USS Forrestal (CV-59)

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USS Forrestal, May 1962
USS Forrestal , May 1962
Overview
Keel laying July 14, 1952
Launch December 11, 1954
1. Period of service flag
period of service

October 1, 1955 -
September 11, 1993

Whereabouts scrapped
Technical specifications
displacement

81,101 ts

length

325 m

width

39 m,
greatest width 76.3 m

Draft

11.3 m

crew

5180

drive

8 steam boilers
4 steam turbines, 260,000 HP

speed

33 knots (61 km / h)

Range

8000 nm at 20 kn

Armament

8 × 5 in. (127 mm) guns, Mk29 NATO Sea Sparrow, Mk15 Phalanx CIWS

Planes

F-8 , A-5 (RA-5C), A-3 , A-4 , F-4 , A-7 , A-6 , A-1 , E-2 , F-14 , S-3 , EA -6 , C-2 , SH-3 , F / A-18 C-130 (test flight)

motto

First in Defense

Callsign

November - Juliet - Victor - Foxtrot

Tactical designation

"HANDBOOK"

Badge

The USS Forrestal (CVA-59) (later CV-59 and AVT-59 ) was an aircraft carrier of the United States Navy and the first of the "supercarriers". She was the lead ship of the Forrestal class and was named after James V. Forrestal , Secretary of the Navy . The Forrestal was the largest aircraft carrier to date. Commissioned in 1955, it was used in the Vietnam War and the Second Gulf War , and was retired in 1993.

technology

Dimensions and drive

The Forrestal was 325 m long, the width of its flight deck was 76.3 m. With a draft of 11.3 m she displaced 81,101 ts . It was driven by four geared turbines , which were supplied with steam by eight boilers and each gave their 65,000 hp to a shaft with a screw. The maximum speed was 33 knots.

Armament and Electronics

At the time of its commissioning, the Forrestal was equipped with eight Mark 42 multi-purpose guns, these were later removed as they were no longer suitable for air defense. Instead of guns, it received launchers for Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles in the mid - 1970s. As part of the Service Life Extension Program , three additional Phalanx close- range defense systems were installed in 1984 .

Forrestal's electronic systems included aerial reconnaissance and search radars . There were also fire control devices for the guns, which were later removed.

Air group

The Carrier Air Wing of the Forrestal was comprised of about 70 aircraft. These included fighters and bombers (including those with nuclear weapons ) for offensive missions. From the mid-1970s, the carrier also received special aircraft and helicopters for submarine hunting in order to be able to defend against enemy submarines .

history

construction

The Forrestal's keel was laid on July 14, 1952 at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News , Virginia . Originally planned with an axial flight deck , it was angled during construction, making Forrestal the first aircraft carrier of a new generation of carriers. The runways, which were arranged at an angle, enabled flight operations comparable to conventional airfields on land ( CTOL ) due to the greater length of the runways . From now on, take-offs and landings were possible almost simultaneously. The launch took place on December 11, 1954, after the ship had been christened by Josephine Forrestal, widow of the former Secretary of the Navy. The commissioning took place on October 1, 1955 under the command of Captain Roy L. Johnson.

The construction costs are estimated at 217 million US dollars (almost 160 million euros).

period of service

1956-1960

Starting from her home port in Norfolk, Virginia , the Forrestal was busy with intensive training measures in the first year off the east coast of the USA and in the Caribbean Sea .

On November 7, 1956, she ran during the Suez Crisis in the eastern Atlantic to operate if necessary in the Mediterranean. She returned to Norfolk on December 12th to prepare for her mission in the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. It expired there on January 15, 1957. Several ports were called in the Mediterranean, and visitors were able to tour the ship. Forrestal's capabilities were demonstrated to military observers . She returned to practice off the North Carolina coast on July 22nd . The exercises served as preparation for participation in a NATO maneuver that took place in the North Sea from September 3 to October 22, 1957 . She ran into Bremerhaven .

In the following year, the Forrestal was again part of larger fleet maneuvers. Experimental flight exercises were also carried out. During the Lebanon crisis in the summer of 1958, the aircraft carrier was again ordered to the East Atlantic to reinforce naval units in the Mediterranean if necessary.

