Connie Doomed To Become "Razor Blades"!

[BusyBee604]

Sadly, the Navy has announced that the decommissioned USS CONSTELLATION (CV-64), will leave her resting berth in the Puget Sound NSY in Washington state in several months. She will be towedvto a Ship Breaker on the western coast of the Gulf of Mexjco in Texas, where it will be dismantled for scrap. The towing voyage will cost the Navy ~$1M, as the ship has to go "round-the-Horn", being too large for the Panama Canal.

I hold a special place in my heart for Connie, for when she was brand new, my Squadron (VA-55) rode her (July-Sept '62), from Norfolk to her new permanent of San Diego. Along the way made 4-day port calls in Trinidad, then "Shellback" ceremony at sea, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; Valparaiso, Chile; Lima, Peru; Panama City, Panama, and Acapulco, Mexico. Did some limited day carops (no night ops), and an open house and one CAG-5 airshow in each port. Man, that was a dream cruise!

Then, in 1967, our VA-146 made their second combat cruise on Connie, having made ther first during the "Gulf of Tonjin PT Boat Incident in 1964, that sparked the air war over North Vietnam. I hate to see Connie go this way, would prefer it become a museum (upkeep too expensive), or even sinking as an artificial reef ala Oriskany, but it isn't to be!

*Photos: 1.

Goodbye Ol' Gal... you served us and our country well!

 

[jmcquate]

Were you part of "Flaming Dart" BzB?

 

[BusyBee604]

Were you part of "Flaming Dart" BzB?

jmc, I'm not familiar w/ "Flaming Dart". If that was the retaliation strikes in response to the PT boat incident in '64, I wasn't in VA-146 yet. I joined the squadron in Sept '65 just before the RANGER deployment.
BzB

 

[jmcquate]

jmc, I'm not familiar w/ "Flaming Dart". If that was the retaliation strikes in response to the PT boat incident in '64, I wasn't in VA-146 yet. I joined the squadron in Sept '65 just before the RANGER deployment.
BzB

It was, and in response to VC mortar strikes on airfields in the south.

 

[jmcquate]

Sad to see the Connie go. A storied name in naval history.

 

[wlawr005]

BzB, it's people like you who make me proud to do what I do by putting events into the perspective of a true historian...one who lived the events upon which he orates.

Thank you, thanks for all you've done, thanks for your stories, and thanks for being a member of this forum.

 

[BusyBee604]

BzB, it's people like you who make me proud to do what I do by putting events into the perspective of a true historian...one who lived the events upon which he orates.

Thank you, thanks for all you've done, thanks for your stories, and thanks for being a member of this forum.

I truly appreciate that. It helps me to realize that I'm not wasting my remaining time here on AW.
BzB

 

[wlawr005]

I truly appreciate that. It helps me to realize that I'm not wasting my remaining time here on AW.
BzB

No worries, Sir. Thanks to you, your legacy will far outlive your days on this world.

What a wonderful tool we have been given, we naval brethren who take to the skies. What an awesome and glorious experience, those of us who fly.

 

[CEC-MS]

Awesome, BzB. The Connie was my first ship and where I did my first deployment, which happened to be the Connie's twilight cruise. A couple interesting things that happened were that we had a fire in one of the MMRs. My LPO had previously assigned me as a phone talker in aft steering, so I think I was the only person in my workcenter to not go down in the space to fight the fire. The fire was actually extinguished quickly, but the resulting heat caused some members of the fire teams to pass out.

Also, a plane went over the side during the day and snapped a wing off (no injuries/deaths). The Connie was the "night" carrier during the 2003 Iraq invasion, and I worked the nights, which actually meant I was awake during daylight. A man overboard was called, and I was passed out in my rack with earplugs and earmuffs on (the only way I could get sleep through sweepers). My name was called several times over the 1MC, I never mustered, no one ever came to get me, and eventually someone "reported" me to have mustered and my name was scratched off the list. A little disconcerting to think that my name would get gundecked on a man overboard muster, but oh well.

When I woke up for my shift, everyone told me this story about a plane going over the side and breaking a wing off. Sure, I said, just like you guys tried to convince me to retrieve a water hammer on the lower level of the MMR, or that I needed to check on something in the shop as soon as we secured from Sea and Anchor on my first underway (they would hold boot camps over the gyrocompass and give them a zealous "welcome" on their first underway). I didn't believe them until I went on the smoke deck, and there it was, a freaking wing hanging off the side.

I smoked for several years, and to be honest, one of the things that I would always long for years later when lighting up a cigarette was that feeling of camaraderie with your buddies on the smoke deck in the middle of my first deployment. Years later, when I realized I would never get that feeling again--and for other obvious reasons--I quit smoking. I still miss the Connie.

I've been pro rec'd for CEC, which I'm very excited for, but part of me is sad that I won't serve on ships anymore.

 

[707guy]

BzB, it's people like you who make me proud to do what I do by putting events into the perspective of a true historian...one who lived the events upon which he orates.

Thank you, thanks for all you've done, thanks for your stories, and thanks for being a member of this forum.

Cannot second this enough myself. Having links to our history is invaluable!

 

[BusyBee604]

*Photos:
1. (see photo post #1), LT BzB cake-cutting celebration on 5,000th trap on Connie w/ CAPT T. J. Walker, 1st CO CVA-64, off the coast of Costa Rica - Sept. '62.
2. (photo below), LCDR BzB preflighting 2000# AGM-12C "Bullpup" missiles (2) on Connie flight deck, prior to bridge strike on 10-06-1967.

[EDIT] The above plus photo #2 (below), somehow were left out of post #1.

That big puppy (Bullpup-C), was actually the first deployed pilot guided, air-to-ground missile. It was essentially a 1,000# warhead hitting the target at 2.1 mach. When aimed & planted in the proper spot (center span, or main abutment), it could take down most bridges with one shot.
Caveat: But not the notorious Thanh Hoa ("Dragon's Jaw") bridge. I amongst many others; bounced many a big 'Puppy' off that French-built sucker, leaving nothing but a huge black burn mark behind. We also left many an aircraft/pilot behind (USN & USAF) at Thanh Hoa, including one VA-146 Squadronmate, a 6-year POW/, during the ~5 years before the bridge was finally dropped.
BzB

 

[707guy]

[EDIT] The above plus photo #2 (below), somehow were left out of post #1.

Most amazing thing in that picture is the flashlight hanging off the one guy - looks exactly like the ones we used when I was in 20 years later.

 

[brownshoe]

BzB, it's people like you who make me proud to do what I do by putting events into the perspective of a true historian...one who lived the events upon which he orates.

Thank you, thanks for all you've done, thanks for your stories, and thanks for being a member of this forum.

No shit! (Sadly, not many of the "Old Salts" left on the forum who post.)

 

[BusyBee604]

No shit! (Sadly, not many of the "Old Salts" left on the forum who post.)

'Shoe, you mean these ol' SquadronMates of ours? Taking a smoke break between launches!
BzB

 

[brownshoe]

'Shoe, you mean these ol' SquadronMates of ours? Taking a smoke break between launches!
BzB

Hey! Isn't that "The Chief" smokin' that pipe. (BTW... I owe him a lunch! My turn to buy.)