Despite tears, Inchon to be sunk

Corpus Christi Caller-Times ^ | January 13, 2004 | Brad Olson

[SwinneySwitch]

Naval Station Ingleside ship will be used for target practice

David Fix knows the USS Inchon has served its time. He knows the Navy can't hold onto it forever. But that doesn't keep him from crying when he thinks about it going down - crying so much that he can't even utter the words to memorialize it.

Like most sailors, Fix of Lancaster, Pa., who served aboard the Inchon from 1981 to 1983, remembers the ship and his time aboard it with fondness.

The USS Inchon, formerly a centerpiece of the Mine Warfare Command fleet in the U.S. Navy, is slotted for "sink-ex" - an exercise in which the Navy tests weapons by sinking decommissioned ships.

It was initially used as an amphibious assault ship in numerous deployments around the world. The Navy re-commissioned it in 1995 as the command and control ship for the mine warfare fleet.

The 602-foot Vietnam-era vessel used Naval Station Ingleside as its homeport from 1996 to 2002. It will be sunk in the Atlantic in late summer of this year, Navy officials said.

Since 2001, the 600-member USS Inchon Association, has tried to get the ship turned into a museum, said Fix, who is the association's secretary/ treasurer.

"Realistically, there was no way we could afford something like that," Fix said. "It's real emotional." How to join

Sailors wishing to join the USS Inchon Association can do so at www.ussinchon.com. The association will hold a reunion this year in October in Norfolk, Va.

For information on the vessel, go to http://navysite.de/ships/mcs12.htm

He said he knew that the ship itself wasn't what stirred his emotions so much as the things he carried from it - the memories, the people, the camaraderie - but the idea of it sinking upset him nonetheless.

While the Inchon was homeported at Ingleside, it acted as a "floating port," providing a landing platform for mine sweeping helicopters and a repair and supply for mine countermeasures and coastal mine hunting ships.

Patricia Dolan, spokes-man for Naval Sea Systems Command, which is responsible for decommissioned ships in the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, said sink-ex testing must take place at least 50 nautical miles from the land and in water depth of at least 6,000 feet.

Decommissioning a ship, she said, involves defueling and removing reusable equipment.

The Navy has several methods for disposing of its vessels: foreign military sales, scrapping, sink-ex, donation and reefing, Dolan said.

The Inchon was selected for tactical reasons, she said.

"Sometimes they look for a specific size of ship to be able to extrapolate for the ship they're trying to gather test information for," she said.

The ship was decommissioned last June after an engine-room fire in October 2001 made it too expensive to repair, a military official said.

The Inchon is docked at the Atlantic Fleet Reserve in Philadelphia.

Contact Brad Olson at 886-3764 or olsonb@caller.com

[SwinneySwitch]

"But that doesn't keep him from crying when he thinks about it going down - crying so much that he can't even utter the words to memorialize it."

[gridlock]

USS Inchon

[Rebelbase]

"sink-ex testing must take place at least 50 nautical miles from the land and in water depth of at least 6,000 feet."

Shame. The should cut a bunch of holes in it and sink it in shallow water for an artificial reef.

[Question_Assumptions]

I think this might be better than being cut up for scrap metal like the Big E.

[Johnny Gage]

Ping.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Johnny.

[SAMWolf]

Sorry to see it have to go, but it's a better end than being cut up for scrap. Thanks for the ping.

[commish]

Hate to see her go. May she withstand the barrage as long as possible and go down with dignity.

[Mr. Silverback]

Shame. The should cut a bunch of holes in it and sink it in shallow water for an artificial reef.

You can bet your last dollar I'd get on a plane to come dive a wreck like that!

[Tallguy]

I don't suppose you've heard that the USS Oriskany (CVA-34) is going to be sunk as a reef somewhere near Galveston, TX?

[Mr. Silverback]

It might be a while, but you can bet I'll log dive time on that puppy! Thanks for the link!

[skinkinthegrass]

This is stupid, it was barely 35 y.o...Yes, there was a severe fire in the engine room...the Aircraft carrier Forrestal(sp?) probably had more damage.

[Stonewall Jackson]

The only other carrier that is in shallow enough water for divers is the Saratoga at Bikini Atoll. Just make sure you take a rad detector with you if you go!!!

[Tallguy]

The only other carrier that is in shallow enough water for divers is the Saratoga at Bikini Atoll. Just make sure you take a rad detector with you if you go!!!

Your biggest hazard on the Sara would be live ordnance. Many of the target ships were outfitted as they would be for combat to test their survivability in the aftermath of an atomic 'near miss'. Allegedly, the Bikini Target Fleet is no longer 'hot' enough to prevent sport divers from visiting. The local Islanders are attempting to build tourism by promoting the Saratoga as a major dive attraction.

[Tallguy]

This is stupid, it was barely 35 y.o...Yes, there was a severe fire in the engine room...the Aircraft carrier Forrestal(sp?) probably had more damage.

The Inchon also struck a mine during Operation Desert Storm. I suspect that an LPH of her age couldn't be modernized to the standard of the new LHD's now coming into the fleet. Heck, they're beginning to retire the early LHA's too.

[Issaquahking]

Help me out here skinkinthegrass, didn't they have a boiler explosion at Norfolk,VA's D&S piers in the early eighties? Seems to me they were the ship just down from us that had a boiler explosion.

I think it would make a great new reef to dive on - environmentalism as it is supposed to be practiced, where possible, we have man enhancing nature.

[U S Army EOD]

I often wonder how the survivors of the Ben Franklin felt when the ship was finally scrapped after so many gave their lives and fought so hard to save her.

[GATOR NAVY]

I like to see that SINKEX. A ship that size can take a lot of hits before it goes. Here's sister ship OKINAWA taking a torpedo during a SINKEX.

[snippy_about_it]

Hi Gator Navy, great picture. Thanks for the ping.

Good to see you.

[GATOR NAVY]

Always around, just been quiet lately ;-)