Posted on Mar 7, 2015
The USS Ranger underway on her final cruise. Thank you Ranger alumni for your service.
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USS Ranger towed from Bremerton; next stop Texas scrap yard
BREMERTON, Wash. — The mothballed aircraft carrier USS Ranger was towed out of Bremerton Thursday, starting a 16,000-mile trip from Puget Sound, around South America to a scrap yard in Texas.
The USS Constellation completed the same five-month journey in January to International Shipbreaking at Brownsville, Texas.
The Ranger was commissioned in 1957 and was active from the Vietnam War to Operation Desert Storm, the first Persian Gulf War. The carrier was decommissioned in 1993 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
USS Ranger leaving Puget Sound for Texas scrap yard
The Kitsap Sun reports the Ranger's departure will leave two carriers in the Bremerton mothball fleet, the USS Independence and the USS Kitty Hawk.
The Independence goes to Texas later this year. The Navy is holding Kitty Hawk in reserve until the supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford becomes active in 2019.
BREMERTON, Wash. — The mothballed aircraft carrier USS Ranger was towed out of Bremerton Thursday, starting a 16,000-mile trip from Puget Sound, around South America to a scrap yard in Texas.
The USS Constellation completed the same five-month journey in January to International Shipbreaking at Brownsville, Texas.
The Ranger was commissioned in 1957 and was active from the Vietnam War to Operation Desert Storm, the first Persian Gulf War. The carrier was decommissioned in 1993 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
USS Ranger leaving Puget Sound for Texas scrap yard
The Kitsap Sun reports the Ranger's departure will leave two carriers in the Bremerton mothball fleet, the USS Independence and the USS Kitty Hawk.
The Independence goes to Texas later this year. The Navy is holding Kitty Hawk in reserve until the supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford becomes active in 2019.
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 13
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I never stepped aboard the USS Ranger, but I will mourn her passing.
I don't know if aircraft or armor guys feel the same way, but when a ship gets decommissioned and later "ceases to exist" - as we say in the canoe club - anyone who served aboard that ship experiences a sense of loss. Even if we didn't like the time we served aboard, we still feel like a "shipmate" is gone.
BZ to the USS Ranger and ALL who served aboard her.
Farewell, Ranger... Fair winds and following seas...
I don't know if aircraft or armor guys feel the same way, but when a ship gets decommissioned and later "ceases to exist" - as we say in the canoe club - anyone who served aboard that ship experiences a sense of loss. Even if we didn't like the time we served aboard, we still feel like a "shipmate" is gone.
BZ to the USS Ranger and ALL who served aboard her.
Farewell, Ranger... Fair winds and following seas...
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SFC Mark Merino
They just retired my aircraft (OH-58D) and they are starting to show up at the aircraft graveyard right here in Tucson. It is like attending a funeral.
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PO2 Steven Erickson
SFC Mark Merino, do pilots or crew chiefs follow individual airframes? I was wondering if there was a "bond" between man and machine in the Army / Air Force?
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SFC Mark Merino
Oh Lord, YES. All the pilots are left to their fates. Only about 40% are reclassing to other airframes. The rest are left to become walking warrants or leave (the majority are leaving). The crewchiefs (15S) are having to reclass to other airframes or MOS's. The armament dawgs get additional identifiers to work on the 58's, so they will have to relearn other specialties. The big push is Apaches. I am a HUGE fan of the aircraft, but the scout mission just took a gigantic kick in the nards. When bad guys run ino crowded streets , the 58D could fly right over them and engage with an M-4. Many times the enemy dropped weapons and the scouts marked the location for the ground guys. I guess the Apache will just blow up the neighborhood and wave to the Al Jezeera camera crew.
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PO2 Steven Erickson
Thanks, SFC Mark Merino.
BTW, I was in Phoenix about a month ago. Sweeeeet weather compared to Chicago.
Couldn't image August, tho. Never thought living 98 miles from the surface of the sun was a good time!!!!
BTW, I was in Phoenix about a month ago. Sweeeeet weather compared to Chicago.
Couldn't image August, tho. Never thought living 98 miles from the surface of the sun was a good time!!!!
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This just makes me feel old. My best friend from HS was on the Ranger during DS/DS. Which means I was at OBC at the time, which means.... damn.
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