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My ships was in NNSY in early 77 and FDR was there being readied to go to a Kearney, New Jersey company yard for scrapping. Decommissioned 30 September 1977. Disposed of 04/01/1978. The rush to crush seemed to be based on a fear that Carter would try and re-commission and it could not handle more modern aircraft. I remember my First Class going to the ship to see what we could use.

Thanks for providing the dates of ‘77-’78. It was a while ago, and I’d forgotten when it finally bit the dust.

Amazing, isn’t it, how a sailor can become attached emotionally to a ship? .....I most remember the good times and crewmates/liberties, while seldom thinking about the hard work, heat and cold.

FDR was there being readied to go to a Kearney, New Jersey company yard for scrapping. Decommissioned 30 September 1977. Disposed of 04/01/1978. The rush to crush seemed to be based on a fear that Carter would try and re-commission and it could not handle more modern aircraft.

The FDR was pretty worn out by the time she was decommissioned and stricken. She was supposed to have had the same overhaul/upgrade that Midway had a few years earlier (Midway stayed in service until 1992), but after the costs of that ballooned it was determined that the money would be better spent on what became the Carl Vinson.

Coral Sea, being the youngest Midway and therefore "behind" Midway and FDR in the maintenance cycle, was in better overall material condition than FDR despite not having the Midway upgrades. She was scheduled to be decommissioned in the early 1980s, but Reagan's push to get to 15 decks saw her kept in service and modified to handle the then-new F/A-18. IIRC she was the first deck to actually take the Bug on an operational deployment. She was also one of the big players in the mid-80s dust-up with Khadafi/Libya (along with the Saratoga and your old ship, the America).

In fact, she was in decent enough shape that she was scheduled to replace Lexington as the dedicated training deck. Which was dropped when Berlin Wall fell, the Navy cut back on decks and the Forrestal became available early.

The Midways were really tough old ships. After she came home for the last time BuShips took Midway out and intentionally overstressed a lot of her systems to see where their fail point really was. Including running her full reverse for something like four hours. They couldn't break her, and IIRC the CO made them go on record as decommissioning a fully combat-ready ship. Then again, she'd really benefited from the TLC of the Yokosuka yard workers during her nearly 20 years forward deployment in Japan.