Posted on 03/04/2015 5:39:45 PM PST by llevrok
BREMERTON, Wash. -- Naval Sea Systems Command says the mothballed aircraft carrier USS Ranger will be towed out of Puget Sound on Thursday on its way to be scrapped in Texas.
Robert Johnson sees more than a relic of gray steel and worn rivets when he looks across the Sinclair Inlet. He sees home.
"It gave me a piece of my soul I think," the Navy Vietnam veteran said.
It is the same ship that is on his hat, the USS Ranger, a massive aircraft carrier.
"A lot of people served on it. A lot of people worked on it, played on it and many died on it," Johnson said.
He worked in the electronics and radio towers, making sure bombing raids went without a hitch from the South China Sea.
"They had to have radios to talk back to the ship," he said.
Johnson served on the ranger for nearly three years, sometimes going two months without seeing land. Now that home is rusting away in Bremerton.
"They sold it to the scrap company for a penny," Johnson said of the Navy's plan to get rid of the Ranger to a Texas company.
The Ranger will soon begin its months-long journey around South America to get to Texas and broken down for scrap and parts. It's too large to make it through the Panama Canal.
The ship served in Vietnam, the pacific and the Gulf war and even made cameo appearances in "Top Gun" and other 1980s blockbusters like "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home."
In a way a ship nearly everyone knows, but few as well as Johnson.
"It's sacred ground right down until they rip the last bolt out," he said.
It will take five months to complete a 16,000-mile trip.
That’s true but copper prices are way way down. Funny though, if the economy was going so spectacular copper prices and oil prices would be flying. hmm wander when the collapse is gonna happen
That was part of the reason that Ranger was kept in reserve as long as she was. But ships rot, even steel ones. Machinery gets way out of date, and must be maintained at certain minimal levels just so that they can be brought back into working condition in a reasonable period of time.
Then you have the physical limitations of the design itself. Catapaults that can’t launch the heaviest of modern aircraft. Arresting wire systems that have the similar problems and so forth.
Finally, these ships get scavanged for parts to keep their sisters in a higher state of readiness. So after a decade or so in reserve, they are little more than hulls.
What u say is true but machine and engines are so easy to get going and turn over.
She would have to be decontaminated, all the paint, chemical residues, toxics, metals, plastics, etc. removed before that.
Sometimes worth doing to make an artificial reef, sometimes better to scrap.
Always a judgement call.
I made many friends and had many experiences that I will never forget.
I don't know why but you get attached to a ship. It's like your home for the period you are stationed aboard.
They towed the “Benny” over to India and it was chopped up in 1995. I was very sad to hear they had scrapped her. It's like losing an old friend.
I was just reminded by 2ndDivisionVet of my old company in Korea
He posted a picture of the front gate and I have been in fantasy land for the last 45 minutes
My mind's eye went down and around the corner and I passed Sgt Spangler in the supply shack .... a little farther past the mess hall ... took a left and walked into my quonset hut and stared at my bunk
I just did that ... amazingly weird and wonderful
Back around 1953, Daddy drove us out to the Panama City airport just for something to do. I guess we didn’t require much entertainment back then.
Anyway there was a constellation parked close to the fence. It was an awesome sight to a six year old. those three vertical stabilizers seemed like something out of science fiction.
I wonder why they are scrapping it instead of using it to build an artificial reef, like the Oriskany? The value of doing that is that it continues to support the US Navy indirectly, because it attracts scuba divers; it acts as a very large fish hatchery, which supports the fishing industry; and it even directly supports US Navy training.
ping
That’s got to be a very sad trip.I wonder how much “crew” it takes to do this.
“I will bet there is are tons and tons of copper on that ship. All those t-400 cables, bus bars, generators, etc.”
Unfortunately, there’s also pantloads of asbestos. It will cost the scrapper a great deal of money to GET the copper.
“Homeless drug addict bastards would have it stripped by dawn”
LOL
I served for a Year on Ranger, then off to Air Crew Candidate... next stop 4 years on USS Kitty Hawk... it was like Dejavou (sp) all over again ...
Great Memories, I miss the adventures of Youth, 4 of my 6 deployments were on those 2 ships.
TT
(USS George K MacKenzie DD836 for the other 2 deployments)
She sure did!
She was also on station for space capsule recoveries. Iconic in so many ways.
Thank you and thanks to all the others who served aboard her.
With pieces and parts as large as they are on a Carrier, just Gravity will degrade the system ... you actually have to see how huge some of the components are to believe it. The shafts “MUST” be turned or gravity will bend them.
One of the things that I love about my Military is that we have affection for our Weapon / Home. On an Aircraft Carrier we even acknowledge the Air Wing when they come to visit /stay with us.
TT
“Why don’t they just sink it in a very deep part of the Pacific? Is it worth that much as scrap?”
Yeah, they’re worth a fortune in scrap. Not just steel, but tons of brass and copper and other things.
These big boys are scrapped at a shipbreaking facility in Brownsville, TX. There was a brief TV series showing the dismantling process for scrapping train locomotives, jet fighters, tanks, and ships. Unbelievably fascinating.
' she served extensively in the Pacific, especially the Vietnam War, for which she earned 13 battle stars.'
Farewell Ranger you served your crews well....
I say sink her in deep water in the Tonkin Gulf near those she fought to protect.....
Thank you. Yes I can understand that there can be reasons to scrap a ship.
I just thought that some of them could be useful, if no longer in front line defense situations, then in back field or non-military applications.
but anyway i was just trying to make a general statement and I do not know about the specific situation with the Ranger ...
it may have been ready for melting down.
I had a car with 318000 miles still running just FINE and I planned to keep it as long as it was safe. But some doped up freak ran a red light and smashed it to smithereens.
if the USN sells a billion dollar ship for $1, you can bet SOMEONE is making a good profit off the deal... yes, not the Navy
but someone.
A ship is not just a hunk of steel sitting in the water. It has a soul, the soul of a great lady. SHE has a heart, and anyone who served on her is a part of her. I am a part of three ships; USS Nimitz (CVN-68), USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69).
For six months after decommissioning, USS John F. Kennedy was tied up at a pier here at Norfolk Naval Station. As I work on the ships I had to see it on a daily basis and I felt like a little of me was dying when looking at Kennedy.
I also had the opportunity to go on board USS Enterprise (CVN-65) just prior to her decommissioning to remove some equipment. To me it was sad watching a ship die.
I’ve also toured the USS Yorktown (CV-10) in Charleston. It’s the creepiest place I’ve ever been. Below decks, no sound but your own footsteps.
All together I served 10 years on MY three ships, lived 24/7 on the first two (got married between JFK and Ike). I love those ships, and I love my Navy.
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