AD-5 over the Forrestal

The second mission of the Forrestal in the Mediterranean area lasted from September 2, 1958 to March 12, 1959. During this time, a program of training, patrol and participation in important maneuvers was carried out. In the meantime ordered back to Norfolk, the Forrestal was again on a tour through the Mediterranean from January 28 to August 31, 1960, which took her to various ports, including Split in what was then socialist Yugoslavia . During this period, the ship took part in planned exercises of the Sixth Fleet and was temporarily open to the public for inspection. After returning to the United States, the Forrestal resumed service off the East Coast and in the Caribbean for the remainder of the year.

1961-1967

Forrestal made history on November 8, 21 and 22, 1963 , when the take-off and landing of a C-130F Hercules transport aircraft were tested. Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 1's Hercules , which made 21 landings and 29 touch-and-gos on the Forrestal , was the largest and heaviest aircraft to ever land on an aircraft carrier. The aim was to find out whether the Hercules could be used as a long-range supply aircraft with a high payload. Although the tests were positive, the permanent supply of aircraft carriers with this large machine was assessed as a risk. The C-2A Greyhound was developed for this task and was used from 1965. The pilot of the C-130F, Lt. Flatley, the "Distinguished Flying Cross" awarded.

Fire on board

In June 1967, the Forrestal was moved to the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea to actively intervene in the Vietnam War . Air strikes on targets in North Vietnam were carried out from aboard the Forrestal . On July 29, 1967, there was a serious fire in which 134 seamen and flight crew members were killed and a further 161 people injured.

The fire was caused by an electrical impulse that arose when an F-4 Phantom , whose engines had just started, switched to its own power supply. There was a brief overvoltage in the vehicle electrical system. Normally the weapon systems are separated from the on-board electrics by two safety circuits before take-off. The first is a locking pin that has a tape that breaks the circuit and is not pulled until just before takeoff. However, due to the tape, the pens of that time were susceptible to wind and tended to loosen themselves. The second is the plug on the weapon carrier itself, which is also only plugged in immediately before take-off, when the aircraft is already in the catapult system. On the basis of complaints from the pilots, the officers responsible on board decided to plug in the plug when the aircraft are ready on deck. In this way, malfunctions in the weapon system - which always required a landing - were to be recognized at an early stage and the take-off procedure in general was also to be accelerated.

Now that both fuses were deactivated, the overvoltage led to the ignition of a Zuni air-to-surface missile . The fired missile set fire to a Douglas A-4 Skyhawk on the flight deck opposite . The chain of unfortunate circumstances continued, as the later investigation showed. In the planned use of the aircraft provided, older bombs should be used because the US Navy no longer had enough newer bombs. These bombs were now stored on the flight deck in front of the Skyhawks to be assembled. The older types have a lower heat resistance and explode around a minute earlier than the newer type of bombs when exposed to comparable heat. When these bombs exploded, the chief and some specialists from the fire department were killed.

The rest of the team lacked the necessary expertise, so they not only extinguished with extinguishing foam , but also with water, which practically canceled the extinguishing effect of the foam and even spread the burning liquid even further. The fire was carried inside the ship and spread there further; Another fire water now led to a flip side of the ship, which would have even led to capsize, but by pumping the contents of oil and ballast tanks was just prevented.

The Forrestal disaster was the largest disaster on board a US Navy aircraft carrier to date, forcing the ship to return to Norfolk's home port for extensive repairs. As a consequence of the investigations after the disaster, the entire security concept of the US Navy was revised. From this point on, it became mandatory for all crew members of an aircraft carrier to take part in training in fire protection and fire fighting .

1968-1975

Between 1968 and 1973 the Forrestal operated four times in the Mediterranean. In March 1973 the aircraft carrier rushed to Tunisia for a rescue operation . The Medjerda River overflowed its banks near Tunis and helicopters took off aboard the Forrestal to evacuate the threatened residents and to transport cargo and medical personnel.

The aircraft carrier was stationed in the Mediterranean three more times between 1973 and 1975 when, on July 22, 1974, the US ambassador to Cyprus , Rodger Davies , requested the evacuation of all US citizens in Cyprus. In a joint operation by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, Marines helicopters and the USS Inchon (LPH-12) , a landing ship in the Sixth Fleet, evacuated 466 people in just five hours. Forrestal air units provided cover from the air.

1976-1980

In July 1976, the Forrestal was the flagship of the International Navy Review on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the United States in New York . President Gerald Ford took the parade of American and foreign ships from the deck of the porter. Also in the summer, the ship took part in a special test that was supposed to simulate the attack with anti-ship missiles and the effects of an explosion near the ship. The resulting damage was then repaired during the scheduled, nine-month overhaul work from January to September 1977.

