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First John F. Kennedy Aircraft Carrier Takes Final Voyage

The US Navy’s first aircraft carrier named after President John F. Kennedy (CV 67) has embarked on its final journey before being dismantled.

From an Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the USS Kennedy will travel to a scrapyard in Brownsville, Texas, for a proper “shipbreaking” process.

The USS Kennedy became operational in the late 1960s and has been on multiple deployments across major seas in Asia, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

It also had its own battle group, which provided air security along the mid-Atlantic area of responsibility following the September 2001 attacks.

In the following years, the vessel sailed on multinational missions such as Operation Anaconda, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom.

The ship was decommissioned in 2007 after nearly four decades of service as the last of the US Navy’s conventionally powered aircraft carriers.

Upon retirement, the USS Kennedy was then planned as a donation for an armed forces memorial and museum, a concept that was paused and later ditched due to a “lack of a viable donation application” that would preserve the deteriorating vessel.

“Ex-John F. Kennedy will always be remembered as a symbol of enduring freedom and a beacon of hope and peace during difficult times in our nation,” US Navy Surface Ship Maintenance, Modernizationm and Sustainment Director Rear Adm. Bill Greene remarked.

“The countless members of the ship’s crew and all who sustained it during its lifecycle should be proud of the exceptional work that kept the ship sailing and supporting our fleet for many years. Fair Winds and Following Seas.” 

The sun rises on the Ex-USS John F. Kennedy one final time in the city of Philadelphia before its Jan. 16 departure for the scrapyard in Brownsville, Texas. For more than a decade and a half, the last remaining conventionally powered aircraft carrier, the Ex-USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), has been moored in the City of Brotherly Love—a tangible symbol of America’s military strength in the city where both the Navy and Marine Corps were founded 250 years ago.
The USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) conventionally-powered aircraft carrier. Photo: Christy Trabun/US Navy

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