Burke, CNO, hailed Kitty Hawk as the "forerunner of a new and greatly improved line of carriers." : During her commissioning, ADM Arleigh A. McElroy, wife of Secretary of Defense Neil H. The first Kitty Hawk (ex- Seatrain New York), an aircraft transport (APV-1) (later aircraft supply ship AKV-1) (1941-1946), operated in the Pacific theater during World War II, playing a key logistics role in the timely buildup of defenses at Midway and Guadalcanal in 1942.īuilt by: New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N.J. Visit Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Named for: Kitty Hawk, N.C., and for Kill Devil Hill, the site approximately four miles south of the village of Kitty Hawk, where Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful sustained powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine on 17 December 1903. (c)2022 The Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, Texas) “There are lot of people here that served on a lot of different ships, but a lot of the Kitty Hawk guys are here, and we’re real proud of all of them,” he said. Robert Berry, vice president of ISL and an Air Force veteran whose son is about to retire from the Navy after three decades, acknowledged the aura of excitement around Tuesday’s proceedings.
I’m glad I’m still alive to see this day.”Ĭapt. “It’s been a remarkable day,” Woodall said. He admitted it was an emotionally charged day for him and said he’d met two other veterans with whom he’d crewed the flight deck. Woodall said he saw a lot of the world during those two tours, including the Philippines and, on two occasions, Hong Kong for rest and relaxation. It’s hard to believe that I can still hear.” “The planes come across onto the catapult, a jet blast deflector comes up behind them, and a lot of times you stood right under that jet blast deflector (during takeoff). “The cat crew would come and hook it up and then your job is done,” he said. Woodall also worked on the flight deck, as a plane director or “yellow shirt.” Part of the job involved pulling A-4 Skyhawks onto the catapult, since the A-4s lacked steerable nose wheels to maneuver themselves, he said. “This is just a great day, one I certainly never expected,” he said. Woodall expressed amazement that his new home turned out to be the final destination of the ship he served on more than a half century ago. After leaving the Navy, Woodall spent decades in the Pacific Northwest before moving to the Rio Grande Valley seven years ago. He served on the Kitty Hawk from December 1966 to October 1968 for two tours during Vietnam. Neal Woodall, raised in Richardson, Texas, now lives with his wife, Alice, in Brownsville. “I was able to be part of a group of people that I loved and to this day I try to keep in touch.”ĭuring the ceremony he ran into a friend and former shipmate he hadn’t seen in 28 years, he said. “It’s emotional because that’s the ship there that made me who I am,” Montelongo said.
Montelongo, a Brownsville resident who served on the Kitty Hawk from May 1990 to May 1994 in the Air Department, which handled catapult and arresting gear for the carrier’s aircraft. The Brownsville Herald asked a handful of veterans present their thoughts on bidding the ship a final farewell. Others set up chairs and umbrellas or took advantage of scant shade along the Isla Blanca Park roadside leading to Dolphin Cove farther inland. Hundreds of veterans and their families and curious spectators lined the north jetty.
Several veterans took turns at the podium recalling their time aboard the Kitty Hawk, and many contributed their signatures to a Kitty Hawk memorial flag. “The county has done a heck of a job,” said ISL Vice President Robert Berry of the new facility.
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