Franklin D Roosevelt (CV 42) - Naval Cruise Book

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4.--:J e-1. .- vw..:w ...- - 1, - W. . ,L ,. QL. 1. 'fr.:r2: r-We av fillers wiiwf.-Sf 5512. i:.i:,.r.e October 4, 1976 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT deployed for an unequaled twentieth time to the Mediterranean Sea. On October 14 she relieved AMERICA CV-66 at Rota and transited into the Mediterranean where a Russian KRIVAK class DDG began shadowing her. The ship celebrated her 31st birthday in port at Naples on October 27th. On November 9, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT hosted Dr. John J. Bennett, Assistant Secretary of the Navy flnstallations and Logisticsi, Senator Dewey F. Bartlett and Senator Sam Nunn, while operating in the eastern Mediterranean. Late in November ROOSEVELT Phantoms intercepted high speed Soviet manufactured bombers transiting the Mediterranean. On November 27, an exercise in flexibility was performed with the cross decking of the entire AV8A Harrier squadron to the GUAM LPH-9. GUAM then transited, via the Suez Canal, to Mombasa, Kenya to participate in an air show at Nairobi, during that country's Independence Day celebrations. ROOSEVELT anchored at Taranto, Italy on December 13 and remained there over the Christmas holidays. The AV-8 squadron was cross decked back to the ROOSEVELT on December 27. The ship visited the ports of the Mediterranean for the final time, stopping at Catania, Sicily, Naples, Genoa, Monaco, Cannes, Barcelona, and Palma de Mallorca. During these port calls thousands of European visitors came aboard for a final look at the Grand Old Lady which had represented America in the Mediterranean for over three decades. Relieved in Rota on April 12, 1977, by INDEPEN DENCE CV-62, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT made her last transit to Mayport, Florida arriving there on April 21, 1977 , The rumors of decommissioning and her last last cruise began to take on an ominous reality as the offload of the Air Wing commenced. Few of her crew really could believe that the veteran of so many cruises would really be put to rest, and worse, scrapped On June 8th, 1977 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT got underway for the last time on her own power. Transiting to Norfolk the last sounding over the 1MC of Now go to your stations all the Special Sea and Anchor Detail had a chilling ring to it. As the hangar bays were filled with equipment to be offloaded and the waterline rose ever higher it was like a death rattle could be heard resounding within her mighty steel hull. On June 26, the ship which was once billed as the largest, strongest, and fastest was towed ignominiously up the Elizabeth River to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, where torches began to out at her Scheduled for decommissioning on October 1, 1977 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT will be struck from the Naval Vessel Register and sold for scrapping in the spring of 1978. In years when there is no longer even a hulk of what once was the FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT there will always be those of her crew who will remember her and who will say with pride of the highest mark I SERVED ON THE FDR

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-111 The USS EDENTON, a small ocean going tugboat had a crewman onboard suspected of having appendicitig, With no doctor aboard, the small tug radioed for medical assistance. FDR launched a helicopter as the two ships closed to a distance of 40 miles, where the patient was transferred by sling to the helicopter from the pitching deck of the small ship, and flown to ROOSEVELT for treatment. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT completed her eighteenth Mediterranean deployment on March 17, 1974. On May 6, 1974 ROOSEVELT arrived in Philadelphia and was drydocked. The cracked rudder was repaired, storm damage corrected, and preparations begun for yet another deployment. Leaving Philadelphia in August the ship returned to Mayport. After a brief four month workup period, FDR departed on her nineteenth, and what many thought was her last, deployment. After encountering rough seas in transit the ship arrived at Rota, Spain on January 13. On January 27, ROOSEVELT anchored at Kithira Anchorage off Greece in company with two Soviet warships, a KASHIN and a KILDEN. First liberty on this cruise was in Brindisi, Italy after 35 days at sea. Departing Brindisi she again anchored at Kithira from which she moved to Augusta Bay and then on to Palma for the first real liberty of the deployment. The ship visited Barcelona, Cannes, Naples and Malaga during the balance of the cruise. She participated in two major exercises, Sardinia 75 and Dawn Patrol , and also conducted coordinated flight operations with the FORRESTAL CVA-59. The ship transiente'd4the'Atlantic from July 8 to 16 f if arriving in Norfolk to offload the majority of the air wing. The nineteenth cruise terminated 'in Mayport July 19th, 1975. In October FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT was presented her fourth Admiral James H. Flatley Aviation Safety Award, and on October 27th celebrated her 30th birthday of commissioned service. The ship was in a restricted availability at the time, preparing for her anticipated use as an east coast training carrier. Late in the year persistant rumors were confirmed that FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT would make yet another Mediterranean cruise. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT got underway February 11, 1976, for sea trials and from February 18 to 26 conducted refresher training with members of the Fleet Training Group onboard. ln April, Secretary of the Navy William Middendorf ll toured the ship and presented the Golden Snipe Award to the ship's engineers. A new chapter in Naval Aviation history was begun on July 1, 1976 when an AV8A Harrier VSTOL aircraft of Marine Attack Squadron 231 touched down on the FDR. For her upcoming deployment ROOSEVELT was married to a west coast air wing, Carrier Air Wing 19. The wing consisted of VF-51 and VF-111, flying F4N Phantom ll's, VA-153, VA-155, and VA-215, flying A7B Corsair ll's, RVAW-110 DET 4 flying E1B's, HC1 DET 3 flying SH3G Seakings, and in a new concept, a full squadron of AV8A Harriers of VMA-231, from Cherry Point, North Carolina, were attached.

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