The USS Kitty Hawk is due to be retired early next year and is on it's final voyage home. She departed Yokosuka, Japan, this morning and is en route to Pearl Harbor, then on to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where she will be decommissioned on January 31st, 2009.The Kitty Hawk replaced the USS Independence after that aircraft carrier was retired; now the USS George Washington, one of America's newest nuclear-powered carriers, will arrive in Yokosuka in August.
As they left the harbor, the sailors on deck formed the word SAYONARA, which, of course, means "goodbye."
A historical group in Wilmington, North Carolina, is lobbying the Navy to donate the ship as a museum, where it would be docked next to the battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55). It's also been reported that the government of India wants to purchase the Kitty Hawk.
I'd rather see the ship end up in North Carolina as Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, is where the Wright brothers staged their first powered aircraft flight. I hope the Navy doesn't decide to sink it as they did the USS America three years ago after blowing the hell out of it. I still wish they hadn't done that, but hopefully the tests that they did will be beneficial to designing the next generation of carrier.
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