Farewell to a proud warrior

They call the ship "Big John."

The USS John F. Kennedy, the aircraft carrier famously named for the nation's 35th president, launched fighters that shot down two threatening Libyan MiGs over the Mediterranean Sea in 1989. It helped start Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and was among the first warships to respond to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, targeting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. After nearly 40 years of service in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, the majestic steel ship is being decommissioned after making one last port call this week in Massachusetts, native state of its namesake.

Along with members of the Kennedy family, other dignitaries, and former sailors, tens of thousands of residents are expected to take a final tour of the 1,052-foot-long carrier, which will dock at the North Jetty in South Boston's Marine Industrial Park from Thursday through Sunday. The public is invited on board over the weekend. On the vessel's last visit to Boston, for two days in May 2005, about 60,000 people lined up as early as 2 a.m. in queues that grew to a half-mile long.

"I am very pleased that it will have this final opportunity to visit Boston, a city that my father loved so very much," said Caroline Kennedy, who is scheduled to arrive for the festivities with US Senator Edward M. Kennedy on Friday, when as many 300 people, including some current sailors, will take the oath of citizenship on board. "The ship was a great tribute to my father's legacy and a brilliant reflection of his public service."

Senator Kennedy agreed, saying it is fitting that the carrier's final port of call is in Boston.

"She'll always hold a special place in the hearts of our family," the senator said of the ship in a statement, "and I know my brother would be very proud of the skill and courage and dedication of the sailors who have served on her so well on so many major occasions over the years."

After leaving Boston next Monday, the ship is to be officially decommissioned on March 23 and mothballed in Mayport, Fla., its home port. The Navy is retiring the carrier because, unlike other modernized aircraft carriers that run on nuclear power, the USS John F. Kennedy runs on oil. Lieutenant Paul Brawley, a Navy spokesman based in Boston, said the Navy would save $85 million annually by decommissioning the ship.

For original crew members, saying goodbye is bittersweet.

Jim Prior , 76, of Arlington, who was a supply store keeper on the ship until he retired in 1969, said he hopes it will one day become a floating museum, though no one has stepped forward with the millions of dollars that would be needed.

"You put a lot of work into a ship when you see it go into commission," he said. "But to turn around and see it go out of commission, it is a heartbreaker. But it is 39 years old, and it's run out of steam, just like us, I guess."

Another original crew member, Jack Devlin , 63, of North Andover, packed his bags Saturday for Norfolk, Va., where he plans to board the ship today for its journey to Boston.

"We brought her to life," said the former radar operator, who served on the ship from 1968 to 1970, watching out for hostile aircraft above and enemy submarines below.

"We really put the heartbeat in that ship," Devlin said, recalling the day in 1968 when he was the sixth man to board the warship. "The thing is, if you set the standard, the new guys who become the old guys, they pick up this heartbeat. And if it is a good and solid heartbeat, you have a good, solid ship and crew forever."

The 82,000-ton ship, which is wider than two football fields and as tall from keel to mast as a 23-story building, was a neighborhood of about 5,000 men, complete with dentist and doctor's offices, a movie theater, and a daily newspaper.

In May 1967, 3 1/2 years after President Kennedy was assassinated, Caroline, then 9, christened the ship in her father's name in ceremonies held at Newport News, Va. The USS John F. Kennedy was formally commissioned and entered into naval service in September 1968.

Stepping on board for the first time was a thrill for him and every other crewmember from Massachusetts still grappling with the assassination, said Prior.

"It fascinated me," he recalled. "It was a beautiful ship. It was your home. I looked at this . . . it was monstrous. I thought to myself, 'What makes this thing float?' "

He also remembered the day he drove a Navy admiral to a ceremony on the ship, and he met Jacqueline Kennedy, JFK's widow. "When she stepped out of the car there were a lot of us standing there and she came over and introduced herself to us," said Prior.

Home to tens of thousands of servicemen over the course of its life, the ship was revered across the country, said former crewmen.

Original crew member James Bearfield , 58, of Newton, who helped launch planes off the carrier's deck, said he looks forward to saying goodbye to Big John one last time.

"You had to be there; there is no more truth than that," Bearfield said, recalling the fears he had as a 19-year-old about being blown off the deck by an aircraft's exhaust. Or the time a buddy of his accidentally got hooked on a cable when a plane was landing, sending him skidding wildly down the platform.

"At 19 or 20 years old, you just paid attention and did your job," he said. "You didn't really think about the danger. You thought you were invincible."

Megan Tench can be reached at mtench@globe.com. David Abel of the Globe staff contributed to this report.