USS Kitty Hawk: strange but true facts about the Old Girl

[UMichfly]

Sorry A4's, looks like they forgot to put a paragraph about the oldest surviving Kitty Hawk alumnus. And on that note, I'll be standing by for my -111 rep. point stabbin' .

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55058

 

[A4sForever]

Strange ... but they don't say anything about the 38 empty liquor bottles rattling around in the overhead a/c ducting next to my O2-47-4L drinking establishment ...

 

[Catmando]

Strange ... but they don't say anything about the 38 empty liquor bottles rattling around in the overhead a/c ducting next to my O2-47-4L drinking establishment ...

Only 38? Short cruise, huh?

 

[fc2spyguy]

They missed the most prominent nickname that she has . . .

 

[HeloBubba]

They missed the most prominent nickname that she has . . .

My thought as well.

 

[2sr2worry]

And they didn't mention the "Connie is the Kitty, Kitty is the Connie" hull swap story.

 

[VetteMuscle427]

And they didn't mention the "Connie is the Kitty, Kitty is the Connie" hull swap story.

Go on....

 

[2sr2worry]

There was a persistent Navy urban legend that after the keels had been laid for Kitty Hawk and Constellation a swap was made during construction and that the "Kitty is actually the Connie" and vice versa. Connie did have a bad fire during construction that killed 50 workers and injured over 300, but I've never found any document that reflects a keel swap. But on my '87 Hawk deployment, I heard the story told several times. We did drag a bent shaft along on that deployment, so it was fun to chase your plate around the table in the wardroom when we were trying to do high speed runs.

 

[A4sForever]

There was a persistent Navy urban legend that after the keels had been laid for Kitty Hawk and Constellation a swap was made during construction....

I heard the same story, but there's no documentation that anyone could ever come up w/ regarding the "hull swap". Janes makes no mention of it and no one else could ever seem to provide "proof".

But the dead shipyard workers from the Connie were said to haunt the Kitty Hawk, looking for the place they were "suppose" to be working ... their ghosts were "confused & restless" as to which hull they were on ... at least, that's what "they" told us -- go figure.


Kitty Hawk & Connie (shot from the Hawk) @ MOMP:

 

[helmet91]

But on my '87 Hawk deployment, I heard the story told several times.

Did you know a Rick Smith? He was an A-7 pilot. I don't know any other details...

 

[MIDNJAC]

I heard this same story as a middie on cruise on the Kitty Hawk....to be honest, I think it was from the CO

There was a persistent Navy urban legend that after the keels had been laid for Kitty Hawk and Constellation a swap was made during construction and that the "Kitty is actually the Connie" and vice versa. Connie did have a bad fire during construction that killed 50 workers and injured over 300, but I've never found any document that reflects a keel swap. But on my '87 Hawk deployment, I heard the story told several times. We did drag a bent shaft along on that deployment, so it was fun to chase your plate around the table in the wardroom when we were trying to do high speed runs.

 

[Pap]

"The ship does have an escalator, which serves as a very long staircase, as it hasn’t run for many years."

WRONG!! It runs just fine. It just needs a bit of JO ingenuity.

 

[A4sForever]

"The ship does have an escalator, which serves as a very long staircase, as it hasn’t run for many years."

WRONG!! It runs just fine. It just needs a bit of JO ingenuity.

I agree -- every time we put 10-15 guys in full flight gear on it -- it went like a bat outta hell.

The only problem was, the only direction it went was DOWN !!!

 

[CommodoreMid]

Why do they have one in the first place?

 

[Pugs]

Why do they have one in the first place?

Lesson learned from WW-II when bombs through the flight deck wiped out entire ready rooms. So on some of the boats the Ready Rooms were below the hangar deck (Kitty is the only one left that way but Indy was that way when I was on her). So instead of trotting up four ladders in flight gear it made an escalator a good idea at the time.