Forrestal (CVA 59) - Naval Cruise Book

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USS F ORREST AL - INTERESTING FACTS The FORRESTAL is 1,039 feet long and would reach to the 80th floor of the Empire State Building if stood on end. The Flight Deck is 252 feet wide at its extreme breadth. The entire deck covers a total area of approximately four acres. It is wide enough to sit both the SS UNITED STATES and the SS AMERICA side-by-side on her deck, or as wide as a World War I destroyer was long. E From keel to mast, the FORRESTAL is as tall as a 25 story building. The engines that drive F ORRESTAL deliver more than 260,000 horsepower, or enough horsepower to keep about 1,430 1968 six-cylinder Mustangs on the road. The Hangar Deck area for handling, parking, and repairing aircraft is the main deck. It is 75,000 square feet in area, or two acres, and can house more than 80 planes. Storerooms on the ship are equal to a six-story warehouse one block square and have a total capacity of 371,204 cubic feet. It takes 300,000 gallons of paint to paint FORRESTAL. This is enough' paint to paint 30,000 average homes. The ship cruises at a speed of more than 30 knots, ,or 36 miles per hour if you are driving a car. 2 I

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FGRREST AL - FIRST IN DEFENSE The F ORRESTAL story began long before the ship herself was laid down. In the closing months of World War II, Admiral Mark Mitscher, at the time the Commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force in the South Pacific, made the first recorded suggestion for a carrier with the general characteristics of the Forrestal Class. Other military and civilian leaders agreed with him. In the years following the war, the need for aircraft carriers larger than the Midway Class became increasingly apparent. Advances in aviation, particularly the advent of the heavier, faster, jet aircraft, could be exploited fully only by the construction of a large, modern carrier, designed specifically for compatibility with these high-performance aircraft. On July 12, 1951, the Navy announced that the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company had been awarded a contract to build CVA-59. The keel for the new ship was laid July 14, 1952. Less than 30 months later, the first of the post-war carriers was launched. Mrs. James V. Forrestal, widow of the first Secretary of Defense, christened her USS FORRESTAL. Commissioning ceremonies were held October 1, 1955, at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. On the same day, Captain Roy J. Johnson became the first commanding officer of F ORRESTAL. Commander Ralph L. Werner, commander of the air group, recorded the first arrested landing on January 3, 1956. Since then, F ORRESTAL has recorded well over 235,000 landings. Following a ten-week shakedown cruise to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and summer operations off the Atlantic coast with the U.S. Second Fleet, F ORREST AL was called to bolster U.S. forces in the Mediterranean during the Suez crisis in the fall of 1956. The new carrier returned to Norfolk for Christmas, but on january 23, 1957 she sailed for her first regularly-scheduled deployment as a unit of the Sixth Fleet, this time because of civil strife in Lebanon. When the crisis ended, she returned to Norfolk. From 1958 through 1966, F ORRESTAL alternated between the Second Fleet in the Atlantic and the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. In June 1967, F ORRESTAL departed Norfolk for her first combat cruise in the Western Pacific as a member of the U.S. Seventh Fleet. She took up station on Yankee Station, off the coast of North Vietnam, on july 23, 1967. A tragic fire on the fifth day of combat operations brought F ORRESTAL's part in the war to a sudden end. The fire killed 134 men and sent FORRESTAL back to Norfolk for repairs. Following seven months in Norfolk Naval Shipyard, F ORRESTAL deployed for the Mediterranean in July, 1968. With Air Wing Seventeen embarked, she recorded the longest CVA deployment in the Sixth Fleet up to that time - more than nine months. Upon returning to Norfolk in April 1969, the ship's engineering spaces were overhauled for three months. This was followed by six weeks refresher training at Guantanamo Bay. On December 2, 1969, FORRESTAL deployed to the Mediterranean for her eighth Six Fleet deployment which she completed on July 8, 1970. Following a minor overhaul period at the shipyard, the ship celebrated her 15th birthday by putting to sea for sea trials. Following operations off the Virginia Capes area, and a Christmas and New Year's holiday leave period, F ORRESTAL left her homeport of Norfolk for her ninth deployment with the U.S. Sixth Fleet. F ORRESTAL returned from the Mediterranean on July 2, 1971, and entered the shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, on july 16 for a ten-month overhaul. After completion of her yard period, she began type training, carrier qualification of Attack Carrier Air Wing Seventeen and operational readiness evaluation off the eastern coast of the U.S. On the early morning of july 10, fire broke out on the 03 level in flag country. The damage was heavy and forced FORRESTAL into the yards again at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. FORRESTAL left the shipyard on August 18 and resumed preparation for her 10th deployment to the Mediterranean, for which she departed on September 22, 1972. On March 28, 1973 FORRESTAL sped to Tunisia to participate in rescue operations on the flooded Medjerda River valley near Tunis. FORRESTAL helicopters from Anti-Submarine Helicopter Squadron THREE transported thousands of pounds of food, water, and medical supplies and rescued hundreds during the three-day operation.