More info Here!
Posted on 03/03/2005 3:02:55 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Navy to Sink USS America, Explosive Final Service That Saddens Former Crew By John J. Lumpkin Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Navy plans to send the retired carrier USS America to the bottom of the Atlantic in explosive tests this spring, an end that is difficult to swallow for some who served on board.
The Navy says the effort, which will cost $22 million, will provide valuable data for the next generation of aircraft carriers, which are now in development. No warship this size or larger has ever been sunk, so there is a dearth of hard information on how well a supercarrier can survive battle damage, said Pat Dolan, a spokeswoman for Naval Sea Systems Command.
The Navy's plan raises mixed emotions in Ed Pelletier, who served on the America as a helicopter crewman when the ship cruised the Mediterranean shortly after its commissioning in 1965.
He said he was "unhappy that a ship with that name is going to meet that fate, but happy she'll be going down still serving the country." Pelletier, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is a trustee of an association of veterans who served on the America.
Issues surrounding a vessel bearing the name of its country are often more sensitive than for other ships. In 1939, Adolf Hitler, fearful of a loss of morale among his people should Germany's namesake ship be sunk, ordered the pocket battleship Deutschland renamed for a long-dead Prussian commander.
Since its decommissioning in 1996, the America has been moored with dozens of other inactive warships at a Navy yard in Philadelphia. The Navy's plan is to tow it to sea on April 11 - possibly stopping at Norfolk, Va. - before heading to the deep ocean, 300 miles off the Atlantic coast, for the tests, Dolan said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.tbo.com ...
The melt shop wouldn't be so bad if it were in the United States.
But nowadays, they send 'em overseas for scrap.
I'd rather sink 'em off our own shoreline.
It's supposed to be good habitat for the fish.
Apparently, the enviro-whackos don't want us to recycle ships anymore. I'll bet they aren't too thrilled about blowing it up and sinking it in middle of the ocean. You just can't please them. So screw them!
Which was pretty ironic, because if memory serves, the former Deutschland was one of the few German capital ships to survive the war.
And a dime was more to the school children than $1.00 now.
Ya'll think they'd let us play with some bombs and flamethrowers first?
Probably not.
Though it would be nice to get some fire fountains going on the edges of the flight deck and a good fireworks display set up and filmed before they send her to the bottom.
Better to send her out in style and flair than to merely blow her up and be done with it.
And better to do it with lots of music sound and lights than to cut her up piecemeal at the scrappers torchyard.
Can't they sink Kerry's or Kennedy's boat instead?
It would be an investment.
How about the SS Jimmy Cartah?
Can't think of anything more approriate!
The market for aircraft carrier museums seems to be pretty much saturated. Last I heard there was one rusting away (perhaps the Cabot?) where the promoters weren't able to come up with the money needed. Some of the ones listed under 'efforts underway' may also be having trouble.
Current museums:
Hornet - Oakland
Intrepid - NYC
Lexington - Corpus Christi
Yorktown - Charleston, SC
Efforts underway:
Forrestal - Baltimore
Midway - San Diego
Ranger - Everett, WA
Saratoga - Rhode Island
Imagine if she was a nuke!
I just did a few general area searchs for tourism in the areas you listed.
Does anyone know these museums are there?
They don't seem to be promoted too well.
They should have some programs and invite class trips.
I agree.
I spent the better part of my four year enlistment in the 70's as an attached squadron flight deck crew on the USS JFK.
It is a curious thing...you hate being on the boat (as it was often derisively called-against "naval regulations") but...you spent some formative years on those ships, and over time, you do develop a psychological attachment to them.
Personally, I would much rather see the ship as the target of a massive simulated attack, filmed, the whole nine yards, going down by the stern to spend eternity in the depths.
Better that than razor blades. I saw a book one time that had pictures of ships being cut up, and there was one particularly disturbing one of a heavy cruiser with her bow cut off. It strangely made you think of a human face missing it's nose.
I say: SINK HER WITH HER FLAG FLYING IN SERVICE TO HER COUNTRY!
The ones in Corpus and Charleston are promoted as part of the local tourist industry. The Intrepid is also fairly well known. The one in San Francisco Bay I would not have known about except for Googling to confirm names on the others.
Most of the BBs are also fairly widely promoted. Wilmington, Mobile, Houston, Pearl Harbor, and Norfolk. The New Jersey and the Massachusetts are probably less well known. (In fact, I don't recall if they ever settled on a final home for the New Jersey.)
The DDs and the subs usually are only known locally. Here are some lists if you are interested. http://www.hazegray.org/navhist/preserve.htm
You can control better where the explosions take, (in front of cameras, shock sensors, test-mounted eqpt, etc.)
A warhead coming in is more realistic, but more random. So less valuable in the long run.
(Did the Mk-48 torpedo setup and test gear preps on Bushnell-Sinkex, 1983.)
Want a real eary feeling at sea?
.....
Stand on the guardrail of a ship, watching a torpedo coming straight at you.
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