The USS Intrepid (CV-11) - Intrepid Says Goodbye
The Navy's last antisubmarine warfare carrier was decommissioned March 15 When USS Intrepid (CVS-11) was placed in the Reserve Fleet during a ceremony at NAS Quonset Point, R.I.
After Intrepid returned from her last deployment to the Mediterranean in July 1973, the noise of air hammers, sandblasters and acetylene torches echoed across the carrier pier. She was the first carrier to complete the ship's force portion of inactivation in her home port - away from a shipyard.
The carrier's reduced crew spent its time preserving the ship in the best possible condition without making costly and unnecessary repairs. Offices and ships were dismantled and the equipment redistributed to other Atlantic Fleet ships and shore activities. Then every external porthole, hatch and vent was sealed.
Over 420 tons of sandblasting grit was used to remove rust from the ship's exterior surfaces. The sandblasting cut many man-hours of work and achieved better results than chipping and grinding. The crew also put a temporary seal on the flight deck, with the necessary equipment and preservation materials being trucked in from Philadelphia, PA.
Some work, however, cannot be done without shipyard facilities. After the carrier was decommissioned, she was towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for a 3 month industrial inactivation phase. While in the yard, the carrier's catapult cylinders are being removed, the mast unstepped, the hull below the waterline sandblasted and the flight deck permanently sealed. Dehumidified air will be pumped throughout the airtight ship as a rust preventative.
Since her commissioning August 16, 1943, Intrepid has seen duty as a CV, CVA and CVS. Her gunners were credited with destroying 13 enemy planes and assisting in the destruction of 5 others during WWII. At the same time, the carrier's air groups shot down 266 enemy planes, destroyed 298 more on the ground, sank 69 ships and damaged 178 others.
She was place out of commission in reserve March 22, 1947, and reactivated 5 years later for transfer to the East Coast. She was converted to a modern attack carrier at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and reclassified as CVA-11 June 18, 1954. The following year she entered the yard in Brooklyn, NY., to receive a new, reinforced angled deck and a mirror landing system. She was reclassified a CVS in 1961.
Intrepid twice saw duty with the U.S. space program. The first time was in May 1962 when she was the primary recovery ship for LCdr. Scott Carpenter's Mercury 7. The second was in 1965 when she recovered Astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young and their Gemini spacecraft.
On April 4, 1966, the carrier sailed to Vietnam for duty as a CVA. She made three consecutive deployments to SEAsia.
During her last cruise, Intrepid was modified to act as a CV in the Mediterranean where she developed and improved techniques of attack and ASW aircraft integration that are fundamental to the CV concept.
After her inactivation is completed, the 30-year-old carrier will quietly lie in her resting place, waiting for another chance to sail the seas.
by JO3 J.A.Riccio, Source: Naval Aviation NEWS, April 1974
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Intrepid Says Goodbye