Free Republic

Yet another decommissioned “supercarrier” is coming to the Port of Brownsville for scrapping, and it’s the biggest one yet. In fact, the dismantling of the former aircraft carrier USS Constellation by International Shipbreaking Ltd. will be the largest ship-recycling job to take place in the United States. Until the Constellation contract, the former USS Forrestal and the former USS Saratoga were the largest ships slated for salvaging by a U.S. ship breaker. The Forrestal arrived in Brownsville to much fanfare in February after being towed from Philadelphia, and is now being dismantled by All Star Metals. The Saratoga, decommissioned in...

After 23 years of service and four Battle Efficiency awards, the submarine USS Minneapolis-St. Paul will be decommissioned today in a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. The Los Angeles-class attack sub has been involved in 12 deployments since it was commissioned, the most recent being a six-month deployment to the North Atlantic. It has visited 26 different ports in its life span. It was the first submarine to carry Tomahawk missiles in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the first Persian Gulf War. The Minneapolis-St Paul was built in 1984. It is 360 feet long, 33 feet wide...

MIAMI, Okla. - The Riviera Courts motel is crumbling away and nobody seems to care. Once a stop along Route 66, the 2,400-mile neon carnival that connected hundreds of communities from Chicago to Los Angeles, this late-1930s Mission Revival is just a weather-worn building on the side of a country road in far northeast Oklahoma. Next door, soybean farmers Richard and Rosemary Woolard watch the place deteriorate from their front porch. "Been a lot of changes in this old county," 77-year-old Richard Woolard says plainly. The Riviera Courts is among hundreds of mom-and-pop motels that met their demise along the...

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The amphibious assault ship USS Austin (LPD 4) was decommissioned Sept. 27, during a ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, ending more than 41 years of naval service. “We are one of the oldest, best ships in the fleet and its time to turn over the watch,” said Cmdr. Kevin Flanagan, Austin’s commanding officer. Commissioned Feb. 6, 1965, Austin was the first LPD class ship built, and the lead ship in its class. The ship was involved in the nation’s space program as the recovery ship for Apollo 12, and part of the recovery for Apollo 14...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - Hundreds of Navy veterans who grew to love the famed aircraft carrier USS Oriskany will see their old ship off on her final voyage - a trip to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, where she will become a massive artificial reef. Many, like Boyd Tong of Phoenix, plan to rent boats and watch as the Oriskany is sunk 24 miles off Pensacola Beach on Wednesday morning. "I expect it will be a little emotional," Tong said as a Navy band played "Anchors Aweigh" at Pensacola Naval Air Station tribute for the Oriskany on Saturday...

NAVAL AIR STATION PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- A pierside press conference was held April 18 aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola to provide details of the final preparations for sinking the decommissioned aircraft carrier ex-Oriskany (CVA 34). With the rusting hulk of Oriskany as a backdrop, Capt. Lawrence Jones, Inactive Ships program manager in charge of the Oriskany project and Resolve Marine’s Vice President Denise Johnston answered questions about the sinking. Resolve-Esco Joint Venture is the contractor for the final work necessary to prep the ship for its ultimate disposition as a reef. This includes pre-ballasting water tanks aboard to get...

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The recovery and salvage ship USS Grasp (ARS 51) was decommissioned after 20 years of service and transferred to Military Sealift Command (MSC) in a ceremony at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek Jan. 19. Past and present crew members attended the 11 a.m. ceremony to say farewell to the ship. “There’s always a little bit of sadness at the end of a career,” said Grasp’s executive officer Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Chicoine, “at the same time, people are looking forward to the next part of their life.” As a U.S. Navy ship, Grasp had a crew of...

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...