The end of the Kitty Hawk has arrived, 30 years after visiting Mar del Plata «Diario La Capital de Mar del Plata

The US Navy Kitty Hawk, this historic aircraft carrier which anchored for four days off Cabo Corrientes in 1991 and whose presence altered a surprised Mar del Plata, was sold for 1 cent to be turned into scrap metal by a company.

The fate of the iconic US Navy ship will be a heist in Brownsville, Texas, where International Shipbreaking Limited has its main facilities despite the efforts veterans of the crew have made to avoid the breakage and offer it as a museum. .

The Kitty Hawk was an aircraft carrier that entered service in the early 1960s and operational during the Vietnam War, where it long served as a platform for air missions. However, with the advance of the American people’s opposition to the war, their crew began to change their minds. The Kitty Hawk was transformed into a symbol of internal resistance and even inside (it was a veritable floating city with over 4,000 “inhabitants”) an anti-war journal was published. Thus in 1972 a rebellion took place which left a toll of 50 wounded sailors and a mark on fire forever. The military commanders of the United States decided to move it to a port for repair and, in effect, they brought it out of the war.

Years later, he took an active part in the “Gulf War” between August 1990 and February 1991, and when he made the return trip to his American base in the Pacific, he was unable to pass through the canal. Panama. This is how he ended up navigating the waters of South America and using the town of Mar del Plata as a supply point and naval control.

One of the last stills in navigation of the Kitty Hawk.

Hundreds of Marines landed in a town that was shocked by this unusual visit and although there was a lot of rejection, the people of Mar del Plata were curious and welcoming. The Marines populated the center and even carried out solidarity activities, such as painting or doing repairs in schools, which worked towards sympathy. A basketball team also faced Quilmes led by Oscar “Huevo” Sánchez.

After leaving Mar del Plata, the imposing Kitty Hawk continued to operate until 2009 when it was decommissioned.

Moored at Kitsap-Bremerton Naval Station alongside other ships, the aircraft carrier has remained on the dormant ship program with its unmovable scrapping future. In 2017, the USS Kitty Hawk Veterans Association gathered in Nashville in late October to hear the worst news: Despite years of effort and fundraising, the Navy was not going to accept it as a museum. Disposal was a matter of time.

It was only on March 9 that he was taken to a dry dock to scrape his hull, that is to say the work to remove all the organic remains (algae or crustaceans) attached for so many years tied up .

In the last hours, the accepted offer of the Navy arrived and made by the company in charge of the demolition: 1 centime. And there ended the Kitty Hawk, one of the most decorated aircraft carriers in US military history, the last of those powered by oil and the one that in the spring of 1991 entered forever. in the collective memory of Mar del Plata.