By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
Associated Press Writer
(AP) - 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.
Since its decommissioning in 1996, the America has been moored with dozens of other inactive warships at a Navy yard in Philadelphia. The Navy's plan is to tow it to sea on April 11 -- possibly stopping at Norfolk -- before heading to the deep ocean, 300 miles off the Atlantic coast, for the tests, Dolan said.
There, in experiments that will last from four to six weeks, the Navy will batter the America with explosives, both underwater and above the surface, watching from afar and through monitoring devices placed on the vessel.
These explosions would presumably simulate attacks by torpedoes, cruise missiles and perhaps a small boat suicide attack like the one that damaged the Norfolk-based destroyer USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.
At the end, explosive scuttling charges placed to flood the ship will be detonated, and the America will begin its descent to the sea floor, more than 6,000 feet below.
The Navy has already removed some materials from the ship that could cause environmental damage after it sinks, Dolan said.
Certain aspects of the tests are classified, and neither America's former crew nor the news media will be allowed to view them in person, Dolan said. The Navy does not want to give away too much information on how a carrier could be sunk, she said.
Why the America? No other retired supercarriers were available on the East Coast when the test was planned, Dolan said. The others -- the Forrestal and the Saratoga -- were designated as potential museums, she said.
In a letter to Pelletier's group, Adm. John Nathman, the Navy's second-in-command, called America's destruction "one vital and final contribution to our national defense."
"Ex-America's legacy will serve as a footprint in the design of future aircraft carriers," he wrote.
Although no larger warship has ever been sunk, bigger civilian vessels have gone down. The largest ship in the world, the supertanker Seawise Giant, was sunk by Iraqi warplanes in the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Fully loaded, it displaced more than half a million tons. It was later refloated and renamed.
The America, which is more than 1,000 feet long and displaces about 80,000 tons, exceeds the size of the Japanese World War II battleships Yamato and Musashi, and the carrier Shinano, which all displaced close to 70,000 tons. The Yamato and Musashi fell to American warplanes, the Shinano to a U.S. submarine.
The America was the third carrier of the non-nuclear Kitty Hawk class, and the first to be retired, a victim of post-Cold War budget cuts after 31 years at sea. It launched warplanes during the Vietnam War, the 1986 conflict with Libya, the first Gulf War, and over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the mid-1990s.
Pelletier and other veterans who served on the America said their farewells in a Feb. 25 ceremony at the ship in Philadelphia. Some artifacts have been removed for museums and veterans' groups; in addition, Pelletier's association will place a time capsule on board.
The Navy has several other carriers awaiting their fates. Environmental regulations make breaking warships up for scrap metal largely unprofitable, though some still are dismantled. One smaller World War II carrier, the Oriskany, is scheduled to be sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., late this year.
Visit this USS America memorial/preservation site. They are none to happy about her fate. http://ussamerica-museumfoundation.org/index.html
On their Gallery section, one member and his son visited USS Intrepid and was able to gain access to off-limits parts of the ship. He made several minor disparaging comments about the state of the ship that visitors don't see and contrasted them with the Navy's instringence in not allowing USS America to made into a museum.
Personally, I thik these were sour grapes, tacky, and in poor taste. I fully respect his group for their efforts to preserve USS America (both as ex-crew and the ship's proud name) but I don't think they are looking at reality.
1. USS America was (if you'll pardon the expression) rode hard for over 30 years and put away wet. Unlike almost all the rest of the supercarriers, she did not undergo SLEP and was retired in extremely poor condition. (USS John F Kennedy ring a bell?). A friend of mine served on her in the early 90s and was quite candid about her condition. He remarked upon "miles of piping just bursting all at once". Some hyperbole in there I am sure, but still....
2. As I mentioned quite some time ago in another post, there is a very sad limit to the number of ships that can be turned into memorials, regardless of their material condition. This small number shrinks considerably when referring to carriers and especially to supercarriers. Here why:
A. Space - Where does a retired 80,000 ton carrier sit? Do you know of many cities that want something that big in their harbors? Sure it's a good tourist draw...or is it? Milwaukee is having a fit about plans to bring heavy cruiser Des Moines to town. Imagine a ship 3 or 4 times as large?
B. Funds - Money money money makes the world go 'round. You need a boatload of greenbacks just to tow your ship to it's new home. Great, now it's here, then what? You are going to need an even bigger boatload of volunteers and even more cash to refurbish the ship for visitors. You'll be staggered at the work just make the hanger deck, flight deck and selected parts of the island shipshape for Mom, Dad and the kiddies to walk around. (See comments about USS Intrepid above). Oh by the way, if you want to draw some decent paying crowds, you had better get on the ball and outfit your carrier with an air wing! Not too many people are going to come see a 4 acre empty parking lot. Guess what that means? You got it! More money! OK, no problem, you've got a dozen aircraft being donated to you. Great, how do they get to your carrier? Fly? Nope. Guess what? More money! Dare I even bother to go into money for yearly upkeep?
I know I probably sound like a real jerk right about now, but I stand by my comments. I've been to one or two ship memorials:
USS Alabama
USS Drum
USS Intrepid
USS Edson
USS Growler
U-505 (ex-Kriegsmarine)
I've seen how immense these ships are. Big deal, right? We've got ex-Navy and they've actually served on these ships, right? Well, imagine having to maintain a ship with a tenth of her normal crew and budget. I'm positive that the ex-Navy guys on this board have already been to some museum ships and they sure as heck don't need me to tell 'em where the bear sits.
I'll step off my soapbox now...
