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J.F. Kelly, Jr. - Contributor

J.F. Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive who writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident of Coronado, California. [go to Kelly index]

The Reagan Comes Home
USS Ronald Reagan arrives in San Diego...
[J. F. Kelly, Jr.] 8/4/04

It was by far the most emotional ship homecoming that I have witnessed and I’ve seen a few. Spectators lined the bay front and other vantage points to see the great ship arrive at its new homeport. Over five thousand more with prized personal invitations assembled on the pier at North Island hours in advance to greet the giant aircraft carrier as tugs nudged her gently into her berth at the carrier piers. USS Ronald Reagan had arrived home.

A Who’s Who lineup of dignitaries including most of San Diego’s congressional delegation and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz were on hand to pay tribute to the Navy’s newest ship, its namesake, one of the most popular presidents in history, and his widow and the ship’s sponsor, Nancy Reagan. Ms. Reagan, who won the hearts of all Americans with her strength, dignity and courage throughout her husband’s long battle with the devastating disease that took his memory and finally his life, was the guest of honor and recipient of several standing ovations.

But it was the ship that was the star of the show. Fittingly named for the president who reversed the decline in armed forces strength and sought to build a 600-ship Navy, the ship is a tribute to his determination to achieve peace through strength. The 97,000-ton, 1092-foot, nuclear powered aircraft carrier is the ninth Nimitz-class ship to join the fleet. Her two nuclear reactors powering four geared steam turbines will propel the ship at speeds well in excess of thirty knots.

Her arrival temporarily boosts the number of aircraft carriers to thirteen but not for long. Enterprise (CVN 65), the first nuclear-powered carrier is scheduled to retire in 2014 after 53 years of service. The final ship of the Nimitz class, USS George H. W. Bush (CVN 77), will join the fleet in 2008, replacing USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), leaving USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) as the sole remaining conventionally powered carrier. Kennedy is scheduled for retirement in 2018.

With a fifty-year-plus life span and unlimited cruising radius, the nuclear aircraft carrier has provided immeasurable value for each dollar spent. Aircraft carriers have given our Navy a sophisticated, durable, powerful, flexible and mobile weapons platform unrivaled by the smaller, less capable and fewer carriers of other navies. They have given every U.S. president since Franklin Roosevelt options that no other chief of state could call upon in almost every conceivable sort of crisis. In spite of critics who complain about their cost and supposed vulnerability, they have provided the weapon of choice to a dozen U.S. presidents, every one of whom had occasion to ask in time of crisis: “Where is the nearest carrier? How soon can it be there?”

The 600-ship Navy that Ronald Reagan envisioned never quite materialized. The end of the Cold War, one of Reagan’s many achievements, resulted in the scaling down in size of the Navy. Unfortunately, that scaling down has passed the point of good reason and is driven more by budgetary constraints than by requirements. The 300-ship Navy once considered necessary to support twelve carrier battle groups and a like number of amphibious ready groups has shrunk to 293 ships. Even that number cannot be sustained at the current new shipbuilding rate. Indeed, the twelve-carrier force level may be at risk. The first of the next generation carrier class, CVN 21, is not scheduled to start construction until 2007 and much can happen before then.

At its current level, the fleet is the smallest since the Great Depression. Our ships are immensely capable, of course, but they can be in only one place at a time. Multiple commitments have increased the tempo of operations and the dwindling number of ships has necessitated rotating crews on deployed destroyers to save transit times.

Critics still question the future of the aircraft carrier with the same old arguments, cost and vulnerability, but the critics are still wrong. These ships will last for over half a century, refueling only once in their lifespan. As for vulnerability, we haven’t lost a carrier since WW II and they are certainly less vulnerable than fixed airfields and considerably more mobile. This mobility allows the commander-in-chief to project power to any corner of the globe and to remain there for as long as necessary. Each carrier provides four and a half acres of sovereignty and 97,000 tons of diplomacy. They will remain the backbone of the fleet and vital to America’s control of the seas for the foreseeable future.CRO

copyright 2004 J. F. Kelly, Jr.

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