Time Passages
Comes word via ‘Phib 1 that the undertaker’s list is out – and it is a long and grim one indeed. When the Ensign and commissioning pennant are hauled down for the last time and the final crewmember walks off the brow, the countdown clock begins – to a museum, the breaker’s torch or the embrace of the cold deep; one of those three will be her ultimate fate. The bell has struck for the following:
Sinking:
- 2009: destroyer tender Acadia, destroyer Conolly, both no longer in
service, and research ship Hayes; - 2010: combat store ships Concord, San Jose, Spica and Niagara Falls;
- 2011: combat store ship Saturn and ammunition ship Kilauea;
- 2012: ammunition ships Flint, Shasta, Mount Baker and Kiska;
- Forrestal and destroyer Arthur W. Radford also are expected to be sunk,
but no time frame has been determined.
Scrapping:
- Aircraft carriers Independence and Constellation;
- Cruisers Yorktown, Vincennes and Thomas S. Gates;
- Destroyer tender Puget Sound; Command ship Coronado;
- Submarine tenders Simon Lake, L.Y. Spear and McKee;
- Amphibious transport dock Austin;
- Helicopter amphibious assault ship New Orleans;
- Dock landing ships Anchorage and Fort Fisher;
- Submarine Trout;
- Nuclear submarines Drum, Omaha, Cincinnati, New York City, Groton,
Birmingham, Phoenix and Baltimore (Los Angeles,
still in commission, also is on the list to be dismantled)
Remember…
I’m sorry to see the Indy go, but I wouldn’t mind pushing the button on the FID myself.
Jim… the FID – how could you! Oh well, she was the only carrier I deployed in so I guess I don’t have anything to compare her to other than a short period on America when VS-28 covered for her squadron. America was in bad shape at that point. Thought the FID was going to be a museum somewhere.
After reading that list I could only think of Ronald Reagan rolling over, may he rest in peace.
Well between the bow cats leaking hot oil into my bunk with me in it, to the bolts of live steam in the shower, I honestly think that boat was out to get me. I will admit to having seen the Forrestal ghost though.
Yorktown, Vincennes and Thomas S. Gates? Those were just coming on line when I was a LT! Now they are going away?! Spent a CARQUAL det on Forest Fire and made my first cruise on Connie. I guess I qualify as old now, whether I like it or not.
I have heard that INDY is going to be a reef like Oriskany.
Anybody got the straight skinny on this?
Served in Independence V-1 Div and IM-2 Div 74-77.