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First JFK sailors to help weigh last anchor

Onboard the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy — Most of the eyes aboard the soon-to-be-decommissioned aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy are looking towards Boston and a few days of liberty.

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But some crewmembers are focused a little farther in the future — to March 23 and beyond. That’s when the ship will cease to be an operational Navy command and will be buttoned up as fast as possible.

“Approximately 10 to 15 percent of the ship has already been closed out,” said Capt. Todd Zecchin, the ship’s commanding officer. “Those are spaces that have been inspected and properly prepared for preservation.”

And to that end, crews are working the ship from bow to stern, inspecting unneeded spaces and making lists of what must be done to close them out.

“Essentially, we have to restore the ship to the condition the Navy received it — brand spanking new and fresh out of the box,” said Mass Communications Specialist 1st Class (SW) Nick De La Cruz.

To properly close out a space, nothing can be out of order — all lagging on the pipes must be repaired, no rust can be on the walls — all so the Navy can to bring the ship back to life at a moment’s notice, if needed.

At the same time, extraneous materials must be taken off the ship; anything that’s not bolted down will be removed. Hazardous materials must be removed and holes in bulkheads patched and painted. Sailors will even remove the batteries from the battle lanterns.

This head start on the formal decommissioning work — scheduled to kick into high gear once the ship returns to Mayport — has unfortunately spoiled the trip down memory lane for five plank owners embarked for this trip. Plank owners are members of a ship’s first crew.

“We tried to find our old berthing area, but it had already been closed out,” lamented Tom Walsh, a Kennedy plank owner and college professor in Boston. “That part of our lives no longer exists.”

Still, that isn’t preventing the old salts from enjoying being onboard the ship they helped put into service 38 years ago.

“I’m absolutely having a ball,” Walsh said. “Coming back here has been a once in a lifetime experience.”

Walsh thought he’d be the only former radarman — a rating that became operations specialist in the 1970s. — to ride the ship from Norfolk to Boston as part of its last hurrah.

But shortly after coming onboard, Walsh ran into his former work center supervisor, Jack Devlin, a retired senior chief operations specialist. Devlin was a first class radarman when Kennedy first put to sea.

“I’ll have to say the highlight so far of this trip was simply reuniting with Tom, who I have not seen in 32 years,” Devlin said. “I had no idea he would be on board and just catching up with him after all these years has been incredible.”

The two former JFK sailors made the trek to ship’s combat direction center to see their old work spaces, which are still active, if markedly different.

“It’s all turned around and full of new equipment, but one thing that bothers me about the new configuration is that the status boards now face aft,” Devlin said. “We always had them facing forward. That way you always knew at a glance which way was forward on the ship — you didn’t have to think.”

Both men said the finality of the Kennedy’s fate has yet to sink in.

“It really hasn’t hit me yet,” said Walsh, who plans to make the trek with Devlin to Mayport, Fla. for the March 23 decommissioning ceremony.

“For me, that moment will probably come when I watch the ship leave Boston for the last time.”

Devlin, who is also a Boston resident, said it will not hit him until the decommissioning ceremony. While his commissioning-day memories are “just a simply a blurr,” he expects long-lost memories will come flooding back when he’s in Mayport.

“By the end of it all I’ll be a blubbering idiot,” he said.

Video:

The JFK in Boston

Video:

A reporter’s daily reports from the ship’s final cruise.

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