Enterprise (Not That One) Embarks On Final Voyage

It’s the final voyage for the Enterprise… the USS Enterprise CVN-65, that is. According to the Associated Press news service, Enterprise, nicknamed the “Big E,” is about to leave for the Middle East to begin a seven-month deployment that will also represent the 22nd – and final – deployment of the Navy’s first-ever nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The ship will return to Virginia in the fall and will be officially deactivated on December 1.

By the time the world bids farewell to the Enterprise, it will have been in operation for 51 years. Among its most memorable moments: it saw action in several wars; served as a spotter ship for John Glenn’s Project Mercury space capsule in 1962 after Glenn made the first American orbital spaceflight; supported the U.S. blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis; and scenes for the blockbuster Tom Cruise film Top Gun were shot aboard the ship.

George Takei visited the Enterprise one day in 1983 and, ironically, on that day it ran aground on a sandbar in the San Francisco Bay. And on March 18, 2003, several Enterprise Sailors of the Year visited the set of Star Trek: Enterprise on the Paramount Pictures lot in Los Angeles and presented Enterprise stars Scott Bakula and Connor Trinneer, as well as director and former TNG star LeVar Burton, with a flag flown aboard the Enterprise.

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