USS JOHN F. KENNEDY

 (CV 67) was named for the 35th President of the Uni
ted States. The ship's keel was laid October 22, 1964, at the Newport
News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Virginia. President Kennedy's
nine-year-old daughter, Caroline christened the ship in May 1967 in
ceremonies held at Newport News, Virginia; the ship subsequently
entered naval service on September 7, 1968. KENNEDY was originally
designed as a CVA-67, attack aircraft carrier. In the early 1970's,
the classification was changed to CV-67, indicating the ship was
capable of supporting anti-submarine warfare aircraft, making it an
all-purpose, multi-mission aircraft carrier.KENNEDY spent the winter
of 1984 in drydock at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for complex overhaul.
KENNEDY departed Norfolk, Virginia, for her 12th major deployment to
the Mediterranean in August 1988. On January 4, 1989, while
conducting routine operations in international waters, F-14s from the
embarked air wing shot down two Libyan MIG-23s that were approaching
the battle group in a hostile manner. In the spring of 1989, the ship
entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard for a short industrial period. On January
16, 1991, aircraft from the ship's Carrier Air Wing THREE began
Operation Desert Storm with attacks on Iraqi forces. The ship launched
114 strikes and 2,895 sorties, with the aircrews of CVW-3 flying
11,263 combat hours and delivering more than 3.5 million pounds of
ordnance in the conflict. After the cease fire, KENNEDY transited the
Suez Canal for the fourth time in seven months and began her journey
home. KENNEDY arrived in its homeport of Norfolk on March 28, 1991, to
enter a four-month shipyard restricted availability at Norfolk Naval
Shipyard. The ship departed the shipyard at the end of September with
extensive repairs and maintenance accomplished on engineering systems,
flight deck systems and equipment. The 1991 Defense Base Closure and
Realignment Commission recommended that the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
[PNSY] be closed but acknowledged that PNSY would perform the Service Life
Extension Program for the USS. Kennedy from September 1993 until mid-1996.
The work on the USS. Kennedy subsequently changed to a 24-month complex
overhaul, which Congress required to be performed by PNSY. The Secretary
of Defense concurred in this plan in September 1991. KENNEDY completed a
two-year comprehensive overhaul in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on
September 13, 1995. Following the overhaul, KENNEDY moved to its new
homeport at the Mayport Naval Staion in Mayport, Florida.

Kennedy returned home October 28, 1997 after six months of deployment
in the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea in support of Operation
Deliberate Guard, and the Arabian Gulf supporting Operation Southern
Watch. As the sole conventionally powered aircraft carrier in the
Atlantic Fleet, JFK deployed with the most advanced command, control,
communications, computers and information systems (C4I) in the Navy.