USS Nimitz Departs Bremerton, Passes Whidbey Island on Final Homeport Voyage

Sarah Geist was following her usual whale-watching app when her mother's message changed everything: the USS Nimitz was coming through. The well-known South Whidbey photographer grabbed her Canon R5 Mark II and drove to Bush Point, where the 97,000-ton nuclear-powered carrier passed surprisingly close to shore on March 7, 2026, making its final departure from Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton.

"It was ginormous," Geist said. "You can see the little people standing on it."

She then followed the ship south to Fort Casey, joining a crowd of around 10 people watching the vessel push through Admiralty Inlet. What she photographed was the last time the USS Nimitz, commissioned on May 3, 1975, and long called the "Pacific Northwest Carrier," would move through these waters.

The departure marked the beginning of a permanent homeport shift from Bremerton to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, and the start of what the Navy describes as a multi-year decommissioning process at Newport News Shipbuilding. Sailors manned the rails as the ship got underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations, the moment captured on video by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Octavio Borrego.

The Nimitz holds a singular place in naval history. Lead ship of her class and the oldest active carrier in the U.S. fleet, she was originally commissioned as CVAN-68 before being redesignated CVN-68 on June 30, 1975. She was named for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Pacific Fleet commander during World War II. After spending her early years homeported in Norfolk, the carrier arrived in Bremerton on July 2, 1987, beginning a long association with the Pacific Northwest. Following a refueling and complex overhaul in 2001, she shifted homeports to NAS North Island in San Diego, then moved to Naval Station Everett in 2012 before returning to Bremerton.

Her operational record includes hosting the F-35 Lightning's first-ever carrier landing at sea and, during a 2022 deployment, logging her 350,000th arrested aircraft landing, a total no other carrier has matched. That same deployment covered more than 65,000 nautical miles.

The formal decommissioning timeline remains partially unresolved. The multi-year process is set to take place at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, though KIRO 7 reported the ship is scheduled to be decommissioned in May, a specific claim the Navy has not independently confirmed in public statements reviewed for this report.

For Geist, the moment at Bush Point needed no official context. A boating app, a tip from her mom, and a 97,000-ton ship passing close enough to see the sailors on deck made the history plain enough.