After half a century on the high seas, the oldest warship in the American fleet, the USS Enterprise, will return to port Sunday for the last time.From the Cuban Missile Crisis to the war in Afghanistan, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier has played a part in every conflict involving the United States since she was commissioned in 1961.
But when the massive vessel glides into the US naval base in Norfolk, Virginia on Sunday morning, with sailors in white uniforms standing on deck, it will mark the end of her 25th and final deployment after an eight month tour in the Mediterranean and the Gulf, the Navy said.
"Homecoming will no doubt be a bittersweet day," said Captain William Hamilton, the ship's commanding officer. "We are pleased to be returning to our families after a very successful deployment, but to know that it is the last time Enterprise will be underway through her own power makes our return very sentimental."
The ship will be formally retired at a ceremony on December 1 but the vessel known as the "Big E" already relinquished its ammunition and ordnance last week at sea, with helicopters ferrying more than 1,500 tonnes of missiles and bombs to cargo ships nearby.
With a length of 342 meters (1,123 feet), the Enterprise is the longest naval ship in the world, and has a displacement of nearly 95,000 tonnes. The floating base can accommodate 4,500 sailors and aviators, as well as 72 planes and helicopters.
With its distinctive design and four rudders instead of two, the supercarrier occupies a special place in American maritime history and is the eighth ship that bears the name. The first Enterprise was a British vessel captured during the American war of Independence.
The ship features in the 1986 hit film "Top Gun," as well as in "The Hunt for Red October," and served as inspiration for Captain Kirk's spaceship in the Star Trek television series.
On 20 February 1962, the Enterprise operated as a tracking station for the Project Mercury space capsule that saw astronaut John Glenn make the first American orbital spaceflight.
Later that year, the ship was ordered on its first military mission, taking part in a blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis that nearly triggered a nuclear conflagration.
Two years later, the carrier took a global tour in a show of US naval power and later saw action in the Vietnam war, culminating in the US evacuation out of Saigon in 1975.
In the 1980s, the Enterprise sailed in the Gulf in confrontations with Iran, while in the 1990s its aircraft helped impose no-fly zones on Iraq and Bosnia.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Navy turned to the supercarrier to launch bombing runs, first in Afghanistan and later in the Iraq war.
On its final deployment, the ship's warplanes carried out 8,000 sorties for the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, officers said.
With the Enterprise sailing into retirement and a new aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, not due to be completed until 2015, the US naval fleet will be reduced temporarily from 11 to ten carriers