My old ship from 1974-1976. Nostalgic and a bit sad for me and the 100,000 or so of my fellow sailors that served aboard her from 1957-1993. –BB
BREMERTON, Wash. — Naval Sea Systems Command says the mothballed aircraft carrier USS Ranger will be towed out of Puget Sound on Thursday on its way to be scrapped in Texas.
Robert Johnson sees more than a relic of gray steel and worn rivets when he looks across the Sinclair Inlet. He sees home.
“It gave me a piece of my soul I think,” the Navy Vietnam veteran said.
It is the same ship that is on his hat, the USS Ranger, a massive aircraft carrier.
“A lot of people served on it. A lot of people worked on it, played on it and many died on it,” Johnson said.
He worked in the electronics and radio towers, making sure bombing raids went without a hitch from the South China Sea.
“They had to have radios to talk back to the ship,” he said.
Johnson served on the ranger for nearly three years, sometimes going two months without seeing land. Now that home is rusting away in Bremerton.
“They sold it to the scrap company for a penny,” Johnson said of the Navy’s plan to get rid of the Ranger to a Texas company.
The Ranger will soon begin its months-long journey around South America to get to Texas and broken down for scrap and parts. It’s too large to make it through the Panama Canal.
The ship served in Vietnam, the pacific and the Gulf war and even made cameo appearances in “Top Gun” and other 1980s blockbusters like “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”
In a way a ship nearly everyone knows, but few as well as Johnson.
“It’s sacred ground right down until they rip the last bolt out,” he said.
It will take five months to complete a 16,000-mile trip.
via KOMOnews.com
