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Photo # 80-G-682046:  USS Forrestal running trials, September 1955

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Forrestal (CVA-59, later CV-59 and AVT-59), 1955-____

USS Forrestal, lead ship of a class of 56,000 ton aircraft carriers, was built at Newport News, Virginia. Commissioned in October 1955 as the U.S. Navy's first carrier of entirely post-World War II design, she was conceived as an operational platform for large, high-performance aircraft. After shakedown in early 1956 and a trip to the eastern Atlantic during the Suez crisis later in the year, Forrestal began the first of her many Mediterranean cruises in January 1957. She operated in the North Atlantic in September and October of that year and again cruised to the eastern Atlantic during the 1958 Lebanon crisis.

From 1958 to 1966, Forrestal deployed to the Mediterranean six more times. Closer to home, she also conducted aircraft trials, operated in the Atlantic and Caribbean, and was refitted with new aviation and command and control systems. In June 1967, the big carrier began her only Pacific Ocean cruise, to provide additional airpower to the Vietnam war effort. This was cut short when, on 29 July she suffered a huge fire that began among aircraft on her flight deck and spread into her hangar. After her crew, showing (in the words of her embarked flag officer) "far more acts of sheer heroism than I could count" had extinguished the blaze, the ship was left badly damaged. More than 130 of Forrestal's men lost their lives, 26 aircraft were destroyed and over thirty damaged. From this tragic incident, the Navy learned firefighting lessons that are still fresh more than three decades later.

Forrestal was repaired in time to begin her eighth Mediterranean tour in mid-1968. She returned regularly over the next twenty-three years, operating with that sea's Sixth Fleet for a career total of twenty separate deployments. During that period, Forrestal also was reclassified as CV-59 (in 1975), served as host ship for United States Bicentennial celebrations at New York City in July 1976, and underwent a massive Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) overhaul in 1983-85. Her Mediterranean visits included participation in Tunisian flood relief efforts in 1973, in the confrontation with Libya in 1981 and in protecting Iraq's Kurdish population in 1991. In 1982 and again in 1988, the carrier operated in the Indian Ocean. She was on "standby" duty in the Atlantic during the 1990-1991 Kuwait war.

Following her 1991 deployment, Forrestal received a new mission, to serve as the Navy's training carrier. She was redesignated AVT-59 in February 1992 and spent much of that year on training service out of Pensacola, Florida. In September, she entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to begin a major overhaul. However, her long service was cut short by the post-Cold War contraction of the Nation's military power. USS Forrestal was decommissioned in September 1993 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. However, she remains in Navy custody and is presently in storage at Newport, Rhode Island, awaiting a possible new role as a museum ship.

This page features selected views of USS Forrestal (CVA/CV/AVT-59).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 85667

USS Forrestal (CVA-59)


Photographed by W.F. Radcliff, 1955.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 119KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-682046

USS Forrestal (CVA-59)


Underway on trials, 29 September 1955, just prior to commissioning.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-22688 (Color)

USS Forrestal (CVA-59)

Awaiting her turn to refuel, while operating in the Mediterranean Sea during the Jordanian crisis, 29 April 1957. USS Caloosahatchee (AO-98) is ahead, with USS Lake Champlain (CVA-39) and USS Salem (CA-139) alongside.
Note Forrestal's eclectic air group, with F3H-2N, FJ-3M, F9F-8B, F2H-2P, A3D-1, AD-6, and S2F aircraft visible on her flight deck.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 97655

USS Forrestal (CVA-59)


Two Douglas AD-5W aircraft of squadron VAW-12 fly over the carrier, while she was operating with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, 25 April 1960.
The planes are Bureau #s 135163 and 135183.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: KN-4507 (Color)

USS Forrestal (CVA-59)

Underway at sea, 31 May 1962, while preparing for her fifth deployment to the Mediterranean Sea.
Note that the carrier has F4H "Phantom II" jet fighters in her air group.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 600 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 97656

USS Forrestal (CV-59)


At anchor in Suda Bay, Crete, June 1978.
Photographed by PH2 Joe Sharp.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97657-KN (Color)

USS Forrestal (CV-59)

Underway in 1987, with three F-14s and an A-6 on her catapults.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 145KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-687790

USS Forrestal (CVA-59)


Catapults a FJ-3 "Fury" jet fighter from a midships catapult, during shakedown operations, 12 March 1956.
Another FJ-3, of Fighter Squadron 21 (VF-21) and a F2H-3 "Banshee" are being readied for launching from the bow catapults.
Photographed by N.W. Bitzer.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 97658

USS Forrestal (CVA-59)


Enters port at Naples, Italy, circa early 1959.
Mount Vesuvius is in the distance.
Aircraft visible on deck include A3D-2 bombers of squadron VAH-5, F4D-1 fighters of squadron VF-102 and A4D-2 attack planes of squadron VA-12. This photograph was released by the Department of Defense on 19 May 1959. Forrestal's 1958-59 Sixth Fleet tour had ended on 12 March of that year.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 149KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: USN 1124794

USS Forrestal (CVA-59)


Crew members fight a series of fires and explosions on the carrier's after flight deck, in the Gulf of Tonkin, 29 July 1967. The conflagration took place as heavily-armed and fueled aircraft were being prepared for combat missions over North Vietnam.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 147KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1124794.

 
Photo #: NH 97659

USS Forrestal (CV-59)


Crewmen secure the cable and hook on a box, during underway replenishment operations in the Atlantic Ocean, 26 June 1976.
Photographed by PH1 G. Burgess.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 545 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

21 September 2001