Nimitz departs Bremerton for its next global deployment
BREMERTON — With the Thanksgiving leftovers barely consumed, 2,500 sailors headed out of Sinclair Inlet on the USS Nimitz on Monday morning for a months-long global deployment that begins just as the holiday season ramps up.
Home just in time from its last training run to see kids don Halloween costumes, sailors who said farewell to loved ones this weekend will return in several months. The Navy declined to specify what global areas of operation the ship and its strike group will visit or how long it will be gone.
"The sailors assigned to Carrier Strike Group 11 are manned, trained and certified to deliver combat-ready naval forces to deter, and if necessary, win conflicts through sustained and forward naval presence,” Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney, commander of Nimitz's Carrier Strike Group 11, said in a statement to the Kitsap Sun on Saturday. “We are prepared to operate as an integrated force to protect the American people and our interests in the most effective and efficient way possible.”
With Christmas and the new year holiday around the corner, the warship's Afloat Recreational Specialist, known as the “Fun Boss,” plans a number of events to increase holiday cheer. Activities include a special meal, opportunities to call family and friends, a door decoration contest and more, according to USS Nimitz Public Affairs Officer Lt. Cmdr. Adam Demeter.
The beginning of the deployment also falls in the centennial year of the Navy's aircraft carriers. The history begins with the collier USS Jupiter being converted to the Navy's first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, which was commissioned on March 20, 1922. The USS Nimitz was commissioned in 1975 and is the oldest active carrier in service and the namesake for all other Nimitz-class carriers in the fleet. The Nimitz is set to be decommissioned in 2026, though it is possible that the warship's time could be extended.
The Nimitz returned from a historic deployment in March 2021. It was gone for 11 months, departing as the COVID-19 pandemic was in its first stages of raging around the world. Sailors boarded the carrier weeks before they departed to create a COVID-19 bubble. The first aircraft carrier strike group to deploy during the pandemic did not have a single case of COVID-19 at sea after other vessels were hamstrung by the virus.
Between then and now, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard workers and the crew put more than 330,000 collective man-days into restoring the warship, including cleaning and inspecting around 60,000 tubes on the carrier's main engines and turbine generators' condensers, as well as completing laser alignment work on the ship's aircraft launching catapults.
Since exiting the shipyard over a year ago, the Nimitz has been underway for several training missions. In November 2021, it returned to sea but headed back three days later after its propulsion plant was found to require emergency repairs. After the repairs were completed in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Nimitz in February and March conducted intense training off the coast of San Diego. From September to October, Nimitz completed the high-intensity, scenario-based training Composite Training Unit Exercise, or COMPTUEX, a final step to ensure it was ready. The training came after being briefly deterred by jet fuel that permeated the water supply aboard the warship as it was operating off the coast of Southern California, which the Navy reported sickened five.
Trained to respond to the entire spectrum of military operations, from combat missions to humanitarian assistance or disaster relief missions, the Nimitz Strike Group is composed of USS Nimitz; San Diego-based cruiser USS Bunker Hill, destroyers USS Decatur, USS Paul Hamilton and USS Shoup; Pearl Harbor-based destroyers USS Chung Hoon and USS Wayne E Meyer; and the squadrons and staff of Lemoore, California-based Carrier Air Wing 17; and the staff of Everett-based Destroyer Squadron 9.
The squadrons that make up Carrier Air Wing 17 are the “Fighting Redcocks” of Strike Fighter Squadron 22, which fly the F/A-18F Super Hornet; “Mighty Shrikes” of Strike Fighter Squadron 94, which fly the F/A-18E Super Hornet; “Kestrels” of Strike Fighter Squadron 137, which fly the F/A-18E Super Hornet; “Blue Diamonds” of Strike Fighter Squadron 146, which fly F/A-18 Super Hornets; “Cougars” of Electronic Attack Squadron 139, which fly EA-18G Growlers; “Sun Kings” of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 116, which fly E-2C Hawkeyes; “Battlecats” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 73, which fly MH-60R Seahawks; the “Screamin’ Indians” of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 6; and “Providers” of Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30, according to Demeter.
“The ability for Nimitz to quickly and effectively respond to the entire spectrum of military operations is unparalleled,” said USS Nimitz commanding officer Capt. Craig Sicola. “I’m extremely proud of the men and women assigned to this ship and their commitment to the mission and our nation.”
This story has been changed since it was first published to correct the number of sailors aboard.
Kitsap Sun archives were used in this report.
Reporter Peiyu Lin covers the military and South Kitsap for the Kitsap Sun. She can be reached at 360-233-6645, pei-yu.lin@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter @peiyulintw.
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This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Nimitz departs Bremerton for its next global deployment
