Forrestal (CVA 59) - Naval Cruise Book

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VOLUME ONE: The Story of a Carrier Summer, 1959-Summer, 1960 In July, 1955, the largest warship ever built was christened by the widow of the man for whom it was named, the United States ' first Secretary of Defense, James Vincent Forrestal. In a very im- portant sense, the story of the Forrestal began with that launching more than five years ago, as with the traditional splash of champagne across the mighty steel hull, the ship acquired a purpose and an in- spiration as she acquired a name. . . . The United States Ship Forrestal. This ship, first of a new and powerful class of attack carrier, was to become a realization of Secretary Forrestal ' s greatest hope . . . Power for Peace. Her activities during her short history have indicated that she has pursued that purpose ... In 1956, dur- ing the tension-filled Egyptian crisis, she was called upon to increase American strength in that troubled area, serving her military role with distinction. Soon after her return to the United States, how- ever, she left for the Mediterranean on her first deployment with the Sixth fleet ... a cruise in which she served as a friendly am- bassador of good will in all of the countries which she visited, and as she has continued to serve in the years that followed. VOLUME TWO: Its Concept The Air Group Forrestal, however, was designed to serve as more than a symbol of strength and friendship. She was created, specifically, as a mobile airbase with the necessary physical characteristics to launch, maintain and recover today ' s supersonic jet aircraft. Forrestal, as a completely integrated airfield, has two runways permitting planes to be launched and recovered simultaneously, as well as the necessary hangars and repair shops for the storage of aircraft and their maintenance in fighting condition. This permits Forrestal, as a key member of the United States Carrier Task Force, to serve as a mobile, flexible and versatile weapons system that can be moved rapidly to any part of the world to enforce our national policy . . . whenever and wherever she is needed. As Secretary Forrestal has stated, Peace, without power to enforce it, must remain an empty dream. Forrestal has that power and proudly serves to maintain American standards and beliefs in a free world. VOLUME THREE: Its Components The Ship ' s Company But there are some who will claim that the story begins else- where . . . that the story of a carrier, the story of Forrestal, did not begin with the launching or the designer ' s vision, or the first jet that thundered aloft with screaming wings from her intricate launching system. The story perhaps began as, with a distinguished name and a tangible, achievable purpose, with the dream of peace and the capability of enforcing it . . . Forrestal came alive with men. These were the men who would enforce the peace with quiet courage, who would take on the less glamorous and thankless jobs to keep her in eternal readiness, the men by whose actions and words other countries would judge our country. The men who were called upon to breathe life and spirit into the iron machinery that moves this mighty ship were the beginning of her story and each day. and each year these men write new stories, building the legend that is Forrestal.

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This, then, is the story of a carrier . . . the story of Forrestal. It is the story of one year only, but in it are all the stories that have been written and will be written. We present the story of FORRESTAL with the understanding that it is not every man ' s story, but with the hope that each man will find in it something of the strength that this ship symbolizes, as well as vivid, pictorial remembrances of the shipboard activities, the ports and the friendly, curious faces of the peoples of other nations, memories that include endless days of hard work around the clock, mo- ments of solitude boredom and loneliness . . . moments, too, of exhiliration, dedica- tion, and hilarity. Perhaps in this story each man will find the unique ingredient that each man puts into the curious menage of men and machines that form the ship known as Forrestal.