The Big E Is Finally Leaving the Yard That Built Her, This morning, the hulk of the former USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, was towed away from her pier at Newport News Shipbuilding for the last time. Her destination is Mobile, Alabama, where she will be taken apart.
Newport News is where Enterprise was born. Her keel was laid there in February 1958, and she was christened at the same yard in September 1960. More than six decades later, the shipyard that built her is now watching her leave for the final time.
She served for 51 years, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the War on Terror, and was the first carrier to respond after the September 11 attacks. Her final deployment ended on November 4, 2012, just two days short of 14 years ago…