Word: nimitz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...project power, the Navy is wedded to battle groups centered on giant aircraft carriers, preferably nuclear propelled. The Administration wants to expand the number of major carriers from 13 now to 15 by 1992. Allowing for replacement of carriers scheduled to retire, that would require starting three new Nimitz-class (93,400 ton) carriers in the next three years...
Official inquiries into the cause of the crash could take as long as six months, and the investigators will lack some evidence in their search for explanations: hours after the accident, the EA-6B and the two unsalvageable F-14s were pushed overboard. Captain John Batzler, the Nimitz's commanding officer, was authorized to jettison the three irreparable aircraft by Vice Admiral George E.R. Kinnear, Commander of Naval Air Forces Atlantic, who flew to the Nimitz hours after the crash. The wrecked fighters still carried their loads of unexploded missiles and ammunition, which posed a danger to ship...
Although the sunken Prowler is irretrievable, there is a record of its crash: every landing on the Nimitz is videotaped. The responsibility for the accident may finally fall on the pilot. Did White do something wrong? Probably, in Batzler's opinion, though he cautions: "We're not certain." From his perspective on the bridge, the approaching Prowler looked "not in the right position" for a landing, yet "there was no early indication he should have been waved off." There are signs that the plane's crew tried to escape during their fatal career down the flight deck...
...crashed plane could have been an A-6 Intruder loaded with heavy ordnance. The ship's enormous elevator portal could have been open, making the ship's lower levels and hundreds more men vulnerable to the fireballs from above. As it turned out, the Nimitz, which cost $2 billion to buiid, sustained only superficial damage. The nuclear reactor -housed several steel-reinforced levels below-was never at risk...
...Thursday the Nimitz steamed into Norfolk, its home port. At the pier the crew was met by a throng of kin and well-wishers. By Saturday the carrier, checked and scrubbed, was back on regular duty; its Caribbean training cruise had been delayed just three days...