For an exercise planned off the coast of Puerto Rico , the Forrestal set sail on January 13, 1978, but after a serious accident two days later (an A-7 Corsair II crashed on the deck and killed two members of the crew), the carrier returned the home port. When he set sail for the Mediterranean on April 4, a serious fire broke out in engine room 3 after four days at sea, but this could be extinguished within a short time by the automatic extinguishing systems installed after the disaster in July 1967. The carrier was able to continue its mission and remained in the Mediterranean until its return to Mayport in October 1978. In the meantime he took part in several large NATO exercises, including off the Turkish coast. After her return to her home port, the Forrestal was docked and overtaken for four months.

1981-1987

The carrier began its 16th mission in the Mediterranean on March 2, 1981, the 17th, in which US Marines were supported in Beirut , followed in June of the same year. After crossing the Suez Canal, the Forrestal operated for the first time since the Vietnam War in Pacific waters, together with the Seventh Fleet. This was followed by a stay of several months in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard , during which essential ship systems were renewed and the planned service life of the carrier was increased by 20 to 25 years. The dock stay lasted until May 1985, after which the carrier operated again in the Mediterranean. After a particularly successful exercise in the fjords of Norway in the summer of 1987, the Forrestal visited New Orleans and was also the largest ship to have sailed the Mississippi River up to that point .

1988-1993

USS Forrestal with carrier combat group (1989)

On April 25, 1988, the Forrestal ran again into the Mediterranean, then crossed the Suez Canal to support American units during Operation Earnest Will in the Arabian Sea . When she returned to her home port on October 7th, the porter received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for his mission . In May 1989, Forrestal took part in Fleet Week in New York, after which it was in front of Malta during President Bush's visit . The following year she took part in several large naval exercises in the Atlantic. However , the Forrestal did not take part in Operation Desert Storm . The discontinuation order was issued but then revoked twice. It was not finally granted until the end of May 1991. The carrier spent the next seven months providing aerial reconnaissance and support, as well as protecting the Kurds in northern Iraq .

At the beginning of 1992, Pensacola in Florida became the new home port of Forrestal , where the USS Lexington replaced the Navy as a training carrier . In September the Forrestal was overtaken again in Philadelphia.

Decommissioning

Although the carrier had only recently been overhauled, the US Navy decided in 1993 to decommission it. He was her last pure training provider. On September 11, 1993, the ship was decommissioned in Philadelphia and struck off the registers of the Navy. It should either be submerged as an artificial reef or dismantled.

On June 15, 2010, the Forrestal left the naval base at Naval Station Newport in Newport, where it had been since 1998. She was dragged to Philadelphia. The Forrestal was since then at Pier 4 next to ex- John F. Kennedy .

On January 26, 2012, the responsible naval agency, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) reported to the US Navy that several aircraft carriers of the Forrestal and Kitty Hawk class are to be scrapped. This should affect the Forrestal , the Independence and the Constellation . A group of interested parties from Pensacola wanted to purchase the Forrestal as a museum. Because their condition was too bad for that, however, the group concentrated on the acquisition of the USS Kitty Hawk .

The former Forrestal was sold to the Texan recycling company All Star Metals in Brownsville for one cent in 2013 .

literature

  • Stefan Terzibaschitsch : US Navy aircraft carrier. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7637-6200-0 .
  • Gregory A. Freeman: Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It. William Morrow and Company, New York 2002, ISBN 0-06-621267-7 .
  • Francois Verlinden: Lock on No. 14: USS Forrestal "Gateway to the Danger Zone". Verlinden Productions, O'Fallon 1999, ISBN 1-930607-11-3 .

Web links

Commons : USS Forrestal  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b US Navy has aircraft carriers scrapped - "Sad day" for Americans (ORF.at from December 1, 2013)
  2. navsource.org , as of April 24, 2008
  3. Naval Vessel Register ( Memento from August 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. USS Forrestal arrives in Phila. to await fate, Philly.com on-line, June 18, 2010
  5. ^ Towing and complete dismantlement of multiple CV-59 / CV-63 Class Aircraft Carriers in the United States ; fbo.gov, May 3, 2011
  6. ^ Cory Pippin: The "anchor" that may well solve the Maritime Park financial woes. In: fox10tv.com. January 31, 2013, archived from the original on June 1, 2013 ; accessed on September 30, 2017 .
  7. Navy's First Supercarrier Sold for a Penny at MarineLink.com , October 24, 2013 (English)
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 7, 2006 .