxtun ' s squadron during the quasi- war with France, Enterprise recaptured 1 1 American merchant- men and took seven French privateers. Enterprise was again called to action in the Mediterranean during the war with Tripoli (1801-1804). Lt. Stephan Decatur, who gained fame and notoriety after boarding and burning the captured frigate Philadelphia in Tripoli harbor, was an Enterprise commanding officer. This proud ship finished its distinguished service in the Gulf of Mexico where it patrolled against pirates, smugglers and slavers. It was lost at sea on July 9, 1823 in the West Indies. . Urcti 16.1377. It jTStocdisplacem jMannesandatnb , - girt tot Norfolk ' i teEaop 01 0f0 The sixth Enterprise was a 66-foot motor patrol craft pur- hased by the Navy on Dec. 6, 1916. It was placed in service at the Second Naval District and per- armed harbor tug duties at Newport, Rhode Island. On Dec. 11, 1917 the patrol craft was shifted to New Bedford Massachusetts for operations inside the breakwaters and was sub- equently transferred to the Bureau of Fisheries on Aug. 2, 1919. madia tveas The Fighting Gray Lady was the seventh Enterprise. Its keel was laid in 1934 and it was commissioned May 12, 1938. It was 827 feet long and 114 feet wide at the flight deck. It displaced 25,000 tons and could sustain 33. 6 knots. It was manned by 82 officers and 1447 men, exclusive of its air group. Enterprise was returning to Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. In WWII, Enterprise was flagship for Vice Adm. Halsey and Vice Adm. Spruance. It carried Adm. Spruance in the Battle of Midway and accompanied USS Hornet on the Doolittle raid. It supported landings at Guadalcanal and Tulagi and took part in the battles of Santa-Cruz, the Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf. Its planes were in on the Marianas Turkey Shoot and pioneered night air strike operations aided by radar. The carrier was the most decorated ship of the war. It was decommissioned on Feb. 17, 1947.

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• 1 07 11 ream When Congress authorized construction of Enterprise — the d ' s first nuclear-powered super carrier — it was 1954. The con- • was bold and went far beyond anything ever tried before. Even t echnology to be used was new, and in many cases, untried. The giant ship was to be powered by eight nuclear reactors, two •ach of its four propeller shafts. This was a daring undertaking, Wiever before had two nuclear reactors ever been harnessed to- ■lier. As such, when the engineers first started planning the ship ' s ulsion system, they were uncertain how it would work, or even if fm )uld work according to their theories. Under the direction of the Atomic Energy Commission, ghouse Electric Corporation and Newport News Shipbuilding pany were contracted to build a prototype of the ship ' s propul- plant at the Atomic Energy Commission ' s Naval Reactor Testing Won near Idaho Falls, Idaho. I Newport News was responsible for building an exact replica of a .tljon of the ship ' s hull while Westinghouse was designing and con- ifting the reactors. Engineers at both companies worked in con- nsuring each understood the requirements of the other. June, 1958 the keel section of the prototype was laid and in ber, 1958 one reactor of the propulsion plant was tested. The d reactor was installed less than a year later and both were tested ltaneously — they worked perfectly. le construction and testing were taking place in Idaho, the awarded construction of Enterprise to Newport News Shipbuild- ompany. On February 3, 1958 the Big E ' s keel was laid. During the construction , the shipyard faced several challenges and problems. The first of which was the construction of a special dry dock, an engineering feat in itself, to house the 90,000-ton super carrier. Aircraft elevators were another problem — their massive size turned out to be bigger than the doors to the building they were constructed in. The elevators had to be cut in half and reconstructed at the dry dock. Other problems involved moving large sub-assemblies, some of which weighed more than 1 00 tons, from their building sheds to the dry dock. Structures for each of the ship ' s 3,612 compartments were built off the ship. Materials used by the shipyard included 60,923 tons of steel, 1,507 tons of aluminum; 230 miles of pipe and tubing; and 1,700 tons of one-quarter-inch welding rods. The materials were sup- plied from more than 800 companies. Nine hundred shipyard en- gineers and designers created the ship on paper and if the millions of blueprints they created were laid end-to-end, they would stretch 2,400 miles, or from Miami to Los Angeles. Three years and nine months after the keel was laid, Enter- prise left the shipyard for six days of Builder ' s and Navy ' s Pre- Acceptance trials. The new super carrier ' s performance during the trials surpassed the Navy ' s most optimistic expectations. Enterprise, the longest, tallest, heaviest and mightiest war- ship on the seas, broke all previous records for speed when it ex- ceeded 40 miles-per-hour during initial trials. Its escort during the trials, destroyer Laffey, sent this message, :Subject: Speed Tri- als. 1. You win the race. 2. Our wet hats are off to a real thorough- bred. When the Big E returned to port, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral George W. Anderson, Jr., stated enthusiasti- cally, I think we ' ve hit the jackpot. i ;ar-powered warship to engage in -: i )at. During the next six months, aircraft Enterprise carried out bombing raids North Vietnamese supply lines. artnflTforaW ' aaUtalSSLoiis. 1% t -S jdrag and overhaii On June 21, after its first combat Enterprise arrived at its new homeport of ., California. Enterprise left Alameda ovember 19, for its second combat tour Gulf of Tonkin. - 0 Air Wing Nine aircraft continued to x »te over North Vietnam air space. On p e e :h 27, Enterprise was given its first Battle E award. Enterprise ' s second at tour ended in June with 13,400 battle ions flown and the ship returned to . Dominican civil war, Malcolm X shot, Jl ia violence, Watts riots, Rhodesian indepen- e, Films: Dr. Zhivago, The Sound of c, Over 1 84,000 American troops in Viet- Cultural Revolution in China, aaulle removes NATO forces in France; a with four nuclear bombs crashes in the -flit ll ; 1 near Spain; Bombings escalate in tiam; 478,000 Americans stationed in S.E. Alameda on July 6. Four months later, the Secretary of the Navy anno unced that the Big E had won the Navy Unit Commendation Medal. lirOO On January 3, Enterprise set sail for its third WESTPAC deployment. Twenty days later, the USS Pueblo was seized by North Korea. Enterprise became the flagship for the specially-created Task Force 71 in the Sea of Japan. On February 16, Enterprise proceeded to Yankee Station, commencing combat operations Feb. 22. On March 31, President Johnson announced a halt of all bombardment. Enterprise returned home July 18, and departed nine days later for a minor overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Asia. iyO China becomes a nuclear power. Six-day War between Isreal, Arab countries, First heart transplant, Three U.S. astronauts killed in fire, anti-war sentiment escalates, McNamara reports pacification, air war ineffective in Vietnam. 196S USS Pueblo seized by North Korea, Papal encyclical against artificial birth control, in Washington. The ship departed Bremerton on September 20. 1 Uy On January 6, Enterprise left Alameda en route to Hawaii. The Big E arrived in Pearl Harbor on January 1 1 . Three days later tragedy struck when a Zuni rocket accidentally exploded on the flight deck. The ensuing fire and explosions killed 28 men, injured hundreds more, destroyed 15 aircraft and left horrendous holes in the flight deck. Enterprise returned to Pearl Harbor for extensive repairs. On March 11, it departed for its fourth Vietnam tour at Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. On April 16, North Korea shot down a Navy M.L. King, Robert Kennedy assassinated, Mylai massacre, Tet Offensive, Film: Space Odyssey, President Johnson resigns. lyOy Richard Nixon becomes President, Cambodia bombing commences, Neil Armstrong first man on moon, Woodstock music festival, First flight of the Concorde, American troops in Vietnam peak at 541,500.