(Tribune News Service) — The former USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) is later in getting to Brownsville for recycling than earlier anticipated.

Back in late October, Robert Berry, vice president of International Shipbreaking Ltd./EMR Brownsville, estimated that there was a 70-80% chance that the retired aircraft carrier would arrive here by mid-December, while conceding that delays were possible since complications can arise. The Navy awarded the contract to ISL in 2021 to dismantle the ship, the last conventionally powered carrier in the Navy’s fleet.

In fact, mid-December came and went with no JFK on the horizon. On Tuesday, Berry said he has no idea, even a vague one, of when the ship might arrive since the Navy is keeping a tight lid on that information for security reasons.

“I wish I did,” he said. “I really do. I have a few thousand people poking at me about it, and I just don’t have a date. Until the Navy puts out something and tells us something, I don’t have anything. ... Anything I say is probably going to be wrong. By contract I can’t say that much anyway. I really thought we were going to see it in December, but it didn’t happen.”

Berry said 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.

“The first one we did, the Constellation (arrived January 2015), they did require a security clearance, but the rest of them haven’t,” he said.

ISL has also dismantled the former USS Ranger (CV-61), which arrived here in July 2015, and the former USS Independence (CV-62), which came in June 2017. ISL received the former USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) in June 2022 and is still in the process of dismantling it.

“The Kitty Hawk is moving right along,” Berry said. “It’s on the ramp right now. That means we’re bringing it up out of the water and it’s going away pretty quickly. I mean, we still have quite a few months left on it, because there’s a lot of ship left there. But we’re in the final stages now.”

As for the JFK, a variant of the Kitty Hawk-class of carriers, ISL still has the contract to recycle it, even though Berry’s not supposed to talk about that either. The JFK, commissioned in 1968 and decommissioned in 2007, is berthed at Philadelphia Naval Yard.

As with carriers past, and once the Navy goes public with an estimated arrival date, ISL plans on organizing a ceremony honoring the ship and its crew members, hundreds of whom are expected to come to Brownsville for a last glimpse if it’s anything like the other carriers.

In the meantime, Berry asked that everyone try and be patient until more information is forthcoming.

“We want the ship here,” he said. “I promise you. We’re ready.”

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