Retirement
On 1 December 2005, the United States Navy announced that George Washington would replace Kitty Hawk in 2008 as the forward-deployed carrier in Japan and it would also assume host carrier duties for forward deployed Carrier Air Wing 5.
In March 2007, the Navy announced that Captain Todd Zecchin, the captain responsible during the decommissioning of John F. Kennedy, had been tasked with overseeing the decommissioning of Kitty Hawk.
Kitty Hawk left Yokosuka on 28 May 2008 to begin the decommissioning process. However on 22 May, a fire seriously damaged George Washington, causing the ship to go to San Diego for repairs. Kitty Hawk participated in the RIMPAC exercise near Hawaii in George Washington's place. The turnover between the two carriers was postponed and took place in August. After the turnover, Kitty Hawk arrived at Bremerton, Washington in September and was informally retired on 31 January 2009. Kitty Hawk was finally decommissioned on 12 May 2009.
Read more about this topic: USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63)
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—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)