Retirement
After 41 years of commissioned service, the USS Constellation was decommissioned at the Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on 7 August 2003. The ship was towed, beginning 12 September 2003, to the ghost fleet at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Bremerton, Washington. On 2 December 2003, the ship was stricken (formally removed from the Naval Vessel Register) when Admiral Vern Clark decided against expenditure of maintenance costs. Constellation is currently in Reserve Category X, meaning it receives no maintenance or preservation, and only security against fire, flooding, and pilferage is provided. Reserve Category X applies to ships that have been stricken and are awaiting disposal by scrap, sale to foreign countries, as a designated target in a live fire exercise, memorial, or donation, as applicable.
As of February 2008, Constellation is scheduled to be disposed of by dismantling in the next five years, along with USS Independence.
As of 26 January 2012 the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command posted a notice of solicitation for the towing and complete dismantlement of multiple CV-59/CV-63 Class Aircraft Carriers in the United States, to include ex-Forrestal (CV-59), ex-Independence (CV-62), and ex-Constellation (CV-64).
The Constellation will probably be scrapped at Brownsville, Texas.
Read more about this topic: USS Constellation (CV-64)
Famous quotes containing the word retirement:
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—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)
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—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)