Editorial: Farewell to a famed carrier

Saturday, March 24, 2007 | 7:02 a.m.

Nearly 40 years of service came to an end Friday for the USS John F. Kennedy, whose major deployments were to the Middle East, both during the Cold War and during the recent years of rising tensions.

The aircraft carrier's ceremonial decommissioning took place at the Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville, Fla., its home port since 1995. In writing about the ceremony, which featured gun salutes and sailors lining the decks, the Associated Press quoted Lt. Cmdr. Vince Webster, the ship's administrative officer :

"Happy that a lot of sailors on board will have closure so they can move on to their next career, but sad because this great warship will never be under way again," Webster said.

Indeed, the next time the USS Kennedy, once a symbol of U.S. power in the Middle East, moves in the water, it will be under tow, heading for the Philadelphia Naval Station for final decommissioning and storage.

It was on May 27, 1967, that the conventionally powered carrier named after President Kennedy was commissioned in Newport News, Va. Performing the honors with the champagne bottles were then-first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and daughter Caroline, then 9.

In the decades after , as Middle East tensions flared, the USS Kennedy was often prominently cited in news reports. In more recent years, the ship performed crucial missions in the Gulf War, in the U.S. attack on Afghanistan following 9/11 and in the Iraq war.

The ship's last mission, this month, was to pay a weekend call on Boston, for a sentimental visit to President Kennedy's home state. More than 51,000 people toured the ship before it headed out for its final call at Mayport.

The ship's motto was Date Nolite Rogare, meaning: Give, be unwilling to ask. It was inspired by Kennedy's famous inaugural address line: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

We believe the ship and its crews lived up to those words.