Decades-old USS Nimitz departed Washington waters for final time last weekend

A more than 50-year-old aircraft carrier for the Navy, the USS Nimitz, left Washington’s waters for the last time this month as the Navy plans to retire the vessel.

The aircraft carrier left for Norfolk, Virginia last Saturday and is scheduled to be decommissioned in May, according to KIRO 7.

USS Nimitz is the Navy’s oldest aircraft carrier and the first of its kind. The USS Nimitz was commissioned in 1975 and has been homeported in Bremerton since 2015.

Bremerton could potentially have a new aircraft carrier stationed at the base in 2029.

USS Nimitz served in Iran hostage crisis, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom

After being commissioned in 1975, Nimitz’s first deployment began on July 7, 1976, departing from Norfolk toward the Mediterranean, according to the U.S. Navy.

The aircraft carrier was later dispatched to the Indian Ocean in 1979 as tensions rose from Iran taking 52 U.S. hostages. Four months later, Operation Evening Light was launched from the USS Nimitz in an attempt to rescue the hostages.

The rescue mission had to be aborted in the Iranian desert when the number of operational helicopters fell below the minimum required to complete the mission.

Years later, Nimitz departed from Bremerton on February 25, 1991 for the Arabian Gulf, in an effort to relieve USS Ranger during Operation Desert Storm.

In 2012, Nimitz arrived at its then-new homeport in Everett and deployed a year later in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The USS Nimitz was part of naval aviation history when the Navy’s fifth-generation Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35 Lightning, made its first carrier landing at sea.

The USS Nimitz once again departed Bremerton for deployment in 2022, where it sailed more than 65,000 nautical miles. During this deployment, the Nimitz logged its 350,000th arrested aircraft landing, which is the most of any aircraft carrier.

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