A 3-D representation of ocean topography off the southeast portion of the United States. Image courtesy of Phil Weinbach.
Posted on 05/20/2005 7:09:57 AM PDT by wjersey
The Navy sent the retired USS America aircraft carrier to its final resting place at the bottom of the sea Saturday, in a closely guarded series of explosions that the Navy didn't announce until days later.
The 84,000-ton, 1,048-foot warship, which served the Navy for 32 years, thus became the first U.S. carrier to be sunk since 1951, and the largest warship ever sunk.
"Explosions were internal to the ship and allowed a controlled flooding," said Pat Dolan, a spokeswoman with the Naval Sea Systems Command. She declined to say where the ship now sits, except that it was 50 nautical miles - or about 58 miles - off the coast, and more than 6,000 feet below the surface.
The Navy previously said the final explosions would be off North Carolina.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
It would have been nice if she could have been made into a museum tied to a pier in DC, Norfolk, San Diego, etc. However failing that this is much more fitting end to a proud ship than being cut up for scrap like an over aged Buick.
they should have sold it to the chinese (with the charges left in place ;)
Very well stated -- would be willing to bet the crew members of this carrier over the years would be proud to have the America continue to serve to the very end.
Check out the following website-
http://www.ussamerica.org/final_mission.htm
The ex-America was instrumentated and used for live fire excercises. This data is of course highly valuable and classified.
She fullfilled her last mission, giving the last full measure of devotion.
This will certainly save many lives in the future and allow us to protect, maintain, and repair carriers that otherwise may be sunk in large scale warfare (which is not impossible and in fact, IMHO, is even likely in the future). As such, this exercise was ceretainly NOT a waste of tax payer money, and all other concerns (ie. scrap metal, fish habitat , etc>) are secondary when weighed against that goal of saving military lives and better defending the fleet and the nation.
Just my opinion on the matter.
Like the Philadelphia Experiment ???
Very true. They should have done it shallower where it could continue to benefit the US, it would make a great home for Grouper, Amberjack, Snapper, Tuna, and Cobia.
Fire up the grill, break out the garlic and lime juice.
Sure>
Look at the depth contour lines: 250 meters (about 800ft) where the red dots are on the map...
Then rapidly going down to 2500 meters a few miles further out. Work the math: 2500 meters at 3+ feet per meter.
Yes and Sen. $hrillary Klintoon is on the Senate Armed Services Committee...the ChiCOMs' RED QUEEN is in position.
Thanks for the explanation, and I tend to agree with your thoughts, especially saving lives in the future. But I'm wondering if a computerized simulation wouldn't be as fruitful or even possible?
Yes, we do care.
There is a reason that the US is the only country that has been able to produce modern Carriers in numbers that cant be matched by other nations.
Any potential enemy of the US would love the opportunity to discover the construction principles behind a ship of that size that can move and maneuver, and carry the weight of an AirWing within its hull. It isn't that other nations would not love to have a fleet of Carriers, its just that they don't know how to build them in a way that wont require constant maintenance and repair.
The ship is about 80,000 displacement tons and scrap iron is around $200 per ton (depending on the alloy and delivery location). That's only $16 million dollars. And that doesn't count the cost of separating out the asbestos, wiring, plastics, leftover fuel and the labor of getting it to the scrap yard and cutting it up.
Hell yes, don't give them ANY technology, no matter how old. Never help your enemy.
Federal judges wouldn't let prisoners live in the crews quarters on even a ship as large as a carrier. That would be cruel and unusual punishment. A federal judge wouldn't let a Texas prison or jail use standard army tents, down in the valley where it's fairly temperate all year long, although a tad on the warm side in the summer.
You can believe they took off everything that they could use, and that wasn't too difficult to move, before they sank her.
But there is nothing like actually having a physical model that is subjected to real forces and monitoring how it fails. You can bet that electronic sensors galore were all over that ship as the simulated attacks occurred and as the ships structure failed and ultimately filled with water and sank. Monitoring how the sea tight hatches and conditions ultimately failed, how the structure responded and failed, etc.
All of THAT information will make for much more accurate future computer models from which carriers (and other ships) can be better designed, maintained and repaired. Thus, even the computer modeling technology is improved by this exercise.
At 6000 feet? Not many fish, especially those you'd want to eat, go that deep.
Amen. See my post 45 and post 58.
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