USS Saratoga (CV-60)
_in_the_1980s.jpg) USS Saratoga |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | Aircraft carrier |
| Keel laying | December 16, 1952 |
| Launch | October 8, 1955 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| period of service | |
| Whereabouts | will be scrapped |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
maximum 81,101 tons |
| length |
324 m |
| width |
39.6 m (waterline) |
| Draft |
11.3 m |
| crew |
552 officers, 4988 men |
| drive |
8 steam boilers |
| speed |
33 kn |
| Range |
8000 nm at 20 kn |
| Armament |
4 × 127 mm (5-inch) guns |
| Planes |
70-90 |
| motto |
Invictus Gallus Gladiator |
| Tactical designation |
FAIRFIELD |
| Nickname |
Super Sara |
The USS Saratoga (CVB-60 / CVA-60 / CV-60) was an aircraft carrier in the United States Navy . She was the second Forrestal-class aircraft carrier and was named the sixth ship in the US Navy after the Battle of Saratoga and retired in 1994.
history
construction
On July 23, 1952 , the ship was ordered as a "Large Aircraft Carrier" (CVB) at the New York Naval Shipyard . The classification as an attack aircraft carrier (CVA) took place on October 1st. She was laid down on December 16 of the same year. Baptized by the widow of US Senator Charles Spalding Thomas , the carrier was launched on October 8, 1955 and, with additional equipment, was put into service on April 14, 1956 under Captain RJ Stroh.
period of service
1950s
The Saratoga spent the first months after its commissioning with training and inspection trips off the east coast of the USA. In mid-December the porter returned to dry dock for two and a half months in New York and was relocated to the new home port of Mayport , Florida in early March 1957 . Beginning June 6, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his Cabinet attended a number of large-scale operations off the east coast aboard the Saratoga during which two F-8 Crusaders set a new speed record by traveling from the USS Bon in 3 hours and 28 minutes Homme Richard flew to the Saratoga off the west coast . After her first Atlantic crossing in September, the carrier took part in a NATO naval exercise in the North Sea . By the end of January 1958, the Saratoga was overhauled in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard . On February 1, she ran for the first of eight (until 1967) Mediterranean missions. In the following period, the Saratoga was either there or off the coast of Florida for most of the year or in the shipyard for overhaul.
1960s
,_USS_Shangri-La_(CV-38)_and_other_US_ships_in_Augusta_Bay,_Sicily,_1965.jpg)
On May 24, 1960, the Saratoga collided with the German freighter Bernd Leonhardt off Cape Henry shortly before midnight . During the collision, both the aircraft carrier and the superstructure of the freighter were badly damaged by an explosion in the fuel depot, but there were no injuries or deaths. During a stay in the Mediterranean on January 23, 1961, a serious fire broke out in engine room 2, killing 10 seamen. Despite the damage that was provisionally repaired in Athens , the ship was able to continue its patrols, albeit at a slightly reduced speed. On January 2, 1968, it was in Philadelphia for 13-month overhaul and renovation work in the shipyard. When the Saratoga left Philadelphia on January 31, 1969, several months of training trips off the east coast followed. On May 17, she was the host ship for President Richard Nixon during Armed Forces Day off Chesapeake Bay . Her ninth Mediterranean voyage began on July 9th. On the way to the Mediterranean, the carrier group encountered several Soviet ships, including a November class submarine , on the way to Cuba . In front of the Azores, the carrier group was shadowed and photographed by Soviet aircraft. In the eastern Mediterranean, the Saratoga operated with Task Group 60.2 in response to the massive Soviet naval presence in the region, the hijacking of a TWA flight to Syria and the political changes in Libya . In addition, Saratoga planes cleared up the Russian helicopter carrier Moskva , which operated south of Crete . In October of the year, when the political situation in Lebanon worsened, the carrier operated again in the region.
1970s
The porter again spent the first half of 1970 in domestic waters off the US east coast. During her next stay in the Mediterranean, President Nixon was on board for a few days when news of the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser arrived on September 28 . The news staff provided the US President and his staff with the necessary information as Nasser's death threatened to destabilize the region. Upon her return to the States, she was inactivated on November 2 through March 10 of the next year. Then she ran out to the Mediterranean again and also took part in an exercise off the Scottish coast in the North Sea . At the end of October she returned to Mayport for a few months and ran to the Pacific in April 1972 , where she supported the American troops used in the Vietnam War . From the Yankee Station from fighter-bombers flew close air support missions, fighter aircraft of Saratoga secured the airspace. At the end of June, the carrier was redesignated as a "multifunction carrier" and was given the designation CV-60 . On January 7th, the Saratoga left the Yankee station for the last time and steamed over the United States Naval Base Subic Bay back towards her home port, where she rejoined the Atlantic fleet. In the spring / summer of 1975 the carrier operated off the coast of Portugal and also anchored in the mouth of the Tejo in order to prevent the growth of communist influence as part of the NATO operation Locked Gate-75 after the Carnation Revolution .
1980s
_underway_1985.jpg)
In the early 1980s, the Saratoga was completely overhauled as part of the Service Life Extension Program and the technical and electronic systems were brought up to date.
1990s, decommissioned and scrapped
During Operation Desert Storm , the Saratoga operated mostly from the Red Sea , but crossed the Suez Canal six times during the war . A sinking of the carrier personally proclaimed by Saddam Hussein turned out to be a bluff, although Iraqi Scud missiles were fired at the carrier several times . A tragic accident occurred during an exercise with the Turkish Navy in autumn 1992 when a live Sea Sparrow was shot down on the Turkish destroyer Muavenet , killing almost all of the officers on board as it hit the ship's command center.
The Saratoga was retired on August 20, 1994 and removed from the Navy's register of ships. In May 1995 she was moored in Philadelphia and assigned to the US Naval Reserve on January 1, 2000 . The non-profit USS Saratoga Museum Foundation planned to exhibit the ship in Rhode Island as a museum ship , but failed due to funding problems.
After being decommissioned, the Saratoga initially stayed in Newport , Rhode Island . For many years she was together with the also decommissioned aircraft carrier Forrestal on a pier in the US Naval Complex Newport.
The Saratoga has been gradually dismantled since 2006 and sold for scrapping at the beginning of 2014 after paying one cent to the ESCO Marine of Brownsville, Texas. On August 22, 2014, the carrier was towed by two tugs from Newport along the Atlantic coast to Brownsville and reached the ESCO shipyard on September 19, 2014.
The Saratoga received a Battle Star for its service in Vietnam.
See also
Web links
- USS Saratoga association
- USS Saratoga . history.navy.mil
- USS Saratoga . navsource.org
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frontal into the aircraft carrier . one day , September 18, 2008
- ↑ Naval Vessel Register ( Memento from January 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Signet Maritime Launches Final Voyage of USS Saratoga . Maritime Executive
- ^ Former USS Saratoga on final voyage to scrapyard . WTKR
- ^ USS Saratoga lands in Brownsville for scrapping . mysanantonio.com