My trip to the US Navy Reserve Fleet in Bremerton, WA
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
Well...thank you very much for those very kind words!Gauntlet said:Goody. Would love to support you. You seem like an real nice and knowledgefull guy.
Again, thanks so much. I believe you will enjoy them. The Edition with all five volumes is hard-back and by far the best value.Gauntlet said:
I have added a complete section for the CVN-21 to the aircraft carrier site popeye. Since initial steel cutting has been accomplished, it is officially, "under construction" and so I placed it there right at the top.bd popeye said:
I know the Kitty Hawk will be decomm'ed in 2008...but hope she remains in reserve for some time to come.
Where do you think they will retire her? Bremerton?
I hope so, then on one of my trips over there I can get good pics of her too!
Jeff Head said:
Jeff all the CV's that have been retired on the west coast were retired in San Diego at NAS North Island. Why? Because San Diego is the home to most of the west coast Navy. One third of the entire USN is stationed in San Diego. (Edit..I made a boo boo. the Indy was retired in Bremerton WA)
But before we jump our guns about retiring the Kitty Hawk another CV will have to repalce here in Japan. that is if the Japanese will allow a CVN in Japan. If not Japan probaly Hawaii or Guam. Plus as I mentioned before the USN fully intends to foward deploy another CV in the Pacific. We shall see.
Jeff did you know that the USN has delayed de-comissioning the JFK at least until August 2006? The below link says the USN will decomm 10 ships in the next year while at the same time comissioning 7 new ones. 2 of the ships being de-commed will remain in service with the Military Sealift Command.
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bigstick61
Junior Member
Too bad most of the reserve fleet is gone now. I went to the one in Philadelphia and saw Knox-class FFs, Spruance-class DDs, a Des Moines-class CA, and other warships. Almost all of them are gone now, either sunk or sent to the breakers. Even the Des Moines just got sent to the breakers. Most of what remains is planned for disposal. Another one I've been to is the MARAD facility in Suisun Bay. There are a couple of Belknaps there, some old frigate preceding the Knox-class, and an Iowa-class BB (the Iowa herself), along with some amphibious vessels, and of course, since it is a MARAD facility, dozens of merchant and auxiliary vessels. To the west at Mare Island there was and still is an Iwo Jima-class LPH. I've also seen the reserve vessels at Pearl.
Tasman
Junior Member
Thanks Jeff. I think that it is really disappointing that the USN seems to have moved away from its policy of maintaining a substantial reserve fleet. I think the Spruance class destroyers in particular would have been worth keeping for any future emergency.
The USN placed hundreds of destroyers in reserve after WW1 (the flush deckers) and WW2 (Fletchers, Sumners, etc). Of course the big difference (apart from the fact that the Spruances are similar in size to many WW2 cruisers) is that the Spruance class were worked hard for a long time and many may have been worn out. Many of the WW1 flush deckers, on the other hand, went almost straight into reserve after completion.
In the case of the carriers it would probably be uneconomical to try to get any more out of them. The big carriers have all given magnificent service and no one can say that they didn't give value for money. They deserve their retirement. It is sad though to see fine ships in the last days of their lives as they wait for disposal.
Cheers
Well, of the 31 Spruance destroyers, only seven are left. The David R. Ray, DD-971, is one of these. Three of the others are slated to be sold, and the other four are waiting disposal. I hope they keep at least four in reserve.
Twenty have been sunk, four have been scrapped. Most of these vessels had anywhere from ten to sixteen years of service life left.
Those two FFG, FFG-12, and FFG-14 were slatred to be sold to Portugal last year, but they backed out and I believe they are still there in Bremerton too. The Vincennes is also still there. She was decommissioned with in 2005 with 14 years service life left.
Although you wouldn't think we would, we have already sunk one of the five AEGIS cruisers (the ones with the double arm launchers) that were decommissioned. The CG 50, Valley, Forge. She was decommissioned in 2004, with 15 years service life left, and then sunk off Hawaii in November 2006.
Here's a good site that keeps track of all US vessels, their decommissioning and all of the SINKEX that are going on:
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bigstick61
Junior Member
All those ships in that picture are still there, according to the NVR website. The Ray and the two FFGs are planned for disposal, but they have not decided how they will do this, which means they may still be around for awhile. The bulk of the OHPs were scrapped, sunk, or sold, though. It's really a shame, because the near-elimination of the reserve fleet combined with the decline of the US shipbuilding industry will mean we will be sorely lacking if we ever find ourselves in a major war, and we would have done it to ourselves.