USS Coral Sea (CV-43)
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|
|
| career |
|
|---|---|
| Ordered: | June 14, 1943 |
| Keel laying: | July 10, 1944 |
| Launch: | April 2, 1946 |
| Commissioning: | October 1, 1947 |
| Decommissioning: | April 26, 1990 |
| Fate: | Disassembled |
| Technical specifications | |
| Displacement : | 45,000 - 65,000 ts |
| Length: | 295 m |
| Width: | 34 m (waterline) |
| Draft: | 10 m |
| Drive: |
|
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km / h) |
| Crew: | 4,500+ |
The USS Coral Sea (CV-43) was an aircraft carrier in the United States Navy . She belonged to the Midway class and was named after the Battle of the Coral Sea .
history
The Coral Sea was commissioned from Newport News Shipbuilding in 1943 and laid down there in July 1944. The CV-43 was launched on April 2, 1946 and officially entered service on October 1, 1947.
The first entries in the record books were made by the Coral Sea in April 1948, when two Lockheed P-2 Neptune JATO launches from the deck of the carrier made on the 27th . This was the first time that such heavy aircraft took off from an aircraft carrier. Later in the year the Coral Sea first moved to European waters and was subsequently overhauled.
In 1950 a North American A-2 took off from a carrier for the first time , the launch deck was also the Coral Sea . The carrier spent the turn of the year in the Mediterranean. The porter also drove to the region once in the following five years. During these missions, among others, were Francisco Franco and King Paul I of Greece received on board, also took the Coral Sea in exercises of NATO in part and stood over the Suez Crisis ready for possible evacuations.
In 1957, the carrier moved to the Pacific for the first time, in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard the Coral Sea was overhauled as part of the Service Life Extension Program . This lasted until 1960.
In 1965, the Coral Sea was first used during the Vietnam War . Seven more six-month tours off Vietnam followed by 1975. In 1975, the Coral Sea was first involved in Operation Frequent Wind , and then later involved in ending the so-called Mayaguez incident .
In 1980 the carrier was used in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, it replaced its sister ship USS Midway (CV-41) , which operated there as part of the hostage-taking of Tehran . In 1985, during training trips off Guantánamo Bay , the Coral Sea collided with the Napo , an Ecuadorian tanker, and subsequently had to spend two months in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard , where the damage was repaired.
In 1985 the ship was used again in European waters, the sixth such operation since the modernization in 1960. Together with the USS America (CV-66) , the Coral Sea was involved in the 1986 bombing of Libyan air defense positions that had threatened American aircraft several times.
The ship continued to operate in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean until 1990 and was finally decommissioned on April 26, 1990. In 1993 the hull was sold to Seawitch Salvage , Baltimore , for disassembly . However, new environmental guidelines subsequently prevented the dismantling, and a sale to China also failed due to the Navy veto. Ultimately, the Coral Sea's hull was scrapped in 2000.
Individual evidence
- ↑ See page 6 ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 851 kB)
Web links
- Coral Sea on navy.mil (engl.)
- Private side over the support (Engl.)