Captain Kirk surely cried -- at least off-screen -- when he watched the U.S.S. Enterprise disintegrate following his self-destruct order in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Though moviegoers saw no tears from Kirk, it pained him, as his line, “My God, Bones, what have I done?” suggests. Even if Kirk didn’t cry, countless fans did. And now a real-world U.S.S. Enterprise is nearing the end of its storied journey… or, better phrased, nearing the next chapter in its demise.
The U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65), a proud United States Navy aircraft carrier, took three years to build (1958-1961) and remained in operation until 2012, when she was inactivated, and 2017, when she was officially decommissioned. Affectionately called “Big E,” the Enterprise holds the distinction of being the Navy’s first nuclear-powered ship, and she was involved in everything from the Cuban Missile Crisis, Operation Sea Orbit, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and Operation Earnest Will to Operation Southern Watch, Operation Desert Fox, post 9-11 operations, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and more.
Kari Wilkinson, president of Newport News Shipbuilding, provided the latest update about the Enterprise in an April 22 post on Facebook. She wrote, in part, “A team of Newport News shipbuilders has raised the fourth and final aircraft elevator for the last time on the former Enterprise (#CVN65.) Securing this elevator – which was used to move aircraft from the hangar bay to the flight deck – is a major step in preparation for towing the historic aircraft carrier from NNS a final time. The ship’s other three aircraft elevators were previously raised and permanently attached to the flight deck. Thank you to the shipbuilders who took on this complex work!”
The real and fictional Enterprises overlapped a few times over the years. The actual ship ended up beached on a sandbar in the San Francisco Bay in 1983, and it did so with a special guest aboard at the time: George Takei, best known for playing Star Trek’s heroic helmsman, Sulu. And in 1986, the Enterprise figured prominently in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. In that film, of course, Chekov and Uhura sought to find the ship in order to secure what they needed to power up a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. Interestingly, the Navy’s Enterprise was on a mission and unavailable to director Leonard Nimoy to shoot scenes aboard it, so the USS Ranger stood in for it. And, according to Memory Alpha, Trek fans could catch glimpses of an Enterprise drawing in Enterprise and both a model and a sculpture in The Next Generation.
While the end looms for CVN65, the name Enterprise will live on. The U.S. Navy announced in 2019 that CVN 80 will eventually set sail and it will be named U.S.S. Enterprise.