Tuck Froy

Quite a sight in Mobile Bay this morning…. That's the ex-USS Enterprise (CVN-65) — the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — arriving under tow after an 11-day trip from Newport News, Virginia. She has no engines running; she's a dead tow, led by the tug Ocean Sky at under 8 miles per hour. She's here for her final chapter. The Big E is headed to the MARS recycling yard on the Mobile River, where she'll be dismantled and recycled over the next few years — the first commercial dismantling of a nuclear supercarrier. Her eight reactors were defueled years ago; the reactor compartments are the biggest engineering challenge of the job. She served more than 50 years, from the Cuban Missile Crisis through Vietnam and the first strikes into Afghanistan after 9/11. And here's the poignant part: she's taking the same spot at the MARS yard that the SS United States just left on Monday — the Big U went out to become a reef, and the Big E has come in to be recycled. Two legends, passing in the night. Photo from Josh Stanley