USS Forrestal, the Navy's first supercarrier, sold for 1 cent

FoxNews ^ | October 23, 2013 | Joshua Rhett Miller

[cunning_fish]

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.

“It’s something that the Navy is caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Ken Killmeyer, historian for the USS Forrestal Association and a survivor of the 1967 incident. “They have to have these vessels no matter how big or small they are, and they use them as you would your car until they’re no longer financially viable. So, they decommission them.”

The company plans to tow the aircraft carrier from its current location at the Navy’s inactive ship facility in Philadelphia to its facility in Brownsville, Texas. All Star Metals anted up the token purchase price based on its anticipated cost of moving and dismantling the ship and the value of the scrap metal it will yield, according to a Navy press release.

[muir_redwoods]

How tough would it have been to auction it off to the highest bidder and give the money to the VA or the Fallen Heroes Fund?

[Chode]

NOW now... your Patriotism is showing

[SamAdams76]

Those aircraft carriers are very large. It will take quite a bit of time and resources to salvage it. They are also almost unsinkable. Even if you wanted to sink one on purpose, you would have to work very hard at it and in the end, you might still not be successful.

[Steely Tom]

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.

I love that.

Ya want Juan to take your calls, that's what you've got to say.

"Stray voltage."

I must have cut class they day they taught that subject.

[duckworth]

Seriously, it could have been an eBay sensation!

[43north]

“Stray voltage.”

Probably a lightning bolt from above to rid the world of that evil human before he did REAL damage... oops, He missed.

[Kirkwood]

Turn it into a casino.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I think it would have served better as another artificial reef. This is a use that actually pays dividends, not just to commercial businesses, but to the US Navy.

To start with, once a ship is scuttled, it becomes not just an attraction for divers, whose culture lends itself to working as US Navy divers, but it acts as a gigantic nursery to sea life, especially fish. In turn this supports the smaller, commercial fishing industry that provides many able seamen to the Navy.

The profusion of life also supports higher level predators including marine mammals, who are always a big attraction to an area.

[logitech]

What a waste of a perfectly good fishing reef.

The commies can’t do anything right.

[bigbob]

Did it still float? Then it could have become a perfect “Illegal Alien Repatriation Vehicle”.

Even if it didn’t.

[goat granny]

From what I have heard from sailors is the Sinkin Sarah was fairly easy to sink. Son served 6 month tour on Forrestal, lovely knows as the USS Zippo.

[hinckley buzzard]

My brother was a charter crew member (Plank owner) of the USS Guam, LPH-9, an LPH which is now known as a littoral assault vehicle. The Guam had its moment of fame in recovering one of the early space capsules upon re-entry. It is now a reef in the Atlantic. The Forrestal should have been given a similar quiet and dignified fate.

[GATOR NAVY]

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.

I wonder how many times I saw "Trial by Fire" in my Naval career?

[Lancey Howard]

The destroyer my Dad sailed on in ‘46 and ‘47 (the Leonard F. Mason) was sold to the Taiwan navy after Vietnam and when the Taiwanese were done with it they sank it for a reef.

[Ann Archy]

Isn’t this the ship where McCain almost burned the thing down with one of his stupid moves?? And MANY sailors were killed because of it.

[hattend]

He was as much a victim of the tragedy as those sailors who died or were injured.

As much as I hate McLame, he was just sitting in his plane minding his own business when all hell broke loose.

[X Fretensis]

This company may have been the highest bidder. The govt.
is fortunate, scrap prices are high. A few years back, Marad and the Navy would have to pay companies to scrap obsolete ships. OSHA & EPA requirements have made ship breaking an expensive operation.

[Ann Archy]

That’s not how I remember seeing the footage years and years ago when EVERYONE thought of him as a hero.

[SparkyBass]

I’ve read a few unofficial articles that blame “Johnny Wet-Start” for the fire.

Not really certain what to believe on it all.