.

SAN DIEGO (Aug. 28, 2008) The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) heads to the open ocean for the last time as it heads for Bremerton Washington. Kitty Hawk is scheduled for decommissioning in early 2009. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Don Bray)

.

It looks like the Kitty Hawk is making the trip under her own steam. I’ll never forget the USS Ranger on her trip to Bremerton. She had been left in Long Beach harbor for a couple of years, I think, during which time Hollywood used her for several movies, including some scenes in Top Gun. That left her unable to sail, so they towed her out of Long Beach.

.

I was flying banner tow planes on the weekends in Los Angeles at the time. They were Cessna 150s with 180 horse Lycoming engines and STOL kits, and would land or take off from anywhere. There was a good wind out of the north west the day they towed the Ranger, and as she came out of the harbor and headed north west a couple of miles off shore, I came down the beach towing a banner.

.

Wow, what a sight, a whole aircraft carrier, heading right into the wind, and me in a STOL airplane. I flew off the beach and out past the ship. I seriously considered dumping that banner and shooting a touch and go, or even landing there for awhile, just to say I was the last to do it. They had a couple of containers in the center of the deck, no doubt to discourage such things. But with her heading into that wind, there was still plenty of deck left, and room around the edges. If I hadn’t had that banner, I might have done it.