If you've never been on an aircraft carrier, well, it's like never having been to New York City, San Francisco or Douglas. You just haven't lived.

As a youngster in high school I spent a day at sea on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. The USS Saratoga was stationed at Mayport Naval Station near Jacksonville, Florida, where we stayed as explorer scouts before boarding the carrier the next day.

Thus I came to appreciate Navy pilots long before I would meet and marry Sally whose father is a U.S. Navy Academy graduate and retired Captain and pilot in the U.S. Navy. Top Gun remains one of my all-time favorites.

A carrier is like a city. With its air wing aboard, a carrier has a crew of 5,000 sailors, pilots and airmen. It has an overall length of 1,052 feet, more than three football fields.

In 1995 the USS John F. Kennedy replaced the USS Saratoga at Mayport. Now the USS Kennedy is one of only two carriers that are not nuclear-powered, and the Navy is considering mothballing it, part of its plan to reduce the carrier force from 12 to 11.

As is to be expected, the greater Jacksonville area is hard at work trying to urge the President to not mothball the Kennedy, which has a $200 million annual economic effect on Jacksonville. And beyond just the Kennedy, it is feared that if the Kennedy is decommissioned, it might also result in the loss of its battle group from Mayport and the possible closure of the base.

(The Washington Post, 01-17-05.)