Japan Press Weekly

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2008 May 28 - June 3 [US FORCES]

U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk leaves Yokosuka to be replaced by N-powered carrier

The U.S. conventional aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk on May 28 left the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture almost 10 years after it was deployed there.

In August, the U.S. Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington will be deployed to Yokosuka.

Speaking at a ceremony at the naval base, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer said since its deployment to Japan in 1998, the Kitty Hawk has taken on three main missions: the “Southern Watch,” the “war on terrorism,” and the Iraq War. The Kitty Hawk was a "symbol" of the U.S.-Japanese alliance, he added.

However, in “Operation Southern Watch” in 1999, the carrier’s aircraft made more than 8,800 sorties in 116 days and dropped more than 20 tons of bombs, according to the carrier’s website.

In the retaliatory war that the United States waged in violation of international law, more than 600 flights were made over Afghanistan from the carrier, including over 100 operational sorties, according to the U.S. Seventh Fleet’s report.

In the Iraq War, the Kitty Hawk’s fighters on the Persian Gulf made 5,375 sorties and dropped about 392 tons of bombs, including cluster bombs.

Kitty Hawk Strike Group Commander Rear Adm. Richard Wren was assigned to command the George Washington Strike Group.

The deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers to Yokosuka started in 1973 with the promise that it will use Yokosuka Port as its homeport for just “a few years.” The promise has been broken for many years, and now a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will take the place of the last conventional carrier.