Ship - aircraft carrier - USS John F Kennedy - postcard by Dexter c.1970s

• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  USS John F. Kennedy CVA-67 commissioned 1968
• Publisher: Dexter Press
• Postally used: no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) (formerly CVA-67) is the only ship of her class (a variant of the Kitty Hawk class of aircraft carrier) and the last conventionally powered carrier built for the United States Navy.^[5] The ship is named after the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and is nicknamed "Big John." Kennedy was originally designated a CVA (fixed wing attack carrier); however, the designation was changed to CV to denote that the ship was capable of anti-submarine warfare, making her an all-purpose carrier.

After nearly 40 years of service in the United States Navy, Kennedy was officially decommissioned on 1 August 2007. She is berthed at the NAVSEA Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance facility in Philadelphia and, until late 2017, was available for donation as a museum and memorial to a qualified organization.^[1][7] In late 2017, the Navy revoked her "donation hold" status and designated her for dismantling.^[4] The name has been adopted by the future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy (CVN-79).

Contracted as Ship Characteristic Board SCB-127C,^[8] the ship's keel was laid on 22 October 1964 by Newport News Shipbuilding. The ship was officially christened 27 May 1967 by Jacqueline Kennedy and her 9-year-old daughter, Caroline, two days short of what would have been President Kennedy's 50th birthday. The ship entered service 7 September 1968.

John F. Kennedy is a modified version of the earlier Kitty Hawk-classaircraft carriers.^[2] Originally scheduled to be the fourth Kitty Hawk-class carrier, the ship received so many modifications during construction she formed her own class.^[5] The ship was originally ordered as a nuclear carrier, using the A3W reactor, but converted to conventional propulsion after construction had begun.^[8] The island is somewhat different from that of the Kitty Hawk class, with angled funnels to direct smoke and gases away from the flight deck. Kennedy is also 17 feet (5.2 m) shorter than the Kitty Hawk class.^[8]

After an ORI conducted by Commander, Carrier Division Two, Kennedy left for the Mediterranean in April 1969. The ship reached Rota, Spain on the morning of 22 April 1969 and relieved USS Forrestal. Rear Admiral Pierre N. Charbonnet, Commander, Carrier Striking Forces, Sixth Fleet, and Commander, Carrier Striking Unit 60.1.9, shifted his flag to John F. Kennedy. The turnover complete by nightfall, the carrier, escorted by destroyers, transited the Strait of Gibraltar at the start of the mid watch on 22 April. The next day, John F. Kennedy refueled from USS Marias, and acquired the company of a Soviet Kotlin-class destroyer (Pennant No. 383).

Kennedy's maiden voyage, and several of her subsequent voyages, were on deployments to the Mediterranean during much of the 1970s to help deal with the steadily deteriorating situation in the Middle East. It was during the 1970s that Kennedy was upgraded to handle the F-14 Tomcatand the S-3 Viking.

Kennedy was involved in the Navy response to the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East in October 1973, with her actions and the larger U.S. Navy picture being described in Elmo Zumwalt's book On Watch.^[9]

In 1974, she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet.

On 20 June 1975 Kennedy was the target of arson, suffering eight fires, with no injuries, while at port in Norfolk, Virginia.^[10]

On 22 November 1975, Kennedy collided with the cruiser Belknap, severely damaging the smaller ship. As a result of the collision with John F. Kennedy's overhanging deck, JP-5 fuel lines were ruptured spraying fuel over an adjacent catwalk, and fires ensued aboard both ships. Belknap's superstructure was gutted almost to the main deck, and seven of her crew killed. Aboard Kennedy, smoke inhalation claimed the life of Petty Officer 2nd Class Yeoman David A. Chivalette of CVW-1.

On 14 September 1976, while conducting a nighttime underway replenishment 100 miles (160 km) north of Scotland, the destroyer Bordelon lost control and collided with Kennedy, resulting in such severe damage to the destroyer that she was removed from service in 1977. Earlier the same day, one F-14 Tomcat, following a problem with the catapult, fell off of the flight deck of John F. Kennedy, with AIM-54 Phoenix missiles in international waters, off the coast Scotland. Both crew members ejected and landed on the deck, injured but alive.^[11] A naval race (surface and submarine) followed between the Soviet Navy and US Navy to get back not only the plane (because of its weapon system), but also its missiles.

In late 1978 Kennedy underwent her first, yearlong overhaul, which was completed in 1979.

On 9 April 1979 she experienced five fires set by arson while undergoing overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia. The fires killed one shipyard worker and injured 34 others.^[10]

On 5 June 1979 Kennedy was the target of two more fires at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia. No one was injured in the incident.^[10]

In 1979 she won her second Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award.

On 4 January 1982, John F. Kennedy, with Carrier Air Wing Three (AC), sailed as the flagship for Carrier Group Four (CCG-4) from Norfolk, Va. on her ninth deployment, and her first visit to the Indian Ocean after port visits to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, Malaga, Spain, and transiting the Suez Canal. In her time in the Indian Ocean John F. Kennedy conducted her only port visit to Perth/Fremantle, Western Australia, anchoring in Gage Roads on 19 March 1982 for a R&R visit, departing on 25 March back to the Indian Ocean. During this time John F. Kennedy played host to the first visit of the Somali head of state. Her cruise ended with port visits to Mombasa, Kenya and Toulon, France, before returning home on 14 July 1982.

In October 1983 John F. Kennedy was diverted to Beirut, Lebanon from her planned Indian Ocean deployment, after the Beirut barracks bombing killed 241 US military personnel taking part in the Multinational Force in Lebanon, and spent the rest of that year and early 1984 patrolling the region. On 4 December 1983 ten A-6 aircraft from Kennedy along with A-6 and A-7 aircraft from USS Independence took part in a bombing raid over Beirut, in response to two US F-14 aircraft being fired upon the previous day. The Navy lost two aircraft during the raid: an A-7E from Independence and an A-6E from John F. Kennedy were shot down by SAMs. The A-7E pilot was picked up by a fishing boat, but the A-6E pilot Lt. Mark Lange died after ejecting and the B/N Lt. Robert "Bobby" Goodman was taken prisoner and released on 3 January 1984.^[2]