USS AMERICA, CV-66
I was an the America during the Gulf War.
The left would prefer our ships being sunk by Iran, China, Russia, etc.
Posted on 03/03/2012 9:42:21 AM PST by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO -- In 2005, the USS America aircraft carrier was towed out to sea on her final voyage. Hundreds of miles off the Atlantic coast, U.S. Navy personnel then blasted the 40-year-old warship with missiles and bombs until it sank.
The massive Kitty-Hawk class carrier -- more than three football fields long -- came to rest in the briny depths about 300 nautical miles southeast of Norfolk, Va.
Target practice is now how the Navy gets rid of most of its old ships, an Associated Press review of Navy records for the past dozen years has found. And they wind up at the bottom of the ocean, bringing with them amounts of toxic waste that are only estimated.
Navy documents state that among the toxic substances left onboard the America were more than 500 pounds of PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyls, a chemical banned by the U.S. in 1979, in part because it is long-lasting and accumulates throughout the food chain. Disposing of the carrier that served in the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and Desert Shield cost more than $22 million.
In the past 12 years, records show the Navy has used missiles, torpedoes and large guns to sink 109 old, peeling and rusty U.S warships off the coasts of California, Hawaii, Florida and other states. During the same period, 64 ships were recycled at one of six approved domestic ship-breaking facilities.
The Navy says target practice on actual military ships serves an important national security function, allowing for live-fire exercises and study of "weapons lethality."
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
Ever notice every “green” position is coincidentally exactly opposite what is in America’s strategic national interest?
For real.
Why don’t communists in communist nations, oppose their own nation’s military interests?
It’s for some reason only American communists, who are opposed to America’s own military.
Why is that?
Hmm?
And then the target practice can start.
Aim at the west coast, there I fixed it
Why don’t they cut it up for scrap?
didn’t they use biodegradeable torpedoes?
Does anyone else get that same sinking feeling?
They should have sunk it in closer, as an artificial reef for fishing and diving.
They don’t want the ships in too shallow water; it helps enemy intelligence agencies examine our ships.
That is the function of the military. What do you expect a miltary to do?
/johnny
They have done that in the past.
Great fish habitat!
Most of the PCBs can be removed without that much difficulty prior to sinking.
USS AMERICA, CV-66
I was an the America during the Gulf War.
The left would prefer our ships being sunk by Iran, China, Russia, etc.
Sinking all the ships of all the navies that ever sailed won’t raise the level of the oceans one little inch, but now we will poisen the oceans with a few US Navy ships...Right.
Sinking all the ships of all the navies that ever sailed won’t raise the level of the oceans one little inch, but now we will poisen the oceans with a few US Navy ships...Right.
This is a load of crap. MILLIONS and millions of dollars are spent removing as much of the toxics as is possible before these ships are sunk. I would reckon that the scrap value of the ship is easily spent on cleaning them up before they are sunk. Don’t forget that the “scrap value” is the NET after they are 1: cleaned up “sort of” 2: towed to some non-Bangladesh place where they can be dismantled and 3: the cost of dismantling labor. You can’t just drive or tow the ship into a big melting pot and jump off before it tips in!
Abandon the EPA building in DC and call in an alpha strike. That way no pollutants are left in the ocean, part of DC gets cleaned up and the military gets its practice in. Oh yeah, those officeless EPA federal workers can clean up the mess. Should take them quite a while and keep them off the unemployment lines.
Let them spend a few years crossing oceans, and maybe they would get a clue about their own insignificance.
Scrapping a warship—especially one as big as a carrier—is an expensive and involved process. Many ventures to scrap ships have wound up in bankruptcy, sometimes without finishing the job.
Besides, I kinda like the sentiment somebody posted here, at the time the America was sunk as a test target: “Rather than being ignominiously cut up for scrap after years of service, she was given the chance to serve her country one final time”.
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