USS Independence departs for Brownsville scrapyard

a reply to: Zaphod58

I remember seeing that in the news!!

That'd make the ol' sphincter muscles contract. Big ol' Long Lance torpedo coming up in the bucket.

a reply to: seagull

The local SEAL unit took it out and blew the warhead. Now it's in the Memorial museum on display.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: TheBadCabbie

Kitty Hawk and JFK are the last two CVs, but the LHA fleet has just started decommissioning. Tarawa is sitting in Pearl Harbor awaiting disposition, and the others will go as the new America class comes online. You'd have to use the LHAs,because the CVNs can't be converted.

It would probably work, at least to a degree though.

Wait, what do you mean that the CVN's couldn't be converted? Why not?

a reply to: TheBadCabbie

Because even though the levels are low, they're contaminated as hell in some areas of the hull. That's why they won't convert them to museums. There was a big push to turn the Enterprise into a museum, but they can't because of the contamination.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ah, I see. It's not that I couldn't, I just really wouldn't want to.

a reply to: TheBadCabbie

Technically it couldn't be, because of safety laws, but you really wouldn't want to either.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Well that's good to know, I don't feel nearly so bad about missing the boats on those then.

a reply to: Zaphod58

The straights are treacherous even on a good day. My great grandfather was a captain and had made the passage dozens of times and he still wrecked a brand-new ship in them over a hundred years ago.

Going anywhere near the horn with something that big in tow is nothing short of terrifying.

I do love it though when these old ladies of the fleet get to die a warrior's death in SinkEx maneuvers. I'm sure what we learn about damage control and survivability is utterly invaluable as well.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It's like how in Portsmouth they used to have the Forrestal and the Saratoga. I remember driving through the War College once around 2001 or so and seeing this tiny surface warship tied next to one of the carriers, that was so small compared to them that I thought it was a frigate or maybe a destroyer.

When I got closer, I realized it was the Iowa.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It's like how in Portsmouth they used to have the Forrestal and the Saratoga. I remember driving through the War College once around 2001 or so and seeing this tiny surface warship tied next to on eof the carriers, that was so small compared to them that I thought it was a frigate or maybe a destroyer.

When I got closer, I realized it was the Iowa.

a reply to: Barnalby

I was watching a show about Reagan I think it was, they followed her from laying down the keel to getting to home port. They cut through the Straits, and the entire time the captain was just about pacing through the bridge. I can't imagine what it must be like with 100,000 tons going through there. A ship on tow must be ten times worse.

The America had explosives detonated on and in close proximity to the hull, and took everything they threw at her. And that was a CV with no crew to try to save her on board.

a reply to: Barnalby

You don't really realize just how massive a Nimitz really is until you see something like that.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I just remember how the original Saratoga took a nuke at essentially point blank range and was still floating, without a crew on board to save her. I'd imagine that they've only gotten tougher since then.

a reply to: Barnalby

Yeah, the Nimitz will take a lot of killing to put her under. That's one of the things that makes me laugh about them. You can mission kill them almost easily, if you can get through the group defenses, but they're damn near impossible to put under.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It's why, though I'd love to see her end up in Boston, Quincy, or Fall River, I'm convinced that Mass will never get the JFK as a museum ship.

What I'd love to see would be for the Navy to decide to one-up Wright-Pat and build a museum at Quonset, Quincy, or The Naval War College featuring the Battleship Cove collection as well as the Salem and the JFK, with a naval aviation museum collection housed on and in the JFK.

People would travel thousands of miles to see that, for sure, and it would be fantastic if they had the budget/space to take on a growing collection of significant vessels that other museums might not be able to take care of. The USN certainly has the money to do it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I'd be shocked if she isn't designed to absorb a nuclear torpedo detonation.

The squadron I was with deployed on the Independence (84-85) and then we picked up the Forrestal from Philadelphia and deployed on her (86). I did a short Det. with the Enterprise (83) when she was at North Island.

Now the Forrestal is gone. The Enterprise is being scrapped and the Indy is on the way to be scrapped. The helicopters that we flew then (Sikorsky Sea Kings) are gone and they deactivated my old squadron (HS-15) the same day that the Indy started her trip.

I think I'm getting old.

a reply to: Zaphod58

a reply to: JIMC5499
What did these CVN's crew with while in service? It was a complement of a couple thousand, wasn't it? More than a thousand at least, if I remember correctly...what about these LHA's? They're slightly smaller aren't they? What's the crew complement on those?

Brownsville is right down the street from me, bunch of mexicanos there. Zaphod, about how many ships go to brownsville to get scrapped? I never knew about that and wonder if its THE primary place to scrap or are there others?

a reply to: TheBadCabbie

Counting the air wing, 5500-6000ish on a CVN. An LHD has a crew of 1070 for LHD 1-7, LHD 8 has a crew of 1059, with an MEU of 1687 normally, and a surge of 1871. An LHA has a crew of 964, and an MEU of about 1900.