After 50 years of service and 20 years in reserve, the legendary aircraft carrier went to scrap
Laid down at the shipyard in Camden, New Jersey, in December 1956, the American aircraft carrier "Kitty Hawk" (USS Kitty Hawk) entered service in April 1961. Over the next 48 years, he took part in combat operations in Vietnam and Iraq. Since May 2009, after 49 years of service, the aircraft carrier has been in reserve, and in October 20017 it was excluded from the fleet. Since that time, a group of enthusiasts, mainly consisting of veterans who served on the Kitty Hawk, has been trying to raise funds to turn the aircraft carrier into another floating museum. At the same time, it was emphasized that "Kitty Hawk", as well as the virtually identical "John F. Kennedy" (USS John F. Kennedy— - the last non-nuclear aircraft carriers of the US Navy.
Alas, the fundraising campaign for museumification turned out to be insufficient. October 6, 2021 "Kitty Hawk" and "John F. Kennedy" were sold for scrapping for a symbolic sum of 1 cent. Just the other day, on January 15, 2022, the Kitty Hawk set off on its last trip in tow. From the shipyard in Puget Sound, in the Seattle area on the west coast of the United States, he will have to get to Brownsville, on the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Since the size of the aircraft carrier does not allow it to pass through the locks of the Panama Canal, it has a long journey of thousands of miles around South America.