Explosive tests will send aircraft carrier to bottom of Atlantic
 George Widman / AP file
The aircraft carrier USS America will become the largest warship ever sunk. |
Posted on 03/03/2005 6:58:38 PM PST by RWR8189
George Widman / AP file
The aircraft carrier USS America will become the largest warship ever sunk. |
WASHINGTON - 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.
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I kind of don't like a ship with the name of our country being sunk!
We could derive similar infomation by sinking France's carrier. Save "America".
U.S.S. AMERICA - PING
The anti-Bush borderitos would probably claim that the Navy is sinking America because of the handful of Mexican janitors working in their naval office buildings.
I'm sorry, but with China on the rails - America should be mothballed. (just in case)
PETA should be let on board to make sure there are no mice
or rats in danger. then there should be an "accidental"
torpedo incident.
Who can say no, when the info learned during this test could save so many lives and perhaps the country one day?
Computer modeling?
I have to admit that this is a valid point, very valid. I just hope ALL other options have been thoroughly explored.
I think we would get more information if we sank the French carrier with its full crew on board.
The ship is old and useless. She should go out in a blaze of glory. NOT under the cutting torch in a salvage yard.
Just like the Oklahoma, butial at sea.
So the US Navy should emulate Hitler and change the name of the ship? How about we just name a new aircraft carrier America?
Well as a Norfolk Sailor, who has seen the American in and out of commission, I will tell you that she is in very poor shape and has been for the longest time(she was never SLEPPed). As much as I would hate to see here sank(given her name), the Navy would have to put millions of dollars into just bringing her up to stat for mothballs, it was always understood she was going to be scapped, better for her to die this way in a worthwhile manner than in disgrace in someone's scrap yard, I never did like it with the Coral Sea CV-43 and America should be allowed to carry out her final mission with respect.
It would never be as accurate as the real thing. Relying solely on computers for research is asking for trouble.
The whole globaloney warming fiasco is done by computer.
So, OK, rename her the USS Carter/Clinton/Kennedy and sell tickets to watch her/them go to the bottom.
The Oklahoma City was a flagship and deserved to be display not at the bottom of the ocean.
i'm just really glad I was drinking anything when I read that, because I'm sure it would have shot from my nose!
Thanks for the laugh.
Or France.
No. We should keep America. Instead we should sink the Kennedy.
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