Shatner to attend USS Enterprise retirement event

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Shatner to attend USS Enterprise retirement event | ksl.com


NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Captain James T. Kirk will be on hand when the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise is officially retired.

A publicist for William Shatner tells the Daily Press ( William Shatner to attend USS Enterprise inactivation ceremony Saturday - dailypress.com) that the actor will attend the ship's inactivation ceremony Saturday at Naval Station Norfolk. Shatner is scheduled to perform Friday in Newport News.

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For the Big E, it was the beginning of the end. On March 11, 2012, USS Enterprise (CVN-65)—the world’s first nuclear aircraft carrier and the oldest active combat ship in the U.S. Navy—left Norfolk on her final deployment. She was embarking upon the end of a 51-year career, a seagoing record unmatched by any warship in American history and seldom approached elsewhere.

The Big E’s skipper is Captain William C. “Boomer” Hamilton Jr., a tall, well-spoken Alabaman who acquired his call sign after a “sonic event” when he flew F/A-18 Hornets. Hamilton assumed command in August 2011, shortly after the ship returned from an Arabian Sea deployment. That cruise was to have been the Big E’s swan song prior to decommissioning.

But it wasn’t. National defense requirements intervened, and Boomer Hamilton and company found themselves performing an encore in “the no-kidding last cruise.”

Hamilton is the carrier’s twenty-third captain. He speaks in a rich baritone that could get him a second career in broadcasting. A Top Gun graduate, landing signal officer, and test pilot, he deployed in four other carriers during his 30-year career.

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