USS Ranger (CV-61)
History of the USS Ranger Aircraft Carrier
The USS Ranger (CV-61) was ordered for the U.S. Navy on February 1, 1954. Her keel was laid down at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Virginia on August 2, 1954 – the first aircraft carrier in the world to be laid down with an angled deck. She was launched on September 29, 1956 and commissioned on August 10, 1957 under the command of Captain Charles T. Booth II.
USS Ranger sent her early years in training, carrier qualifications and fleet exercises. She joined the Seventh Fleet on February 17, 1959 as the flagship of Rear Admiral H.H. Caldwell, Commander Carrier Division 2. The carrier participated in maneuvers, patrols and warfare exercises off the coast of Okinawa and southern Japan. By the time she returned to San Francisco, California on July 27, her aircraft had conducted over 7,000 sorties to support Seventh Fleet operations.
The early 1960s brought more Western Pacific deployments for the USS Ranger as well as training operations. She headed to the South China Sea on May 1, 1963 when tension built in Laos. The carrier headed to San Francisco Naval Shipyard in California for overhaul from August 7, 1963 until February 10, 1964. She was sent to French Polynesia in May 1964 to monitor French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll with a Lockheed U-2.
After the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, USS Ranger headed out for another Far East deployment on August 6, 1964. On October 17, she served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Miller, Commander Fast Carrier Task Force 77. While conducting air strikes against North Vietnamese targets on April 13, 1965, a fuel line broke and set the No. 1 main machinery room on fire. One man was killed, and the aircraft carrier had to sail to San Francisco Naval Shipyard in California for repairs and overhaul.
Following another deployment with the Seventh Fleet, the USS Ranger earned the Navy Unit Commendation. Her 88,000th carrier landing took place on July 21, 1967. She underwent some intensive combat training from June to November 1967, becoming the first carrier to deploy with the Corsair II jet and the UH-2 C Seasprite rescue helicopter. The carrier participated in the fleet exercise Moon Festival before returning to the Gulf of Tonkin.
On November 30, 1967, USS Ranger became the flagship of Commander Task Group 77.7. The next day, she sailed for Yankee Station. Her aircraft launched air strikes against North Vietnamese targets for five months before she headed to Puget Sound via Hong Kong.
The USS Ranger would continue a series of Western Pacific deployments through the end of the Vietnam War. She set a record of 233 strike sorties is a single day on March 10, 1971. The carrier was involved in Operation Linebacker II, bombing North Vietnam and reseeding minefields. After the Vietnam War, she helped in the withdrawal of U.S. forces. She received 13 battle stars for her service during the war.
USS Ranger provided disaster relief services in May 1976 after severe flooding in Luzon. Later that year, in July, she sailed to the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya was Ugandan forces threatened that country. She underwent overhaul in February 1977.
In February 1979, the USS Ranger headed back to the Western Pacific because tension between North and South Yemen called for a U.S. show of force. But the aircraft carrier never made it there. She collided with the tanker Liberian Fortune on April 5 in the Straits of Malacca. The tanker sustained heavy damage and the carrier sustained a large gash to her bow. She headed to Subic Bay for temporary repairs before pulling in to Yokosuka for permanent repairs.
The USS Ranger made history when an all-woman flight crew landed on the carrier on March 21, 1983. Later that year, on November 1, a fuel spill caused a fire in the No. 4 Main Machinery Room, killing six men. She rescued 39 Vietnamese refugees from a barge in the South China Sea on August 3, 1989.
During the 1990s, USS Ranger took part in Operation Desert Storm. After the liberation of Kuwait, the carrier took part in the commemorative re-enactment of the World War II Doolittle Raid on Tokyo on April 21, 1992. Her final Western Pacific deployment began later that year on August 1. During this deployment, she supported Operation Southern Watch in the Persian Gulf. In December, she headed to Somalia as part of the relief effort Operation Restore Hope.
USS Ranger was decommissioned on July 10, 1993 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on March 8, 2004. She has been set aside to become a museum ship. The aircraft carrier has appeared in several films, including Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Top Gun and The Final Countdown.
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)
U.S. Navy, A Brief History of Aircraft Carriers – USS Ranger
