USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67)

Mayport is a small fishing village on the coast, where the St. Johns River enters the ocean. It is the source of all those wonderful shrimp we have been talking about for weeks! It is also the home of a man made harbor, the Mayport Naval Station.

Our campsite at Hanna Park is about 2-3 miles from the turning basin. From the beach and from the small town of Mayport, we saw this magnificent aircraft carrier tied up at the naval docks. So near but yet so far!

Then last week, Terry W mentioned that a member of his church was going to arrange a tour of the carrier, which turned out to be the USS John F. Kennedy. Would we like to go? Are you kidding?

The church member Tom C was a naval aviator and actually flew off the Kennedy when it was first commissioned in 1968. Some of the stories he told were very interesting, not the type the Navy wants us to know about!

There were about 20 of us that took advantage of the wonderful offer. Tom was actually piped aboard as a naval captain retired. I don’t think JPL does that.

We were given a very complete tour, including the hangar deck, flight deck, the Admirals Bridge (if the fleet commander is aboard), the Captains Bridge, the galleys, wardrooms and messes (navy for cafeteria). The Captains mess is pretty nice.

The full operational compliment is 5000 sailors, 3000 to sail the ship and 2000 to service the air arm. The air arm can be up to about 70 aircraft. That is larger than most of the nations air forces around the world!

The Kennedy is slated for decommissioning and does not have an air arm on board. So there are no operational fixed wing aircraft on board. There is one gutted F 14 on the flight deck for the crew to practice.

Thanks to Tom, this tour was special.