Flat Top Back From 'Nam! - The "USS America"

Showing signs of active service, her deck crammed with combat aircraft, the massive bulk of the USS "AMERICA" lies anchored off Portsmouth in the Solent in the early 1970s.

 

Name: USS America

Ordered: 25 November 1960

Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding

Laid down: 9 January 1961

Launched: 1 February 1964

Commissioned: 23 January 1965

Decommissioned: 9 August 1996

Reclassified: CV-66

Struck: 9 August 1996

Homeport: Norfolk, Virginia

Motto: Don't Tread On Me

Nickname: The Big "A"

Fate: Expended as a target

14 May 2005

 

General characteristics

 

Class & type: Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier

Displacement: 61,174 long tons (62,156 t) (light), 83,573 long tons (84,914 t) (full load), 22,399 long tons (22,758 t) (dead)

Length: 990 ft (300 m) (waterline), 1,048 ft (319 m) overall

Beam: 248 ft (76 m) extreme, 129 ft (39 m) waterline

Draft: 38 ft (12 m) (maximum), 37 ft (11 m) (limit)

Installed power: 280,000 hp (210 MW)

Propulsion: 4 × steam turbines

8 × boilers 4 × shafts

Speed: 34 kn (39 mph; 63 km/h)

Complement: 502 officers, 4684 men

Sensors and processing systems: AN/SPS-49

AN/SPS-48

Electronic warfare & decoys: AN/SLQ-32

Armament: Terrier missile (replaced with Sea Sparrow)

Phalanx CIWS

Aircraft carried: about 79

 

Camera: Olympus Pen F Half Frame.

 

Done