"Last voyage of the Saratoga." Topic

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Im sad to see all these old ladies going.

I served aboard Ol' Sara for three years; 1977 through 1980. There was perhaps no other ship in fleet that was the butt of as many jokes and jibes, but she was a good ship. During the time I was aboard, she was kept going and going thanks to a lot of hard work, and she never missed an operational commitment. That was oustanding performance considering how old she was at even that time. The fact that they kept her going for another 14 years after that is also amazing. I was always proud of her and I still am.

It is particularly seeing the carriers named for famous warships depart and be replaced by vessels named for politicians. We need carriers named Enterprise, Lexington, Saratoga,Yorktown, Hornet and Wasp rather than the Lucius P. Dingleberry.

Funny, I was in Mayport in the late '80's and we always made fun of the Forrest Fire. And she did miss a deployment because of a fire.

Shagnasty – I very much agree with you on that. The names carried by the WWII carriers should live forever with new ships. But that doesn't pay the bills I guess. (I hope I have now made this thread relevant to the WWII Naval board!)

Murvihill – Are you referring to the horrendous fire that occurred on Forrestal off the coast of Vietnam, or something different?

While maybe not in good taste that is a funny nick name.
Thanks for your service bwanabill.

I'm not American, so I probably shouldn't comment on other countries' ship-naming practices, but +1 to Shagnasty too – the old names are the best names.

At the very list, there should be a 100 year waiting period to let history put the politicians in their proper place. Halls of Fame make athletes do it (well, for 3-5 years), and athletes have stats to back them up.

At least she is not going to suffer the indignity of being cut apart on a beach in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.

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Would be more palatable if the steel recycled from her were used in the next Saratoga, if there ever is another one.

"It is particularly seeing the carriers named for famous warships depart and be replaced by vessels named for politicians. We need carriers named Enterprise, Lexington, Saratoga,Yorktown, Hornet and Wasp rather than the Lucius P. Dingleberry."

While I would personally get a major laugh out of hearing a news report that the mighty all conquering USS Lucious P Dingleberry was absolutely tearing stuff up for 'Murica, I do, in general, approve of this person's message.

Forrestal had a fire in the catapult equipment room in the late '80's. I was on duty on USS Luce that night and you could see the glow of the flames across the basin. All the repair parties in the basin responded. Story was the Boiler Technicians had stored some fuel-absorbent foam rubber in the space against an unlagged steam pipe and when they were testing the cats before deployment the foam rubber went up. Forrestal had to delay deployment and the Ike had to extend to cover for her.

I did not know about that one. When I was in Mayport in the late 70s Forrestal already had that unfortunate nickname and I always assumed it was because of the big 1967 fire off Vietnam. That was a horrible event that killed 134 crew members. I always believed that nicknames like that are unfair to the crew. If you look at the videos of the 1967 fire you can see amazing acts of heroism. There was something like nine bombs that cooked off on the flight deck. Forrestal was in serious danger but her crew saved her.

There's a documentary about the '67 fire "Trial by Fire", best movie we saw in boot camp. Mind you, it was a low standard to meet. I think you can find it on the internet.

The new Gerald R. Ford class CVN William Jefferson Clinton…

Hey, you said you were worried about dingle berries….