{"id":432217,"date":"2025-12-08T01:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432217\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T01:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T01:37:12","slug":"san-diego-bids-farewell-to-uss-nimitz-as-coolest-carrier-in-the-navy-ends-50-years-of-service-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/432217\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego bids farewell to USS Nimitz as \u2018coolest\u2019 carrier in the Navy ends 50 years of service \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of Navy lore, the details are in dispute. But Jere Cordell, of San Diego, swears the beastly carrier USS Nimitz won an impromptu drag race against slender cruisers a half-century ago off Norfolk, Va.<\/p>\n

\u201cNimitz smoked us from the get-go,\u201d said Cordell, who was on the competing USS California at the time. \u201cFlat-out beat us. I remember thinking, \u2018That\u2019s going to be a great ship.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He proved to be right about the 24-story carrier, which docked at its former home in San Diego Bay on Sunday at a bittersweet moment. It\u2019s off-loading aircraft before it pushes on to Bremerton, Wash., to complete its final deployment. It will be decommissioned next year.<\/p>\n

Veterans are lavishing praise on the ship, saying the Cold War-era flattop helped revolutionize the Navy\u2019s ability to roam the world\u2019s oceans and linger in distant trouble spots like the Taiwan Straight and the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

It has a pair of nuclear reactors that can go more than 20 years without refueling. Conventional carriers, at the time, had to fill up every few thousand miles. Early on, the Nimitz was also faster and more maneuverable than its foes, giving it an edge as it patrolled the Middle East and Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

In an unexpected twist, the Nimitz also became a pop culture star, appearing in movies, books, documentaries and video games. It started to become famous in 1980 with the release of the sci-fi movie \u201cThe Final Countdown,\u201d which was largely filmed on the ship. The plot had the Nimitz traveling back in time, to the eve of Japan\u2019s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden we were in the limelight,\u201d said David Hill, of Rancho Pe\u00f1sasquitos, who deployed three times on the Nimitz. \u201cPeople asked us if we were in any scenes. This helped give Nimitz its cool factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn F\/A-18E Super Hornet takes off from the flight deck of the USS Nimitz in the Mediterranean Sea on Oct. 24, 2013. (ALBERTO PIZZOLI\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Far greater publicity arrived in 2004 when fighter pilots from the Nimitz reported seeing Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (think UFOs) about 100 miles west of San Diego. One of the pilots told a congressional hearing<\/a> that what he saw was well beyond the \u201cmaterial science\u201d of the time.<\/p>\n

Sailors mostly enjoy the public attention. But the carrier\u2019s legacy means more to Lt. Gabrielle Bonowski, of San Diego, currently a Seahawk pilot on the Nimitz.<\/p>\n

The carrier \u201chas shaped naval aviation for more than 50 years, and it\u2019s been incredibly fulfilling to serve aboard a ship with such historic impact,\u201d Bonowski said in an email to the Union-Tribune.<\/p>\n

The Nimitz is the product of a technological chain reaction that began in the late 1940s when the Navy began to place jet aircraft on carriers. It wanted its ships to have unlimited range due, in part, to a new and deepening Cold War with the Soviet Union and tensions elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n

That led to the construction of the USS Enterprise<\/a>, the nation\u2019s first nuclear-powered carrier. It was commissioned in 1961 and became the first ship of its kind to engage in combat. The \u201cBig E\u201d launched airstrikes against the Viet Cong at a time when the Vietnam War was rapidly expanding.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe USS Nimitz (CVN-68) makes its way into San Diego Bay on Sunday. The Nimitz, which was ported in San Diego for 11 years, is finishing a 50-year service life and will be decommissioned next year. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Enterprise, which had eight nuclear reactors, had built a great reputation by then, especially for helping to create a naval blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.<\/p>\n

But the Navy wanted ships that more fully realized the promise of the Enterprise, leading to the creation of the Nimitz-class carrier. The name was a familiar one to many Americans. It referred to Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, who led the U.S. to win the war in the Pacific in the 1940s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important that his name was chosen because people of my generation and the baby boomers that followed knew that Nimitz was a warfighter,\u201d said Brent Bennitt, of Coronado, who was commander of the USS Nimitz from 1987 to 1989.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Navy sailors stand on the deck as they deploy with the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz from North Island Naval Air Station on March 3, 2003, in San Diego. The Nimitz sailed for the Persian Gulf, leading a five-ship battle group carrying 8,000 sailors poised for war with Iraq. (VINCE BUCCI\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Nine Nimitz-class carriers followed, including the USS Carl Vinson, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Theodore Roosevelt, all of which are today based in San Diego.<\/p>\n

The original Nimitz flattop was commissioned in 1975 and suffered some horrific setbacks. The first came in November 1979 after Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage. Some were released. Most were not.<\/p>\n

The following spring, the U.S. sent eight Nimitz helicopters to the Iranian desert, where they were supposed to pick up commandos who would rescue the hostages. The mission<\/a> was aborted due to mechanical failures and a sandstorm. Eight service members died when a helicopter collided with a C-130 transport plane.<\/p>\n

Iran didn\u2019t release the hostages until January 1981. Four months later, a Marine Prowler aircraft crashed on the deck of the Nimitz off Florida, setting off fires and explosions that killed 14 crew members.<\/p>\n

The crash \u201csounded like the end of the world,\u201d said David Hill, of Rancho Pe\u00f1asquitos, who was sleeping in a berth below deck when it happened. \u201cGeneral quarters was sounded, and we were told this is not a drill. The impact made the whole ship shake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those incidents have faded in time, replaced by the carrier\u2019s reputation as a Johnny-on-the-spot, able to get places quickly and pitch in for long periods.<\/p>\n

\"TheFamily members of sailor Garrett Hernandez watched from Shelter Island as the Nimitz made its way towards North Island NAS. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Historians say the Nimitz provided crucial air support during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 when the U.S. drove Iraq out of Kuwait. The Nimitz later enforced the no-fly zone over southern Iraq. And in 1995 and 1996, the carrier helped keep international sea lanes open by deterring Chinese aggression against Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The Nimitz also provided air support and strikes against Afghanistan during Operation Enduring from 2003 to 2005. This was during the early part of the carrier\u2019s 11-year homeporting in San Diego.<\/p>\n

The ship\u2019s record does not surprise Bennitt. Its longevity does.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe it was 50 years ago when Nimitz was commissioned,\u201d said Bennitt, who is 83. \u201cIt makes you come to grips with your own mortality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like a lot of Navy lore, the details are in dispute. But Jere Cordell, of San Diego, swears…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":432218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,17535,1370,728,1802,50,3549,3550,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-432217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-coronado","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-san-diego-county","18":"tag-sandiego","19":"tag-top-stories-sdut","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115681393815185932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}