LANEY CHOUEST

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Offshore ship towing decommissioned aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy to breakers

The hulk of the decommissioned aircraft carrier 'John F. Kennedy (CV-67)' was towed down the Delaware River by the 'Laney Chouest' on Jan. 16, 2025, on its way from the Navy’s Philadelphia Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility to Brownsville, Texas for dismantling. Shortly before 9 a.m., tugs maneuvered the hulk down the Delaware River, and it was attached to the 'Laney Chouest' then. The carrier was decommissioned in 2007 at Mayport, Florida, and has been in Philadelphia ever since. At the carrier’s Mayport decommissioning ceremony, Adm. John Nathman, then Fleet Forces commander, hailed “Big John,” its nickname, as “an icon of American might and freedom.” The Navy sold the carrier to International Shipbreaking Limited/EMR Brownsville in 2021 for one cent. The work was expected to begin in late 2023, but was put on hold by the Navy until now. In 2023, Robert Berry, vice president of International Shipbreaking Ltd./EMR Brownsville, stated that the Navy “is taking a harder line on security with the JFK than he’s ever experienced in all his years of dealing with that branch of the military, and that this particular ship has more security surrounding it than the other carriers ISL has received in the past.” Report with photos: https://news.usni.org/2025/01/16/carrier-john-f-kennedy-leaves-philadelphia-for-final-voyage-to-texas-scrapyard