Associated Press Writer
(AP) - 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.
Since its decommissioning in 1996, the America has been moored with dozens of other inactive warships at a Navy yard in Philadelphia. The Navy's plan is to tow it to sea on April 11 -- possibly stopping at Norfolk -- before heading to the deep ocean, 300 miles off the Atlantic coast, for the tests, Dolan said.
There, in experiments that will last from four to six weeks, the Navy will batter the America with explosives, both underwater and above the surface, watching from afar and through monitoring devices placed on the vessel.
These explosions would presumably simulate attacks by torpedoes, cruise missiles and perhaps a small boat suicide attack like the one that damaged the Norfolk-based destroyer USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.
At the end, explosive scuttling charges placed to flood the ship will be detonated, and the America will begin its descent to the sea floor, more than 6,000 feet below.
The Navy has already removed some materials from the ship that could cause environmental damage after it sinks, Dolan said.
Certain aspects of the tests are classified, and neither America's former crew nor the news media will be allowed to view them in person, Dolan said. The Navy does not want to give away too much information on how a carrier could be sunk, she said.
Why the America? No other retired supercarriers were available on the East Coast when the test was planned, Dolan said. The others -- the Forrestal and the Saratoga -- were designated as potential museums, she said.
In a letter to Pelletier's group, Adm. John Nathman, the Navy's second-in-command, called America's destruction "one vital and final contribution to our national defense."
"Ex-America's legacy will serve as a footprint in the design of future aircraft carriers," he wrote.
Although no larger warship has ever been sunk, bigger civilian vessels have gone down. The largest ship in the world, the supertanker Seawise Giant, was sunk by Iraqi warplanes in the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Fully loaded, it displaced more than half a million tons. It was later refloated and renamed.
The America, which is more than 1,000 feet long and displaces about 80,000 tons, exceeds the size of the Japanese World War II battleships Yamato and Musashi, and the carrier Shinano, which all displaced close to 70,000 tons. The Yamato and Musashi fell to American warplanes, the Shinano to a U.S. submarine.
The America was the third carrier of the non-nuclear Kitty Hawk class, and the first to be retired, a victim of post-Cold War budget cuts after 31 years at sea. It launched warplanes during the Vietnam War, the 1986 conflict with Libya, the first Gulf War, and over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the mid-1990s.
Pelletier and other veterans who served on the America said their farewells in a Feb. 25 ceremony at the ship in Philadelphia. Some artifacts have been removed for museums and veterans' groups; in addition, Pelletier's association will place a time capsule on board.
The Navy has several other carriers awaiting their fates. Environmental regulations make breaking warships up for scrap metal largely unprofitable, though some still are dismantled. One smaller World War II carrier, the Oriskany, is scheduled to be sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., late this year.
Visit this USS America memorial/preservation site. They are none to happy about her fate. http://ussamerica-museumfoundation.org/index.html
On their Gallery section, one member and his son visited USS Intrepid and was able to gain access to off-limits parts of the ship. He made several minor disparaging comments about the state of the ship that visitors don't see and contrasted them with the Navy's instringence in not allowing USS America to made into a museum.
Personally, I thik these were sour grapes, tacky, and in poor taste. I fully respect his group for their efforts to preserve USS America (both as ex-crew and the ship's proud name) but I don't think they are looking at reality.
1. USS America was (if you'll pardon the expression) rode hard for over 30 years and put away wet. Unlike almost all the rest of the supercarriers, she did not undergo SLEP and was retired in extremely poor condition. (USS John F Kennedy ring a bell?). A friend of mine served on her in the early 90s and was quite candid about her condition. He remarked upon "miles of piping just bursting all at once". Some hyperbole in there I am sure, but still....
2. As I mentioned quite some time ago in another post, there is a very sad limit to the number of ships that can be turned into memorials, regardless of their material condition. This small number shrinks considerably when referring to carriers and especially to supercarriers. Here why:
A. Space - Where does a retired 80,000 ton carrier sit? Do you know of many cities that want something that big in their harbors? Sure it's a good tourist draw...or is it? Milwaukee is having a fit about plans to bring heavy cruiser Des Moines to town. Imagine a ship 3 or 4 times as large?
B. Funds - Money money money makes the world go 'round. You need a boatload of greenbacks just to tow your ship to it's new home. Great, now it's here, then what? You are going to need an even bigger boatload of volunteers and even more cash to refurbish the ship for visitors. You'll be staggered at the work just make the hanger deck, flight deck and selected parts of the island shipshape for Mom, Dad and the kiddies to walk around. (See comments about USS Intrepid above). Oh by the way, if you want to draw some decent paying crowds, you had better get on the ball and outfit your carrier with an air wing! Not too many people are going to come see a 4 acre empty parking lot. Guess what that means? You got it! More money! OK, no problem, you've got a dozen aircraft being donated to you. Great, how do they get to your carrier? Fly? Nope. Guess what? More money! Dare I even bother to go into money for yearly upkeep?
I know I probably sound like a real jerk right about now, but I stand by my comments. I've been to one or two ship memorials:
USS Alabama
USS Drum
USS Intrepid
USS Edson
USS Growler
U-505 (ex-Kriegsmarine)
I've seen how immense these ships are. Big deal, right? We've got ex-Navy and they've actually served on these ships, right? Well, imagine having to maintain a ship with a tenth of her normal crew and budget. I'm positive that the ex-Navy guys on this board have already been to some museum ships and they sure as heck don't need me to tell 'em where the bear sits.
I'll step off my soapbox now...
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