The USS America (CV-66) is a novel chapter in U.S. naval historical past—half Chilly Battle behemoth, half engineering marvel, and at last the star of probably the most weird finales a provider ever had. Commissioned in 1965, she was of the Kitty Hawk class, designed to interchange the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise.
However when the Enterprise’s price rose so excessive, the Navy made a realistic resolution: assemble America with typical boilers. That selection made her one of many final conventionally powered supercarriers earlier than the transition to all-nuclear carriers.
For greater than three many years, America was a dependable workhorse. She traversed the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and ventured into the Pacific. In the course of the Vietnam Battle, her aircrews remodeled 10,000 fight sorties, dropped hundreds of tons of bombs, and by no means misplaced certainly one of their plane to the enemy, a report that mirrored nicely on each the ship and people on board her.
Within the Eighties, she was working off the coast of Libya, the place the Harpoon anti-ship missile had its fight debut. Some years later, in Operation Desert Storm, her jets flew greater than 3,000 missions towards Iraqi forces.
However her responsibility wasn’t just for waging conflict. America was current for humanitarian operations, disaster evacuations, and plenty of different missions that necessitated an ready, versatile vessel. Crew members who served on her recall the never-ceasing hum of the engines, the deafening noise of jets taking off, and the fixed feeling of duty that got here with a job on the flight deck—the place self-discipline and precision had been the one means between an atypical day and disaster.
By the mid-Nineteen Nineties, the put up–Chilly Battle drawdown had come exhausting. Whereas her sister ships Kitty Hawk and Constellation obtained expensive life-extension overhauls, America didn’t. She was retired in 1996 and transferred to the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ships Facility, the place she rested for nearly a decade. Many had hoped she can be saved as a museum, however the Navy had different plans.
In 2005, America was stealthily pulled deep into the Atlantic for a secret take a look at named SinkEx. The thought was to look at how a brand new provider would carry out below fixed battle harm—and acquire knowledge that will form future provider designs. For 4 weeks, she absorbed blow after blow: bombs, missiles, underwater explosions designed to simulate torpedo assaults.
To everybody’s shock, America wouldn’t stop. Her double hull and massive inner construction absorbed the beating. Even when it was worst, she remained afloat. Ultimately, Navy crews needed to board her and set demolition prices inside to drive her down.
On Might 14, 2005, at 11:30 a.m., she glided beneath the floor, coming to relaxation upright nearly 17,000 toes down, someplace between South Carolina and Bermuda. She turned the most important warship ever intentionally sunk—and the only fashionable U.S. supercarrier to share that distinction.
The lesson of her ultimate mission was plain: sinking a provider with typical munitions is rather more troublesome than most assume, notably when it’s refueled, weaponed, and manned. America’s sacrifice was taken into consideration within the classes realized through the constructing of the next carriers, which had been made extra sturdy and higher geared up for the worst.
At this time, the USS America lies deep within the Atlantic. She is gone from the floor, however her story stays—a reminder that there are some vessels not constructed to serve, however to struggle to the tip.