It was a huge vessel. If I recall, there were over 5K men assigned to the crew back when I was there.
Twas a city on the water.
Funny thing is, out of five thousand fellow crew members, I’ve only rarely seen anybody from that ship once I left it.
Everyone’s gone into the Way-Back memory bank. “PooF!”
“Everyone’s gone into the Way-Back memory bank. “PooF!”” Ditto to that. Best memories are the food and getting shot off the CAT.
I as on an earlier CVA in the early ‘60s. The FDR was a sister ship to the Midway and the Coral Sea.
They were designed for 3600 crew, but we carried about 5000 during the Cold War. Was crowded!
Around the early ‘70s, my mom sent me a clipping from the newspaper showing a pic of my ship and saying it was to be scrapped. ...That caused sadness like when you find out your long-time friend from your school days passed away.