USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42)
History of the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt Aircraft Carrier
The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was ordered for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her keel was laid down by the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York on December 1, 1943. She was launched on April 29, 1945 and commissioned on October 27, 1945 under the command of Captain Apollo Soucek.
During shakedown, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt represented the United States at the inauguration of Brazilian President Eurico Gaspar Dutra in Rio de Janeiro. From there, she sailed north to take part in Eighth Fleet maneuvers along the East Coast. She became the first American carrier to operate an all-jet aircraft on July 21, 1946.
From August to October 1946, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt made her first deployment to the Mediterranean. She visited Athens during the civil war in Greece to show support for the pro-western government. The carrier then returned home to conduct local operations before entering Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia for overhaul.
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt made her second Mediterranean deployment from September 1948 to January 1949. In the following year, she became the first aircraft carrier to take nuclear weapons to sea. In autumn 1952, she took part in Operation Mainbrace.
On October 1, 1952, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was reclassified from CVB-42 to CVA-42. She left the East Coast on January 7, 1954 to undergo extensive refitting and reconstruction at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington. Because she was too big to transit the Panama Canal, she had to round Cape Horn for the journey. The carrier was decommissioned at Puget Sound on April 23, 1954.
After her reconstruction, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was recommissioned on April 6, 1956. She sailed to her new homeport in Mayport, Florida. The following February, she conducted cold weather testing in Maine. Over the next few years, she would make annual deployments to the Mediterranean and participate in NATO exercises. In October 1958, the carrier helped evacuate American citizens and foreign nationals from Cuba in the midst of the Cuban revolution.
During one of her Mediterranean deployments in 1964, the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt lost one of her propeller blades. She sailed to New Jersey via Italy and New York to have her propeller replaced before returning to the Mediterranean to complete her tour of duty.
The USS Franklin D. Roosevelt made her only deployment to Southeast Asia from August 1966 to January 1967. She spent 95 days on the line, receiving one battle star for her Vietnam War service. In the summer of 1968, she entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia for modernization. Her yard work was completed in May 1969.
During USS Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 26th Mediterranean deployment, she served as a transit landing field for aircraft being delivered to Israel during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973. She was redesignated as CV-42 on June 30, 1975. On January 12, 1977, the carrier collided with the Liberian grain freighter Oceanus in the Strait of Messina, but she was able to head to port under her own power.
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt was decommissioned on September 30, 1977. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on October 1, 1977 and sold for scrap on April 1, 1978.
The use of asbestos was common in shipbuilding components for much of the 20th Century because of its resistance to heat, fire, water and corrosion. Because of their asbestos exposure onboard ship and in the shipyards, seaman, shipyard workers and longshoreman are at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma .
Sources include:
John Hedley-Whyte and Debra R Milamed, "Asbestos and Ship-Building: Fatal Consequences," Ulster
Med. J. 77(3):191-200 (Sep 2008)
Naval Historical Center, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships—USS Franklin D. Roosevelt
