Nowadays you can’t buy many things for one penny. But if you have good connection with the US Navy you can buy yourself the USS Forrestal, the Navy first Supercarrier.The Navy awarded a $0.01 delivery order Oct. 22 for dismantling and recycling ex-USS Forrestal (AVT 59).
Accordingly to the Navy statement: “The delivery order was made under an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract to All Star Metals for the towing, dismantling and recycling of conventionally powered aircraft carriers stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.The price of the delivery order reflects the net price proposed by All Star Metals, which considered the estimated proceeds from the sale of the scrap metal to be generated from dismantling.”
The Forrestal was decommissioned Sept. 11, 1993, after more than 38 years of service. On June 16, 1999, the Navy announced the ship would be available for donation to an eligible organization for use as a museum or memorial. However, no viable applications were received and the vessel was removed from donation hold in December 2003 and redesignated for disposal. The first of the “supercarriers,” Forrestal was launched Dec. 11, 1954, by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., and commissioned Sept. 29, 1955.
Many remember the Forrestal for the fire which erupted in 1967.The Forrestal was in the Gulf of Tonkin the morning of July 29, 1967, for the Vietnam War effort when stray voltage triggered a rocket to launch from an F-4 Phantom on the flight deck.The rocket struck an armed A-4 Skyhawk — piloted by a young Lt. Cmdr. John S. McCain III — rupturing the fuel tanks and sparking a chain reaction of fires and explosions on the deck, which was parked full of planes.
The crew fought the flight deck fire for an hour, but other fires blazed into the next day.In the aftermath, 134 men were killed and more than 300 injured. The ship was heavily damaged, and more than 26 aircraft were destroyed and more than 30 damaged. More importantly, the Forrestal fire prompted changes to the way the Navy handles damage control and helped improve disaster training.
