By Michelle Durham

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Saturday, December 1st, is a historic day for the Navy. The legendary nuclear aircraft carrier The USS Enterprise is being decommissioned.

KYW’s Michelle Durham spent several weeks on The Enterprise in the Persian Gulf; which was a 2007 series on KYW Newsradio.

Michelle tracked down some of her shipmates to share their favorite memories of the ship.

There were 5,000 people aboard and one of the people I met was Frankie DeGrand of Glenolden who was then a Torpedo’s and Gunner’s mate.

“[I was] in charge of all the ships armory, weapons and bombs. It’s a lot of responsibility and a lot of danger. There’s danger with everything…even crossing Broad Street.”

Frankie is now serving at an undisclosed location and I asked him what he’ll remember most about the 50 year old ship.

“I used to sleep under the three wire, .as the planes were landing, and after sleeping there I can sleep anywhere!”

The wire is what a plane’s hook uses to land on deck and it is noisy.

Nick Kaylor was in charge of photography onboard and he says finding a place to be by yourself when onboard with 5,000 people is a rare moment, “When I was off duty I liked to go to the supply closet and just relax.”

Both treasure their time aboard the ship and say they made life-long friends.