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USS Forrestal (CVA-59)

USS Forrestal (CV-59)
USS Forrestal (CVA-59) underway at sea on 31 May 1962 (KN-4507).jpg
USS Forrestal
History
United States
Name: USS Forrestal
Namesake: James Forrestal, first United States Secretary of Defense
Ordered: 12 July 1951
Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding
Cost: US$217 million
Laid down: 14 July 1952
Launched: 11 December 1954
Acquired: 29 September 1955
Commissioned: 1 October 1955
Decommissioned: 11 September 1993
Reclassified: CVA to CV-59 on 30 June 1975
Struck: 11 September 1993
Identification:
  • Radio Call Sign:
  • November–Juliet–Victor–Foxtrot
Motto: First in Defense
Nickname(s):
  • Forest Fire
  • Firestal
  • Zippo
  • The FID / FID (most common)
  • (First In Defense or
  • Fidelity Integrity Dignity)
Fate: Sold for scrap on 22 October 2013
Status: Scrapped.
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:
  • Steam turbines, 4 shafts;
  • 260,000 shp (190 MW)
Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h)
Complement: 552 officers, 4,988 enlisted
Armament:
Aircraft carried: approx. 85 aircraft (F-14, F-4, A-4, A-7, A-6, E-2,S-3B, EA-6B, C-2, SH-3, A-3B, KC-130 (test flight))

USS Forrestal (CV-59), formerly AVT-59 and CVA-59, was a supercarrier named after the first Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. Commissioned in 1955, she was the first completed supercarrier, and was the lead ship of her class. Unlike the successor Nimitz class, Forrestal and her class were conventionally powered. The other carriers of her class were USS Saratoga, USS Ranger and USS Independence. She superseded the World War II Japanese carrier Shinano as the largest aircraft carrier ever built in terms of full load displacement and was the first to specifically support jet aircraft.

The ship was affectionately called "The FID", because James Forrestal was the first ever Secretary of Defense, FID standing for "First In Defense". This is also the slogan on the ship's insignia and patch. She was also informally known in the fleet as the "USS Zippo" and "Forest Fire" or "Firestal" because of a number of highly publicized fires on board, most notably a 1967 incident in which 134 sailors died and an additional 161 were injured.

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, however, and in February 2014 she was towed to Brownsville, Texas, to be scrapped. Scrapping was completed in December 2015.

Forrestal's keel was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding on 14 July 1952. During construction, her design was adjusted several times—the original telescoping bridge, a design left over from the canceled USS United States, was replaced by a conventional island structure, and her flight deck was modified to include an angled landing deck and steam catapults, drawing on British innovations. She was launched on 11 December 1954, and commissioned into service on 1 October 1955.


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