USS Forrestal
The 1,063-foot-long aircraft carrier USS
Forrestal was scheduled to arrive early this morning at the jetties marking the
entrance to the Port of Brownsville ship channel.
The historic vessel’s final destination is
All Star Metals’ ship-recycling facility, where it will be dismantled and sold
for scrap.
The first of the Navy’s “supercarriers,”
the Forrestal was launched in 1954 from Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock
Co. in Virginia and commissioned in 1955. Officially, the vessel is no longer
named “USS Forrestal” since being decommissioned and struck from the Naval
Vessel Register in 1993.
Last October, the Naval Sea Systems Command
announced that All Star Metals was awarded the Navy contract to dismantle the
Forrestal, named for James Forrestal, secretary of defense during the Truman
administration.
The vessel was the lead ship of the
Forrestal-class of carriers, which also included the USS Independence, the USS
Ranger and the USS Saratoga, all of which have been decommissioned and
designated for dismantling.
The Forrestal departed the Navy’s inactive
vessel facility at Philadelphia early on the morning of Feb. 4, under tow by
the vessel Lauren Foss, which All Star Metals contracted to do the job.
At least a few veterans who served on the
Forrestal were expected to gather to watch its arrival this morning. In
recognition of the 3,500 men and women who served aboard the ship, All Star
Metals is planning a small, invitation-only event on Feb. 28 for local
officials, dignitaries and a few others, including representatives from the USS
Forrestal Association.
On March 1, All Star Metals will host an
open visitation at its facility from 9 a.m. to noon for community members,
veterans and members of the USS Forrestal Association. The vessel itself will
be off limits due to Navy restrictions (the vessel remains Navy property until
dismantling is complete).
In conjunction with the March 1 visitation,
the USS Forrestal Association will hold an off-site event beginning at 1 p.m.
For details, visit www.uss-forrestal.com.
The Navy paid a symbolic value of $0.01 to
All Star Metals to have the mothballed carrier towed and scrapped. The ship
recycler assumes all the risks and costs of towing the vessel, with the aim of
recovering the costs and making a profit through sale of the scrap.
On Feb. 5, Sen. John McCain, probably the
Forrestal’s most famous veteran, released a statement in which he recalled a
catastrophic fire that took place aboard the vessel during the Vietnam War on
July 29, 1967. The incident nearly cost the future senator and presidential
candidate his life.
The Forrestal had been launching air
strikes against the North Vietnamese from the Gulf of Tonkin when a Zuni rocket
accidentally fired from an F-4 Phantom, striking McCain’s A-4 Skyhawk and
rupturing the plane’s fuel tank.
The resulting fire and explosions killed
134 of his shipmates, injured 161 more, destroyed more than 20 aircraft and
badly damaged the carrier to the tune of $72 million. The Forrestal was in dry
dock at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for several months while repairs were carried
out.
McCain wrote that the Forrestal, which
featured the first steam catapult, angled flight deck and optical landing
systems, “represented American ingenuity and shipbuilding excellence.”
He noted that during its 38 years of
service the Forrestal and its attached air wings took part in missions all over
the globe, including “dozens of NATO operations, overseas deployments, patrol
missions and strategic port visits around the Atlantic and Sixth Fleets.”
“I will always remember and honor my brave
comrades who died in the Forrestal fire,” McCain wrote. “Although the ship is
being towed to Brownsville, Texas, to be physically dismembered, her legacy,
the bonds forged and memories created among shipmates will live forever. I bid
her a final ‘fair winds and following seas.’”
Source: Brownsville herald. 17 February 2014
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_465ef678-9855-11e3-8b14-001a4bcf6878.html
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