West Sound
NEWS ABOUT KITSAP, JEFFERSON AND MASON COUNTIES
August 29, 1998
Giving up the Ship
Though the cruiser USS California still has plenty of life left,
the ship was deactivated on Friday.
By Lloyd A. Pritchett
Sun Staff

With its fresh paint, gleaming brass brightwork and sleek lines, the Bremerton-based guided-missile cruiser, USS California, looks as if it is ready for action on the high seas -- or an inspection by the president himself.

Instead, the ship nicknamed the "Golden Grizzly" was formally retired from the Navy in a moving shipboard ceremony attended by about 460 sailors and civilians Friday at Bremerton's Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

As the ship's flag was hauled down for the last time under a blue sky, an Army band played "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." Then members of the ship's crew, dressed in dazzling, white uniforms, filed off the ship, their medals jingling against their chests as they walked.

The ship's gun fired 24 thundering blasts into the morning air -- one for each year of the ship's service to the nation. A lone bugler played Taps from above the missile deck.

"We not only honor USS California but also a wonderful era of our naval history … as we say farewell to this ship," said Rear Adm. Alfred G. Harms Jr., commander of Carrier Group 3, during the ceremony.

The California, one of only two nuclear-powered cruisers left in the Navy, is young by Navy standards and has several years of potential service left. But Pentagon officials decided to deactivate the ship because it would cost too much to upgrade its weapons systems.

The ship's inactivation is one of the relentless series of Navy ship retirements that have cut the size of the fleet to its lowest levels since the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930's.

Not everyone accepted that decision with equanimity.

"My God, what's happening? I can't believe it," the ship's first commanding officer, retired Rear Adm. Floyd "Hoss" Miller, said during the shipboard ceremony. "She's the best ship the Navy ever had … I looked around and she's ready to go."

"This old gray hair now has got to say goodbye to … this wonderful capable ship that has served this great nation of ours."

The ceremony was attended by all but one of the ship's former commanding officers. Several of the original crew, known as 'plank owners," were there as well.

Also present were most of the current crew members. Capt. Steven K. Johnson, the California's current commanding officer, praised them for their ability to take pride in their ship even as it was being retired from service.

Plans called for the ship to head to California next month for a final farewell cruise to its namesake state. But the trip was canceled because of heightened security following last week's U.S. strike against terrorist targets.

Revised plans now call for the California to make one last weekend cruise through Puget Sound in a few weeks with members of the crew's families aboard.

Built during the Cold War to fight the Soviet navy, the California ultimately served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and sailed around the world twice.

Johnson said after the ceremony that the Golden Grizzly will be decommissioned and cut apart over the next few year. Its reactor compartment will be removed and barged to the Hanford nuclear reservation.

He said the size of the crew already is shrinking from its normal size of 480 sailors. Most of the non-engineering crew members will be gone by next February, he said, and the engineering department will be gone by mid-spring. The "last hardy souls" assigned to the ship will be gone by next summer, he said.

In his talk, Harms said the legacy of the California will live on through the sailors who made up its crew.

"I'm 100 percent certain that these wonderful sailors will carry the California legend with them wherever they go."


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