USS Forrestal

USS Forrestal

USS Forrestal on 31 May 1962
History
United States
Name	Forrestal
Namesake	James Forrestal
Ordered	12 July 1951
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding
Cost	US$217 million[2]
Laid down	14 July 1952
Launched	11 December 1954
Acquired	29 September 1955
Commissioned	1 October 1955
Decommissioned	11 September 1993
Reclassified	CVA-59, 1 Oct 1952 CV-59, 30 June 1975 AVT-59, February 1992
Stricken	11 September 1993
Identification	Callsign: NJVF [3] Hull number: CVB-59
Motto	First in Defense
Fate	Scrapped, 15 December 2015
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	Forrestal-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	59,650 long tons (60,610 t) standard 81,101 long tons (82,402 t) full load
Length	990 ft (300 m) at waterline 1,067 ft (325 m) overall
Beam	129 ft 4 in (39.42 m) at waterline 238 ft (73 m) extreme width
Draft	37 ft (11 m)
Propulsion	4 Westinghouse geared Steam turbines, 8 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 4 shafts; 260,000 shp (190 MW)
Speed	33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph)
Complement	552 officers, 4,988 enlisted
Armament	8 × 5"/54 Mk 42 guns (removed) Mk 29 NATO Sea Sparrow, Mk 15 Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried	approx. 85 aircraft (F-14, F-4, A-4, A-5, A-6, A-7, E-2, S-3B, EA-6B, C-2, SH-3, A-3B, KC-130 (test flight))

USS Forrestal (CVA-59) (later CV-59, then AVT-59), was a supercarrier named after the first United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. Commissioned in 1955, she was the United States' first completed supercarrier, and was the lead ship of her class. The other carriers of her class were USS Saratoga, USS Ranger and USS Independence. She surpassed the World War II Japanese carrier Shinano as the largest carrier yet built, and was the first designed to support jet aircraft.

The ship was affectionately called "The FID", because her namesake was the first Secretary of Defense, FID standing for "First In Defense". This is also the slogan on the ship's insignia and patch.

Forrestal served for nearly four decades in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific. She was decommissioned in 1993, and made available as a museum. Attempts to save her were unsuccessful, and in February 2014 she was towed to Brownsville, Texas, to be scrapped. Scrapping was completed in December 2015.