Posted on 01/31/2014 4:28:58 PM PST by South40
What, no Brownsville Casino?
Metal fatigue is an issue as is corrosion. Steel looses about half its strength after 10e7 cycles. Think ocean waves large and small here.
It can’t be stressed enough that US carriers finish their service lives having been ridden hard and put away wet.
The Forrestal was designed for a service life of 25-30 years. In the mid 1980s she underwent a service life extension that was supposed to give her another 15 years. It didn’t go well. In fact none of the SLEPs went well. Except for maybe Independence, which quickly replaced Midway in Japan following her SLEP and was very well cared for by the Yokosuka yard workers.
Forrestal was murdered by the US government.
Canada hasn’t had a carrier since 1970, and buying a couple of dozen choppers is a huge defense expenditure up here. The Conservatives are determined to balance the budget within two years, so there would be no sale up here.
That’s okay. It wasn’t my intent to say Canada would want to go this route, but more to say that Canada would be the kind of ally the U. S. wouldn’t mind having one or two of our older carriers in an operational condition. I appreciate the mention.
Not sure what carrier burned at Norfolk, or when. Forestal’s big fire was in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Try five paragraphs from the end.
You got me. I always heard of the underway fire (how many times did we see “Trial by Fire”), but never another fire inport.
Because alliances change.
Saw it in Navy boot camp in San Diego in 1969
She will suffer the fate of most old ships. Either the breakers or the bottom.
Rust preventive maintenance is constant on Navy vessels from sea trials through decommissioning. Once maintenance ceases they go fast.
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