747400sp From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 3301 posts, RR: 2 Posted (6 years 7 months 6 days 15 hours ago) and read 3963 times:
I was told by many people that CV-64 the USS Constellation was supposed be CV-63 the Kitty Hawk. From what I have heard, when the Constellation was being built as the Kitty Hawk in New York, it caught fire, and it's whole hanger bay was in flames. The fire was so bad they had to sink her to put them out. After the fire the the carrier was refloated and her island was switched with to Kitty Hawks hull witch was supposed to the Constellation.
So what is the real story. I was told that there's signs that say Kitty Hawk all though the Constellation. Do any body know more about this story.
DeltaGuy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 1, posted (6 years 7 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 3939 times:
http://navysite.de/cvn/cv64.htm Has some info about damage the ship endured...didn't say anything about renaming or anything but it had mention of the shipyard fire.
KC135TopBoom From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 11708 posts, RR: 52 Reply 2, posted (6 years 7 months 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 3838 times:
No, I believe the Kitty Hawk, CV63, was always the lead ship in the class. IIRC, CV-63 was conducting her builders trials at the time of Connie's big fire in the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard.
DeltaGuy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (6 years 7 months 5 days ago) and read 3807 times:
I've heard that the Forrestal has been moved from donation hold status to status as another SinkEx....the NVR lists it as so, making it a fishing reef. Hopefully this isn't true, because out of any of the retired flattops, this one deserves to be a memorial more than any of them, IMHO.
747400sp From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 3301 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (6 years 7 months 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 3783 times:
Quoting DeltaGuy (Reply 3): I've heard that the Forrestal has been moved from donation hold status to status as another SinkEx....the NVR lists it as so, making it a fishing reef. Hopefully this isn't true, because out of any of the retired flattops, this one deserves to be a memorial more than any of them, IMHO.
DeltaGuy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (6 years 7 months 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 3665 times:
Well let's hope something will stop it...this ship is quite historic. Unfortunately the Navy has the brilliant idea of easily disposing of ships by destruction.
At least it's better than scrapping, like the mess with Coral Sea.
DeltaGuy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (6 years 6 months 3 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 3487 times:
Coral Sea became a scrapping nightmare- it was decomm'd, stricken two days later, and sold for scrap two years later- sold to a scrapping company in Baltimore who I believe had some bankruptcy and other issues, not to mention the enormous cost of scrapping a CV- this was the largest vessel ever scrapped to that date, and with all the environmental laws surrounding it, it took 7 years for it to finally get completed. They tried to sell it to be scrapped in China, and it was almost ready to go, when the Navy blocked the move- no capital ships are to be scrapped in foreign countries- good thing. After much ado and a few fires, it finally gave up the fight.
Recently, they were cleaning out that old shippyard where they killed the Coral Sea, and they found a stack of old aircraft bombs (something like Mk-82's), apparently there were some hidden in the ship when they took it apart, and the scrappers simply hid them near the pier.
After that mess, the Navy is pretty much against scrapping another flattop- they'd rather just sink/scuttle/destroy the boat out at sea.
Here's some photos, kind of sobering. The last one is when the company halted work, and it sat like that for some years after. Shame they didn't keep the boat in the reserve fleet like they did with Midway, she ended up getting a second life.
TSV From Australia, joined Nov 1999, 1641 posts, RR: 5 Reply 8, posted (6 years 6 months 3 weeks 6 hours ago) and read 3443 times:
Quoting DeltaGuy (Reply 7): Shame they didn't keep the boat in the reserve fleet like they did with Midway, she ended up getting a second life.
Or they could have given the whole thing to the same City where they gave one of her anchors to ... (You'll have to guess where that City is). Only thing is she probably would have ended up a floating Hotel! Would of been a great Heliport though.
Halls120 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (6 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 hour ago) and read 3417 times:
Quoting DeltaGuy (Reply 3): I've heard that the Forrestal has been moved from donation hold status to status as another SinkEx....the NVR lists it as so, making it a fishing reef. Hopefully this isn't true, because out of any of the retired flattops, this one deserves to be a memorial more than any of them, IMHO.
I saw the Forrestal and Saratoga the other day when I was up at Newport. Very sad to see them as derelicts.
StudeDave From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 392 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (6 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 3375 times:
Yes, it is sad to know the Coral Sea get cut up. I made her last cruise in '89.
The last time I saw her was when I went up to Philly with my squadron at the time (HS-17) to make an attempt at getting underway on the Kitty Hawk after her SLEP, back in 1991 or so.
I see xUSS Midway just about everyday, and it makes me think of her sister. I hope to have my retirement ceremony onboard CV41 in September 2008, in memory of my first ship.
Delta Guy~ I can't 'see' those pictures you posted for some reason, can you please provide a link, or ???
Classic planes, Classic trains, and Studebakers~~ what else is there???
Quoting TSV (Reply 8): Or they could have given the whole thing to the same City where they gave one of her anchors to ... (You'll have to guess where that City is).
One went to the Citadel in South Carolina
Stude, my uncle had his retirement on the Midway...was a very impressive ceremony, they're pretty good about working it out for you.
StudeDave From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 392 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (6 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days 7 hours ago) and read 3346 times:
Thanks for posting the link~ you were right, not a pretty site to look at...
That last pic before all the scrapping photos shows five of my squadron's six SH-3Hs up on deck, so it's all good!!!
It kind of reminds me of the day we were 'in the neighborhood' of the USS Iowa (BB-61) the day she had her turret explosion. Yes, the rest of Carrier Air Wing 13 was onboard that day, but they made way for us and ALL SIX of our birds so that we could fly CV43's Doctors and Corpsmen to the battleship, and MedEvac all who needed to be. Alas, most injuries were just sprains and the like~ unless they were in that turret-
That was my first trip at sea...
Classic planes, Classic trains, and Studebakers~~ what else is there???
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