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‘We still have a little fight left’

Aboard the USS John F. Kennedy —The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy didn’t look like a ship about to be decommissioned as it left Norfolk, Va., on Sunday.

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And that’s just the way the crew wanted it.

Pulling away from the pier and heading out of Hampton Roads into open water, one “Big John” crew member was happy to have quieted the rumor mill.

“We heard the waterfront rumors, and many here expected us to limp in, leaking fluids and looking like a garbage scow,” said the longtime Kennedy crew member, who asked to remain anonymous. “I guess we showed them because none of that happened — there were three carriers in port and we looked better than all of them — we still have a little fight left in us.”

Even Capt. Todd Zecchin, the ship’s commanding officer, sounded proud when he spoke to the crew during the evening meal, lauding them for their good showing. The ship even got underway a few minutes early.

This was JFK’s last visit to Norfolk, the ship’s first home port. It stopped there as part of a farewell tour that will include a March 1 port call Boston. It will be the ship’s eighth visit to its namesake’s hometown.

“I’ve been onboard here for 11 months, and this is the first real deployment I’ve ever been on,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Aircraft Handling) Ashley Clemmer of V-3 division. “I’m really looking forward to a real port visit, I hear Boston is very nice.”

Clemmer and her shipmate, Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Aircraft Handling) Jason Bevan, were working hard cleaning out padeyes in the ship’s hanger bay. The hangar bay will be the focal point for the thousands of visitors expected to tour the ship during the four days it’ll be tied up in Boston.

“We are expecting thousands of visitors each day, maybe as many as a million during our visit,” he said. “That sure will be something to see.”

All over the hanger bay, new murals have been painted, including likenesses of the ship as well as famous quotations from its namesake, President Kennedy.

Back in the jet shop, all the way aft in the hanger bay, more painting was going on as Aviation Machinist’s Mate (AW/SW) Freddie Rivera was airbrushing new decor on one of the ship’s flight deck tractors.

“It’s a tribute to the people and the city of Boston,” Rivera said of his handiwork, which included a leprechaun dressed up as a Boston Celtics basketball player and a bearded baseball fan at Fenway Park, all wrapped around the Kennedy’s logo. The ship’s accomplishments on its last cruise in 2004, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the battle for Fallujah in Iraq, were also included in the artwork.

“We want to show the people of Boston we appreciate them and are thankful for their support of our ship,” Rivera said.