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Kitty Hawk to dock in Hawaii



After its "sayonara" ceremony in Japan on May 28, it turns out the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk won't steam to its retirement port in the West Coast just yet.


The Navy at Pearl Harbor announced Thursday the Kitty Hawk, which is visiting Guam this week, will take the USS George Washington's place in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, scheduled in Hawaii waters June 29 to July 31.

The nuclear-powered George Washington is swapping places with the older, steam-powered Kitty Hawk as the only U.S. aircraft carrier stationed in a foreign country.

But a May 22 fire aboard the George Washington has delayed the George Washington's arrival in Hawaii, where 565 of the Kitty Hawk's crew were supposed to move to the George Washington.

The Kitty Hawk has 4,800 sailors total on board.

The "crossdeck" of Kitty Hawk sailors to the George Washington is now on hold -- pending the completion of repairs to the George Washington, according to the Navy.

Repairs to the George Washington are what the Navy called "electrical in nature -- with some associated structural and mechanical repairs required."

About 20 sailors were injured during the fire, according to wire reports.

The time line for repairs to the ship has not yet been determined, according to the Navy.

"Once repairs to the ship are complete, USS George Washington will replace USS Kitty Hawk as the United States Navy's forward deployed aircraft carrier in the Pacific," according to the release.

The Rim of the Pacific exercise will involve 10 nations, 35 ships, six submarines, more than 150 aircraft and 20,000 sailors, airmen, Marines, soldiers and Coast Guardsmen.

Units from Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Netherlands, Peru, Republic of Korea, Singapore, United Kingdom and the U.S. are scheduled to participate, according to the Navy.

The Kitty Hawk had been stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, for the past 10 years.

After about two weeks at sea, the Kitty Hawk arrived Guam on Tuesday.

While homeported in Yokosuka, the Kitty Hawk has made at least several visits to Guam.

Economic boost
Each time the Kitty Hawk visited Guam, the local economy saw at least a $1 million infusion as sailors shopped, dined, rented cars, watched movies and spent on other forms of entertainment, the local business community has estimated.

The Kitty Hawk was originally scheduled to meet the USS George Washington in Hawaii on June 8 to turn over duties to George Washington as the Navy's only aircraft carrier operating permanently outside of the United States, according to the Navy.

"The turnover is now delayed due to a fire last month aboard the George Washington, which remains in San Diego for damage assessments," the Navy states,

Kitty Hawk sailors say they are happy to visit Guam, according to a Navy release.

Kitty Hawk sailors who will not move to the George Washington will return to the West Coast to decommission the ship in Bremerton, Wash., in early 2009.

"It's going to be emotional for me, because in my opinion, Kitty Hawk still has a lot of years left," said Chief Aviation Boatswain's Mate Geronimo Crisostomo, quoted in a Navy article about the carrier's retirement.

The USS Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group is the U.S. Navy's largest and includes the carrier, seven ships of Destroyer Squadron 15, two Aegis weapons system equipped guided-missile cruisers and Carrier Air Wing 5.

The ships operate from Yokosuka, and the strike group's air wing operates from Atsugi, Japan.

Together, they serve as the 7th Fleet's combatant force.

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It’s the evening of June 21 and the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, screened by the Canadian Frigate Regina steamed within 10 miles of Wake Island — seen of a viscious battle between American defenders and Japanese invaders in December, 1941.

Steaming to the Northeast, the Kitty Hawk passed by the southern side of Wake — the same side the Japanese invaded from. It was also from near these waters that the second aircraft carrier Yorktown pummeled the islands in late 1943, a practice that U.S ships and aircraft would continue for the remainder of the war, inflicting hundereds of casualties on the Japanese garrison.

Wake Island should figure much more prominently in the lore of American and U.S. Marine Corps History. Here, a small band of over 400 Marines held off the Japanese for over two weeks in December of 1941, aided by a large number of civilian contractors who were helping build the islands defenses.

Aided by the civilians, the group repulsed the first Japanese landing on the island, killing hundreds of enemy troops in the process and along with the aviation Marines of Fighter Squadron 211, shot down numerous aircraft and sunk two destroyers and a gunboat while damageing other ships of the Japanese invasion fleet on Dec. 11, 1941.

But little of those details got through to the Amercian public, still reeling from the attacks of Dec. 7, 1941 on Pearl Harbor and on the Phillipines on Dec. 8.

After the initial success of the Marines, officials promosed a resupply, but pulled back at the last moment when a superior Japanese invasion force reappeared off Wake on Dec. 23. Out gunned and nearly out of ammunition and supplies, the U.S. forces capitulated.

Most would spend the next four years in captivity in China and Japan. After the October raids in 1943, the Japanese executed the remaining 96 civilians left on the island, considering them a liability.

With flight operations over, many of Kitty’s crew came up to the flight deck and the island to catch a glimpse of the historic island. Now it’s an airfield stopping point for aviators crossing the Pacific Ocean.

But the island was the scene of a heroic stand, that with so many heroic battle’s to come in the next four years, few today discuss Wake in the same breath as Saipan and Iwo Jima or even Okinawa.

But for those who care take a look, a read into those days and those heroic Marines and sailors is worth the time spent learning about “The Alamo of the Pacific.”