Military News, News From Iraq & Afghanistan - Military Times

Navy: Forrestal to be scrapped or sunk

The famous aircraft carrier Forrestal will be cut up for scrap or sunk as an artificial reef, the Navy has determined.

“Right now, the two disposal options being considered are partial dismantling and recycling or full dismantling and recycling,” said Katie Roberts, a spokeswoman at Naval Sea System Command.

A partial dismantling would result in the hulk of the ship sunk as an artificial reef, as the carrier Oriskany was in 2006.

Forrestal, named for former Navy Secretary James Forrestal, was the site of a horrific fire July 29, 1967, off the coast of Vietnam that killed 134 men and destroyed 21 aircraft.

Oriskany was one of the ships to come to Forrestal’s aid during the blaze, which started on the flight deck but spread below.

Forrestal, which was commissioned in 1955, soon returned to sea and operated until being decommissioned in 1993.

Requests for cost estimates and shipyard capability for the dismantling work are due at NavSea’s program for inactive ships July 10. Forrestal will be towed from its current home in Newport, R.I., to the inactive ship storage site in Philadelphia by next spring, pending transfer to the dismantler.

The last Navy surface ship to be scrapped was the former destroyer tender Puget Sound, Roberts said. That work was completed in March at Esco Marine, a ship recycler in Brownsville, Texas.

Both Forrestal and the carrier Saratoga are now tied up at an aging pier on Naval Station Newport, R.I., but due to deterioration of the facility, both ships need to be relocated by the end of September 2010.

Roberts said Saratoga is “in the process” of being donated to that ship’s foundation, which wants to preserve it as a museum, likely in Rhode Island.