Quote Originally Posted by pelago View Post
SADDEST TIME REMEMBERED, Was just toolin around in my boat and all of a sudden in Morehead City NC there sits the USS SAIPAN, but wait somethings wrong. HELL IT WAS BEING DE COMMISSIONED LHA CLASS, AND DAMN I WAS A PLANKHOLDER
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Saipan_(LHA-2)
SOMEWHERE I HAVE A PHOTO TAKEN DURING GRENADA.F ME ESCORTING (WELL SORT OF) WITH A 12 GAUGE SHOTGUN TO THE GUYS NECK, ACROSS FLIGHT LINE, HAD A BATTLE DRESSING ON MY *** DUE TO THIS SOB SHOOTING ME. NO DID NOT SHOOT HIM, WANTED TO THOUGH
Ira: We Hijack your threads so often, but they make starting points for so many good stories. Thanks.


There is a special pain associated with seeing a ship in which you have served being scrapped. I think some of it is how it reminds us that one of these days we are going to the scrapper as well.

In the late summer or early fall of 1967, after I had reported aboard the USS Shasta, we were tied up alongside a tender, USS Amphion, having repair and maintenance work done after the return from the WESTPAC deployment and circumnavigation of the globe. There was a ship moored between the Destroyer and Submarine piers and the main Naval Station that was obviously an inactivated ship awaiting her fate. I did some looking and I found out that she was the USS Franklin (CV-13). The USS Franklin was damaged in a Japanese air attack in March of 1945 and to this day is the most severely damaged aircraft carrier in Navy history; the USS Forrestal and USS Enterprise fires included.

I was standing the Quarterdeck watch one morning with an old Chief Boatswain’s Mate. At that time he seemed older than the Ancient Mariner – he might have been fifty years old(!).. In his dress khaki uniform, left arm loaded with service stripes with the Officer-of-the-Deck’s spyglass under his arm, I was in awe of him – I was still fairly new to the command. He was a REAL sailor to me.

As we watched, a tug came in from seaward with a ship in tow, heading up the river towards the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. It was time for the Franklin to make her final trip up the river to Portlock Salvage in Portsmouth, VA. I don’t remember who noticed her first, but I remember I asked the old Chief; “Is that the Franklin?”

He replied “Yes son, that’s the Franklin. The last time I saw her was 1945 off Japan and I was just a kid. She was on fire, she would blow up and s**t would fly off, she would burn a while and blow up again and people and s**t would fly everywhere again. We spent a lot of the day looking for people who had been blown off. We found a lot but most of them were dead when we found them”.

It was a sobering time for a 22-year old to see a crusty old sailor stand there with tears running down his cheeks – I shed a few tears too. One of his last comments was; “Well, she’s gone now and I won’t be far behind”.

Now, fifty-plus years later as the ships of my youth have been scrapped – I fully understand the Old Chief that morning.

For more information – I am providing this link:

https://www.history.navy.mil/researc...ranklin-v.html

I disagree with some details at the end of the Wiki. I suspect Red Star Towing delivered the USS Franklin to the Naval Base at Norfolk where she was picked over for about a year before she was towed up river. I know that some of our engineers and electricians salvaged gear from her since much of her gear was of the same vintage as ours with a LOT fewer hours of operation.