Time Passages

Comes word via ‘Phib 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…