Posted on 10/23/2013 1:04:43 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
Here’s a penny for your thoughts: One red cent could’ve landed you the Navy’s first supercarrier, the decommissioned Forrestal.
The U.S. Navy sold the 1,067-foot behemoth to a Texas company, All Star Metals, to be dismantled, scrapped and recycled, Navy officials announced. It's an inauspicious fate for a ship with a colorful — and tragic — history. It's perhaps best known for a 1967 incident in which stray voltage triggered an accidental explosion that struck a plane on the flight deck whose cockpit was occupied by a young John McCain. A chain reaction of blasts and fires ultimately killed 134 men and injured more than 300.
But its rich past and nearly four decades of service are not enough to spare it. The Navy tried to donate the historic ship for use as a memorial or a museum, but no “viable applications” were received.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I have an idea! I was an ET on the Saratoga, CVA 60. I climbed the antenna mast several times, once while at sea. It is a long way down from there to the flight deck.
Who?
I was a radar ET on the Lex. I once had to work on a radar antenna during flight ops. It sure was interesting watching the planes from my perch.
/johnny
If memory serves me, one which occurred in the early 70s was set by a young sailor who did not want to deploy on a 6 month Med cruise. He got his wish. The ship did not deploy. Of course, HE did not get to stay in Norfolk - I think Leavenworth may have been his next home.
When I was growing up in Virginia Beach, and the Forrestal was stationed in Norfolk, it was nicknamed the Forestfire.
That is $.01 FOB.
The draft of a carrier is only about 30 feet. Not too bad.
They will make a fortune. How many tons of copper and brass will they get off it, not to mention the high quality steel.
/johnny
The true reason that a rocket went streaking across the deck from one plane to another will never be known.
At least once a year.
“You could moor it out on the lake and move your garden out to the deck.”
That thing would make a really big planter.
I knew some guys 40 years ago who scrapped some smaller boats. They did quite well.
Since I’ve been out of touch with that business for more than a generation, I don’t know what costs are up versus how much more commodities are worth, or in what sort of stripped condition the Navy would relinquish the carrier, but I suspect these guys will do very well.
I’m sad to say, that these days I’m suspicious of anyone who gets a good deal, and I’d be curious as to who said “take it away for a penny” was, what his history is, and who the guys who got it (high bidder at a penny?) were, and if they had any political affiliation with the administration or its supporters.
I think it would be cool to keep one of these old carriers running as an amusement park. I’d like to be able to buy an old aircraft carrier, refit/restore it, and run it as a “fantasy” cruise ship, complete with daily flights in restored F4s, A4s, etc.
It would be difficult to run such a project at a profit, but it would certainly be fun, and I bet there are quite a few people out there who would pay a premium to experience real catapult launches, exciting rides in fighter jets, and arresting cable landings.
Hmmm. Maybe I should buy the Saratoga...
But then it’ll probably cost a bazillion dollars to move it to the scrapper’s yard.
A lot of people will go to work scrapping that puppy.
Scrapping a big ship is no easy task nor is it cheap. Thus the ship breakers in places like India tend to work under the very crudest of conditions in order to turn a profit.
Alang, India would be one example.
Only by idiots like you who never serve aboard her.
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